The Best Use for a Vacant DC Triangle

• December 19th 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

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UrbanTurf usually avoids publishing rankings or lists…except at the end of the year, when we look back at what DC’s residential real estate scene had to offer during the previous 12 months. This week, we revisit some of the best, most intriguing and peculiar things we came across over the course of 2018. Enjoy.

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The gradual development of DC created web-like intersections in many pockets of the city, their oddly-shaped offshoots frequently serving as de facto neighborhood parks despite often being privately-owned.

This spring, one of those plots -- a vacant triangular lot on the outskirts of Adams Morgan -- hit the market for $70,000, one of a handful of fallow pieces of land in the city being sold as part of an estate. The plot at 1706 Florida Avenue NW (map) sold for $65,000 above its asking price and prompted questions about what would undoubtedly be built on the site. The actual plans were somewhat of a pleasant surprise.

Sean Ruppert of OPaL plans to construct a semi-detached single-family home on the triangular site. The exterior of the house, as designed with architect GPS Designs, complements the character of the Strivers Section Historic District where it is located.

As he told UrbanTurf in July, the proposed home draws less attention to the geometry of the lot than this triangular house in Shaw. 

"It's not so much the shape as the size of the lot," Ruppert told UrbanTurf. "The house we have designed is about 1,200 square feet on four levels so each level has its own use, while the only circulation space is the actual staircase."

After securing approval from the Historic Preservation Review Board in October, the exterior design will be refined further based on feedback. Ruppert expects to secure permits over the next few months and break ground next summer.

UrbanTurf's 2018 in Review Articles: 

• The Year of the $40 Million Home
• The Best DC Legislation That Didn't Get Passed in 2018
• The Most Ambitious Transportation Plan Pitched in 2018
• The Best History of a House to Hit the Market in 2018: Where JFK Met Jackie
• The Best Listing of 2018 (For the Mere Mortal)
• The Most Peculiar Tool Used to Fight a New Development in 2018
• The Best New Apartment Amenity Coming to DC: The Trail Lobby
• The Most Impactful Legislation for DC Renters and Homeowners Passed in 2018
• The Best Listing of 2018 (For the Well Paid Lobbyist) 
• The Most Creative Responses to PUDs

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/best-use-for-a-vacant-triangle/14822.