Georgetown House

When our client bought this prominently sited Georgetown house he thought it needed new bathrooms. Subsequent inspection revealed that the back of the house, having been built on sixty feet of fill, was migrating south.

New helical steel piers, some more than sixty feet long, have stabilized the movement of the structure, and a new steel frame gives new rigidity to the four-story back addition that dated from the early 1970s. Removing a floor created a double-height volume from which to regard one of the best views in Washington. On the exterior, teak sunshades protect the new steel and glass facade from the south sun. Inside, a wall of books extends up through three stories.