Popping Up on Kenyon Street (Again)

by Prince Of Petworth November 20, 2013 at 4:00 pm 34 Comments

At then end of October we noted the Kenyon Street pop up was completed between 11th and 13th St, NW. Now the neighbor’s getting in on the action.

MetMet

“Mine’s bigger!”
anon

More housing!
- crin
  
  Same number of units, just bigger.
  - Maestrobe
    
    Nope. Each house is turning into three condos.
popped

can we at least get some kind of uniformity here? merits of pop-ups aside, these slightly off sight lines are killin’ me here!
- Queenie
  
  +1
- Frances
  
  I like the variety!
  - anon
    
    the variety is achieved one and two doors down. this looks ridiculous
- Anonymous
  
  -1,000 – And take a page out of downtown DC’s playbook of uniform cubes? Take note of the design of many of DC’s rowhouses and you will see that asymmetry abounds.
Anonymous

Screw the greener lawn contest in DC. Its all about bigger house.
Anonymous

How much does a job like this cost? roughly
- JS
  
  I’m not sure about pop-ups specifically, but I’ve heard in the past to budget $400/sq. foot for any home additions.
- Anonymous
  
  If you are doing it yourself through an architect and general contractor, the top floor part is going to cost $150,000 at an absolute minimum and can go up to $300,000 easily. We are spending about $225,000 on a pop-up with roof deck, though ours is more expensive because we are in a historic district and have had to get very creative (read, expensive) with the design and construction to keep it so that it isn’t visible from the street when done.
  
  It wouldn’t cost a developer that much because they are cutting out the GC middleman, however, they are paying a carrying cost on the property each month that they’re working on it.
  - jch
    
    Which historic district? How big in SQ ft is the addition?
    - Anonymous
      
      510 interior square feet with a 221 square foot roof deck.
7r3y3r

Really, they couldn’t have just added a third floor that mirrored the look of the second?
DC202

The neighborhood is transitioning. It’s a good thing.
maestrobe

The same developer owns both houses, and he’s turning them into three condos each. I know because I sold the one on the left to him (after he started interfering with my property while remodeling the one on the right). What can I say? He made me an offer I couldn’t resist. (He also bumped out the back on the first house and stole a lot of my sunlight.)

I’m not sure why he’s not making them uniform in height. He represented to me that he was going to use the same plans. I suspect, though, that the premium money is in the “penthouse,” and he decided that higher ceilings would add value. For what it’s worth, I found a “coming soon” posting online a while back that said the penthouse for the first house would be listed in the low 700s. I can tell you that the roof deck for the first house has spectacular views, including a view of the Capitol.
Everyone

Do we have to get outraged on every pop-up? These both look ok.
- dat
  
  agreed.
  - wpk_dc
    
    agreed squared.
Anonymous

There’s also a pop up at 5th and Ingraham. It’s contagious!
AR

The city is going to have to start regulating these eyesores. Even one can really ruin the look of entire block, and with property values the way they are, we’re going to be seeing more and more of these.
brooky

I’m gonna pop up my Brookland Craftsman and make it a four story. maybe even six if they bump up the height restrictions..
jayson

I love it. Let’s make the neighborhood nicer. I know the developer, he’s a great, hardworking guy who build’s a beautiful product.
anon.

Seriously. This is quality work? This is cheap architecture. Mansard roofs and asphalt shingles don’t mix. You need to do slate or terracotta. And the two rowhouses would have looked much better if there were some effort to harmonize the rooftop sightlines. You can put different treatments (spanish like to the right, victorian to the left) on them to get variety. But this is just ugly.
- Anonymous
  
  I completely agree with this. Asphalt shingles look absolutely awful on mansard roofs. I don’t think the design in and of itself is that bad, but the developer could have made different choices in the finishes which would have made it a lot more palatable.
  - Anonymous
    
    they should have asked you first
    - todd
      
      Yeah, would have been a good idea frankly. This sort of thing will limit this homes value in an area with rapidly escalating prices. Buyers with money looking for older row homes know what they are looking at and this screams “CHEAP!” The windows being offset already gave them a disadvantage to start with. Who knows? maybe they’ll find a sucker.
- dunning-kruger
  
  Agreed, pretty sure those who think this is nice think new=nice.
  
  Also, a side rant: I would really love to see flippers start selling homes with an exterior paint credit so owners can choose the color. Slowly but surely all the houses in DC are turning inoffensive developer grey and tan… of course I realize that’ll probably never happen because when you’re selling to chumps who think new=nice it has to be painted to show well. Maybe they could just leave them primed and do some work in photoshop to help people visualize?
todd

Asphalt shingles on this kind of roof remind me of “La Petite Academie”….that daycare in South Carolina where I grew up.
Anonymous

this looks fine. better than the ye olde faux 3rd floor on the houses next door.
Pop it!

I like it and I think having the second pop-up next door also helps to make the first one look better. Also, plenty of original dc row houses have non-uniform roof heights, particularly if there is a slope to the street. We don’t have to consign ourselves to absolute boring uniformity.
Joyce Nixon

Really like the pop up idea. Not enough yard space to bump out. Would like some guidance about how to start planning for this type of construction project. Please email back or text contact information to 202 277-8946 if you are willing to share ideas, or if you can suggest any helpful information. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can render. JLN

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