I guess it’s too early to tell but if I was a betting man, I’d say this is going to be a brutal pop up. Ed. Note: I am a betting man. I’ll give two to one odds.
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Pop Ups
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Here another couple of examples of some pop ups that I think look pretty good. Do you like the one on the left or the right better?
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A reader writes:
PoP —
Long story short, I moved to Columbia Heights back when it was a
collection of vacant lots, and at the time kept telling all my friends
that some day the place would be jumping and they’d regret busting on
me for moving to the area when the world was outside my doorstep.
Well, that day almost has arrived (I’m waiting for the gym to be
useful before declaring it officially so), and I should be living it
up with a reasonable mortgage for a good home in a great location.
The irony is that circumstances (mostly space limitations in the short
term) now have us looking to move out of the neighborhood. But a
house in the ‘burbs is expensive and might age us prematurely, so I’m
looking for alternate solutions before sealing my fate. One thing
that crossed my mind — and I know this is heresy — is adding a
pop-top to my rowhouse so we could get another bedroom or two, a
second bathroom, and some additional storage space (~ 750 sq. ft.).
Hell, maybe even add a roof deck to the top.
So my questions to a man who has studied the pop-top phenomenon and
his readers who have possibly participated in it are: Assuming I
attempted to do this as tastefully and unobtrusively as possible
(i.e., not an architectural monstrosity, something that respects the
streetscape), what sort of cost would I incur, and how long would I be
displaced while the roof was off my house? Are there good examples of
pop-tops that are particularly nice that people could point to, or
contractors who have done nice pop-tops? And, at the end of the day,
would any of my neighbors ever forgive me if I did this?
Here’s a pop up that I thought was extremely tasteful. This one’s not bad either. So can anyone point out some examples of good pop ups? Can anyone recommend a good architect/contractor? Can anyone forgive this desire?
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You can kind of tell, I think, that this was a normal good looking rowhouse with this monstrosity added on top.
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What do you think of this one? It looks to me like a barn was plopped on top of this otherwise modern structure.
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Thanks to a reader for sending me this photo. It is truly vomit inducing. Rumor has it, the unit on the end lit itself on fire it was so distressed. It makes the pop up at New Hampshire and Upshur look classy. So explain to me how this gets zoned. This is from P Street just across North Capitol.
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But at least they painted the brick below the pop up so it blends in a bit.
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Here is a third floor pop up for sale at 4115 8th St, NW. The asking price is $599,900. I was dying to see what one of these third floor pop ups looked like inside. I have to say it did feel like a proper third floor. I can’t vouch for the materials but it certainly was roomier. It’s still for sale if you want to check one out for yourselves.
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I know we’ve discussed this in the past but I think the natural brick looks better in this instance, what do you think?
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I kind of like this one.