By Franklin SchneiderThis house has as much personality as any I’ve seen in DC, and I’ve seen more than a few. If this house was a person, it would be like the love child of Ricky Gervais and Christopher Hitchens. Designed by award-winning architect Mark McInturff, and featured in magazines such as House Beautiful and Regardie's, this breathtaking home is all modern curves, unconventional angles, glass and white surfaces. It’s the sort of house Steve Jobs might design if you locked him in a room and made him watch “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Miami Vice” for a week straight.
From the front, the house looks fine but somewhat conventional but the rear facade of the house looks like some sort of postmodern ziggurat (in a good way). Inside, the main room is a huge atrium-like space with a vaulted ceiling, fronted with a massive window and french doors. All the living spaces are ingeniously and uniquely laid out – the columned corridor leading from the foyer to the main room, the dining area with its view (through a sort of cutout panel) of the backyard, the large kitchen with its unique combination island/table. There are three fireplaces, a study with fantastic built-in bookshelves, and a wet bar. Outside is an excellent in-ground pool (I suppose all pools are sort of excellent), a striking gazebo and a large patio.
If this house has any flaw, it’s that it’s almost TOO nice. My high school girlfriend’s family lived in a house that was featured in design magazines all the time, and it was almost like the house owned them. I once accidentally put a hot saucepan down on their kitchen countertop and tears actually came to her mother’s eyes. As problems go, though, I guess having a really really nice house is a pretty good one to have. It beats Hepatitis C, that’s for sure.
5120 Van Ness St.
$1,850,000
5 Bedrooms, 4.5 Baths
7 comments:
wow, that is a hideous house! whats up with that, mcinturff??
very dated, these pomo creations always remind me of the beetlejuice house renovation
I think its a pretty cool house. Some of the details might not be to my liking, but overall, it's nice.
If the house functions so well as a living space (can't see bedrooms or bath), why is owner selling?
Simple, really. That addition/renovation was finished 20 years ago, for a family with two children.
Kids grow up, parents retire, downsize, relocate, etc. It's pretty normal -- no need to look for hidden motives.
Why yes, I do work at McInturff Architects. . . .
When I look at this Van Ness St. residence, I see a household where cocktails are served precisely at 6:30 p.m. week nights, and on weekends, never before breakfast. Not too bad if you ask me. A sensibly-regulated life is always accommodated in any proper architectural design.
Yuck - who wrote that description...
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