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Most Unexpected Conversion: The Skating Rink Turned Apartments

  • December 19th 2013

by UrbanTurf Staff

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Most Unexpected Conversion: The Skating Rink Turned Apartments: Figure 1
A rendering of a skating rink apartment. Click to enlarge.

Over the years, we have seen schools, banks, garages and auto body shops converted for residential use. But 2013 brought a new type of conversion.

In February, we learned that the domed area above the Adams Morgan Harris Teeter that used to house a roller skating rink was in the process of being transformed into 39 apartments.

The building at 1631 Kalorama Road NW (map) opened in 1947 as the National Arena and served as a public roller rink and bowling alley before becoming the Citadel Motion Picture Center in 1986. R2L:Architects was tasked in recent years with creating apartments that fit the unusual space directly above the market.

Most Unexpected Conversion: The Skating Rink Turned Apartments: Figure 2
Inside the former rink.

The dome reaches a ceiling height of 20 feet, so the architects designed units that step up to lofted sleeping areas to make the most use of the heights. A ring of 31 apartments surround a center block of eight more. The residences on the perimeter have sleeping lofts at the back, and the eight central units, which have no access to the perimeter windows, will be lit by skylights.

The Citadel Apartments, as they have been dubbed, welcomed its first tenants in May.

Most Unexpected Conversion: The Skating Rink Turned Apartments: Figure 3
An interior apartment. Click to enlarge.

Other entries in UrbanTurf’s Best of 2013:

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/best_residential_re-use_skating_rink_turned_apartments/7946.

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