Dupont Circle's Long-Vacant Pakistani Embassy Is Going Residential

• March 25th

by UrbanTurf Staff

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The former Pakistani ambassador's residence, a Gilded Age mansion in Dupont Circle that spent roughly two decades vacant and deteriorating, is being converted into a six-unit luxury residential development.

Designed by Eric Colbert & Associates, the project will bring a pair of two-bedroom residences to each of the building's three floors at 2201 R Street NW (map), breathing new life into a property that neighbors had long feared would never recover. 

The mansion's path to this point was anything but straightforward. Pakistan moved out of the home about 20 years ago, and without ambassadorial overlay protections, the property racked up an estimated $2 million in unpaid taxes and a $41,000 water lien, all while falling victim to vandalism and neglect. The property eventually sold in 2023 to Dallas-based businessman Abdul Hafeez Khan, who floated plans for a Pakistan-related cultural center. The pivot to residential development represents a different kind of transformation — but arguably one more suited to the surrounding neighborhood's residential character.

While much of the interior has already been gutted, the development team is preserving the mansion's most architecturally compelling spaces, incorporating the grand rooms into the individual units. The facade will be fully restored, and shared amenities include a parlor, and an event space along the building's north side that will open out to a garden and lead up to a swimming pool.

The development team will file plans for the development with DC's Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) this week. 

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dupont_circles_long-vacant_pakistani_embassy_is_becoming_six_luxury_residen/24453.