The 2022 DC Metro Modern Home Tour presented by listModern

November 12th, 2022

Photography: Ty Cole

Poplar Grove is a compostable alley dwelling in Capitol Hill that brings the Piedmont foothills to the nation’s capital! The landscape of Jefferson’s Poplar Forest is folded into the material palette of Poplar Grove—tulip poplar bark cladding and poplar interior cabinetry, black locust structural timber, and cedar roofing and fencing—and supported by an innovative hollow-wall bamboo system with continuous insulation cavities filled with sheep’s wool. Like a Roman domus, a dialogue between fence and fenestration creates privacy on this islanded alley lot that’s hidden from the street but exposed to its surrounding neighbors. 

Special Note: Designed, developed, and constructed by BLDUS, and now inhabited by a partner of BLDUS and his family.

Photography: Tod Connell

The project started with an existing 1941 colonial home sitting at 45 degrees on a visible corner lot. The modern addition hosts a new kitchen and dining on the main floor and two bedrooms on the second floor. Following zoning setbacks, the addition creates a V-shaped floor plan. 

The interior spaces are seamlessly negotiating entering and exiting the old and the new, making every intersection interesting and unexpected. This is visible throughout the house and especially clear in the geometrical layout of the flooring. 

Photography: Robert Radifera

Pavilion House, situated on an uphill sloping intra-urban site in Arlington, Virginia fully embodies Yuri Sagatov’s ethos of responsive and organic design. Tiering into the hill, the home integrates the foundation plinth with a cascading front landscape and allows for a main living space that flows seamlessly into the extensive and private outdoor spaces. Functionally the four angled volumes wrap around a core hub which efficiently connects each pavilion and serves as a transparent bridge providing views through the building. Each pavilion features 3 levels, and each level serves a distinctive singular function. This simple organization creates intimate spaces within the of complexity of the footprint. Natural light is the artist of the home from every angle. As each pavilion brings in massive light from three sides, the pulse of the home is in full connection with the natural cycle of the daylight. This synchronism with the natural rhythm of the day is deeply responsive and calming.  

Functionally, the main level combines the primary living functions of dining, kitchen and family room into a single pavilion which is divided from the pool by only a glass wall. The second pavilion replaces a traditional living room with a more intimate and fresh conversation pit anchored by a custom circular sofa. The office occupies the third pavilion on the south-west corner, affording a space to organize the essentials of life and work. Finishing out the main level, the fourth pavilion is an outdoor lanai which anchors the pool and outdoor living spaces. Four bedrooms with en-suite baths and the laundry occupy the upper level and the lower level offers a garage, family closet, en-suite bedroom, and a generous sport room.

From Sagatov Design+Build: The staircase is a technical and aesthetic work of art. Cascading three levels, the main support structure is a series of cold rolled steel rods which both carry the treads and act as the guard railing. The kinetic nature of the rods emphasizes its delicacy.

Architecture and Construction by © AV Architects + Builders
Photography by © Maxwell MacKenzie  

This modern home was designed to shape itself into the site and landscape. By doing so each indoor space individually responds to the corresponding outdoor space. The entire house is then able to knit itself together with spaces that freely flow together from inside and out. 

The orientation of the house allows sunlight to tell the time of the day while you are inside. Upon entering you see straight through a central atrium and into the landscape beyond. Natural light and views of nature are captured from every angle inside the home. 

The modern exterior design of the house utilizes a linear brick at the base of the house that anchors it to the land. Gray and cedar colored modern architectural panel siding alternate patterns on all facades of the house, accentuating the different volumes. These volumes are then capped off by low sloping metal panel roofs. Exposed steel beans and columns are utilized to create long spans of covered outdoor spaces that then easily recede into the backdrop of the landscape. 

The design of this modern home is in harmony with the site and landscape creating a warm welcoming feeling and one that conveys that the house belongs there. 

Original architect: Donald Lethbridge
Photography: Kate Wichlinski

The Ridgeview House (1952) is an International Style house designed by Donald Lethbridge. Every aspect of the architectural and landscape designs of the Ridgeview House has a specific function, an ideal promulgated by the International Style. The project was the first of several collaborations between developer Luria and architect Donald Lethbridge, who designed the setting for the House on its wooded ridge lot. The steel-framed structure is constructed of stretcher coursed brick (painted white) and horizontal siding with bands of large plate- glass windows and sliding-glass doors set within steel frames. The concrete foundation is clad in native fieldstone, the same material used in the construction of the walls that project from the structure.

From A2 Design Inc.: Every horizontal and vertical surface has been redone over the last 10 years, with the exception of the living room fireplace element.

Presented in conjunction with listModern; the home will be on the market in 2023.

Presented by listModern
Architect: VanderPoel Architecture
Interior Design: Design Milieu
Images courtesy of builder

One of the most impressive homes on the market today, raising the bar for this coveted community of McLean, Virginia, and featured on the front cover of magazines worldwide. Rare, if ever, will you find a builder who has made such an incredible investment of passion into their project, finally designed and constructed with the future residents in mind. Starting with remarkable inspirations like the stylistic cues from Piet Mondrian, combining architectural principles from the modernists of the 20th century, complete with contemporary sensibilities and innovative technology. They implemented every amenity you can wish for, from the kitchen with ultra-premium appliances, a Pizza oven, a butler’s pantry, and multiple wet bars throughout the home for entertaining to the remarkable swimming pool and spa outside that is self-cleaning, heated, and incorporates customizable lighting. In the uppermost loft level, there is an expansive living and entertaining room utilizing the most thoughtful window arrangement, converting five skylights to incredible balconies in seconds. Downstairs, prepare to impress your guests with an unbelievable, never-before-seen, theater everyday use entertainment room that was so thoughtfully designed for a comfortable living space but with a remarkable movie screen wall composed of 16 premium televisions commercial quality screens working in unison or independent, with absolute user control! The list goes on, with a stunning group-sized sauna downstairs, to the superb primary suite upstairs. The details are so fantastic; it earned the recognition of world-renowned architects; it must be seen! The story of 1120 Guilford is rich with incredible sustainability and reclamation in materials, too, transforming components of the home that previously occupied the site with creating remarkable functional and decorative elements within the new home. Natural materials were sourced from carefully salvaged trees that were milled to create architectural details, shelving, and even doors. This home elevates and celebrates its antecedence. Built from inspired ideas that culminate into a finished inspiration in itself.

LAST STOP ON TOUR – Open 2PM to 5PM
Photography: Kate Wichlinski

Considered the first of its kind in a city celebrated for internationally coveted architecture, an incomparable modern home for the ultra-luxury resident. Exceptional modern residential design is the pinnacle and this home stands with the most notable residences from any major city in the world. The developers selected a commanding site in the most desirable neighborhood within this world capital. Here, they created a breathtaking enclave built with tremendous walls of glass that soar 13ft per level, creating an awe-inspiring lightness with connectivity to the outdoor amenities. The home discretely offers more than 12,000 square feet of living space, and the scale is absolutely beautiful.

Outside, there is an independent guest house, outdoor living spaces with private roof-top entertaining, and multiple swimming pools that act as architectural water features, artfully connecting the spaces. The interior is pure and of the finest contemporary selections, from architectural lighting, solar, and privacy management shades, to the premium materials on every surface. Amenities include a glass elevator that ascends every level and to the roof, a fabulous home fitness center, private home theater, and secure four-car garage parking that ‘swell disguised beneath the home.