This Week's Find: A Modern Home Where the Art Collection Does Not Convey

• January 11th 2011

by Mark Wellborn

Some home buyers spend months heading from open house to open house before they fall in love with a home, and other times it is the property that finds the buyer. In the case of Ed Able, it was the latter.

Twenty-seven years ago, Able was looking at a home for sale along Arizona Avenue between MacArthur Boulevard and Loughboro Road when he saw that 3025 Arizona Avenue, a modern house across the street was also on the market. He decided to head over and take a look.

“When I walked into the house and up the stairs to see the view of the terraced hillside with the dry-laid stone retaining walls, I was captivated,” Able told UrbanTurf.

Able’s decision to buy the house was not based solely on this initial impression. The home was designed by a protege of Mies van der Rohe, a German architect who was credited with popularizing modern architecture in the early 20th century, and Able was taken by the design. (He now also owns furniture designed by van der Rohe.) Sited on a 12,000 square-foot lot, the three-bedroom home has many noteworthy features, but the most prominent is the glass that makes up the home’s back wall. Fans of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off might find it reminiscent of the garage where Cameron’s dad stores his Ferrari, but for Able it was one of the things that he has loved most about the property.

“The siting of the house and the glass make the garden feel like an added room,” Able explained. “And the visual flow from interior to exterior make it an inviting setting.”

Able also allayed fears of any invasion of privacy. Because of the location and siting of the houses on each side of 3025 Arizona Avenue, there are no views directly into the living room.

While it has maintained its modern design, the house has been updated over the years with a new kitchen, updated bathrooms, outdoor low-voltage lighting, and a new wood exterior. Unfortunately, the owner’s extensive art collection of some DC-based artists does not convey. More details and photos below.

• Address: 3025 Arizona Avenue NW (map)
• Price: $1,295,000
• Bedrooms: Three
• Bathrooms: Three
• Year Built: 1961
• Listing Agents: James Kaull and Lee McElheny of Washington Fine Properties
• For the full listing, click here.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/this_weeks_find_a_modern_home_where_the_art_collection_does_not_convey/2828.