Lots of Progress at the 9th and I St, NE Pop-Up

by Prince Of Petworth November 21, 2011 at 4:00 pm 30 Comments

Remember the Pop up at 9th and I St, NE that almost blew over back in Feb. ’11? How do you think it’s started to turn out at this point?

The Heights

Looking pretty ugly. It breaks the nice continuity of the other homes.
- textdoc
  
  Agreed.
- Anonymous
  
  so does the tree.
  - The Heights
    
    Uh……Yeah. You can do better than that, can’t you?
    - Anonymous
      
      so can you big boy. it’s not the breaking of the continuity that’s the problem. continuity is broken all the time and we usually enjoy that. an entire row of the same house is boring as hell. we need a little variety and most rows provide that. the most interesting streets are not ones with a continuous row of the same designs.
      
      the problem with this one is that the materials are cheap and the design is amateurish. we all patently hate siding on brick rowhouses. the overhang is sloppy and appears unfinished. also, it looks like it was built in a hurry with no forethought.
      
      that’s the issue. not your continuity. try harder next time.
      - The Heights
        
        Sometimes simplicity is a virtue. The pop-up is ugly for all sorts of reasons, as you so rightly point out. But the fact that it mars the overall appearance of a block of otherwise nice-looking homes makes it a truly unfortunate idea. The owner was trying too hard to be clever and failed, much like your posts.
      - CA
        
        Anonymous: ‘The Heights’ is so lucky to have you to review their homework assignment before PoP grades it later.
        
        People on this blog never fail to amaze me.
John M

Not a fan… if there were more trees around it wouldn’t look so bad, but it just looks out of place.
Frankie James

Kinda ugly.

I rarely get the idea behind these pop-ups…

Why not just buy a bigger place and spend the fund there?
anon

Awful. How selfish do you have to be to screw up your street like that? Everyone’s eye for the next 50 years will look straight to the popup.
- TaylorStreetMan
  
  Touch finger to nose. Tap.
- Anonymous
  
  yeah, if they hadn’t of done that, the view would have been the same for the next 50 years.
Tim

sucks
andy(2)

I actually like it – and as the rest of the streets fill out with their own pops it could look cool. Its like each house gets its own hat.
Formerly of Capitol Hill

Looks like a visor
wish bone

too bad; clearly a general contractor designed this as they do most ROOFTOP ADDITIONS; people should smarten up and hire a talented architect.
Joe C

What a nice row of attractive homes. Welp, except for the steaming pile of feces that landed on the top of that one on the end.

Seriously though, why are the designs of these pop-ups so schizophrenic? A hat for a house? More like a house mullet: elegant on the bottom, wild on the top.
Bloomingdude

Not bad from the back but awful from the front.
H street resident

i talked with the laborers–and apparently it’s going to be two units. One that you enter on 9th and one from 10th.

doesn’t help the ascetics, but it explains some of the random doors.
4:15

Better than most pop-ups and certainly better than the vacant house that was.
David B

Positives:
-Continuity of cornice maintained along street and wraps around corner. Creates a break between old and new construction.
-Setback helps mitigate bulk from front.
-Decent amount of glass along side elevation.

Negatives:
-large brow along front basically nullifies the function of the setback.
-Homogeneous use of fiber cement siding makes for poor details at corners and adds to lack of massing hierarchy.
-Party wall diminishes/conflicts with the architecture of the brow

Should have tried to integrate the party wall parapet and brow into one cohesive folding plane, which could have reduced the overall height of the structure. The brow is such a prominent feature, it could have been better articulated with a finer choice of materials and thinner profile to distinguish it from the mass of the building. Some kind of profile along the long side of the building (similar to the existing cornice) would have further enhanced the brow.
- victoria
  
  I don’t understand most of that but it kind of gets me hot.
  - textdoc
    
    LOL! I have to admit having a similar reaction.
Anonymous

Looks like somebody stuck a portable trailer on top of their home.
crin

Historic district NOW!
Anonymous

Haters gonna hate. I’ve actually seen the inside of this unit, and it is absolutely gorgeous. It is not nearly finished on the outside, so a bit premature to judge it so harshly.
ET

If we are talking design I don’t hate it as much as I could and certainly don’t hate it as much as others that have been featured.

However, because it is on the end and its direct neighbor isn’t tall it look silly. If the direct neighbor had been a three story and stuck up then this right next to it wouldn’t bee so damn obvious like it is now. Sure if all the neighbors do pop ups then this one would blend but the fact is that many won’t (or at least won’t any time soon) so this will look sill for years.

I understand the developer was looking for a way to make more profit by adding space and creating two tiny units at a lower price (with a bigger pool of potential buyers) instead of one one house with a larger price (and a smaller pool of potential buyers) but I just don’t think turning this small house into two small units was a way to go. I think in 20+ years people will look back on condo situations like this like we look at those houses that where broken up into small apartments and then had to be turned back into single family homes.
Anon

Is that Sears siding on the back? Lurch.
RL

The building is owned by one of Tom Well’s staff. He bought it to flip it, and does not give a crap how it affects the neighborhood. It’s hideous, and I imagine if anyone else, not so well connected had tried to flip it, it would not have been approved.
Anonymous

the building plan being approved has nothing to do with connections. DC is a progressive city that is making way for progressive growth. there is no room for staunch traditionalist especially in this area of the city. when this project was conceived i’d be willing to bet that not many of you would have walked your dog down that street. with the growth in this area i think it will be surprising how many more pop-ups pop-up in the near future.

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