Outerbridge Horsey Associates, PLLC

The project consists of a three-story rear addition to an existing historic house on a sloped site in the Georgetown Historic District of Washington, DC. On the first level the “undercroft” provides an open-air room overlooking the sloping garden. At the first floor level there is a kitchen and family room, connected to the garden by an exterior stair and to the undercroft by an interior stair. A master bedroom and bathroom at the second floor level complete the addition.

The existing house is made up of two distinct pieces: the original 18th century house at the rear and the early 19th century addition on the street. As was typical for the period, the front addition is much larger than the original house. The new three-story addition attaches to the rear of the original house with a hyphen so as to allow the old porch to be fully visible from the adjacent street and alley.

The side façades are constructed of brick with jack-arched windows that relate to the brick front wing and garden wall, and bookend the old house in the center. The rear of the addition is a two-story, trabeated facade on brick piers, a façade now at a scale appropriate to the extensive garden and long-distance view beyond.