SITE:
Royal Courts Apartments is located on two steeply sloped parcels in Southeast Washington, D.C. This affordable housing project replaces two former abandoned parcels that were on the Mayor’s watch list for blighted properties and had been the site of nine homicides in the prior ten years.

PROGRAM:
Provide 126 new affordable two and three bedroom apartments among four separate buildings and a community building with management offices and community meeting room.

SOLUTION:
The design incorporates “defensible space” concepts - utilizing building orientation, lighting and landscape features in addition to fencing to promote to site security. Two and three bedroom flats and top floor loft units are arranged in a back-to-back configuration with individual unit entrances that emulate the look of urban townhouses. The buildings are able to adapt to the steep topography of the site by stepping vertically in two directions, which creates a distinct massing of each of the four buildings. Judicious use of brick and colored cementitious siding enhances the appearance of the buildings.