Sections
  • DC's Most Influential
  • News & Politics
    • Washingtonian Today
  • Things to Do
    • DC Welcome Guide
    • This Week
    • 100 Best Things to Do in DC
    • Neighborhood Guides
    • DC-Area Events Calender
    • Washingtonian Events
  • Food & Drink
    • 100 Very Best Restaurants
    • The Hot List
    • Brunch
    • New Restaurants
    • Restaurant Finder
  • Home & Style
    • Health
    • Parenting
  • Shopping
    • Gift Guides
  • Real Estate
    • Top Realtors
    • Listings We Love
    • Rave Worthy Rentals
  • Weddings
    • Real Weddings
    • Wedding Vendor Finder
    • Submit Your Wedding
  • Travel
    • DC Welcome Guide
    • Best Airbnbs Around DC
    • 3 Days in DC
  • Best of DC
    • Doctors
    • Apartment Rentals
    • Dentists
    • Financial Advisors
    • Industry Leaders
    • Lawyers
    • Mortgage Pros
    • Pet Care
    • Private Schools
    • Realtors
    • Wedding Vendors
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Subscription
    • Current & Past Issues
    • Features and Longreads
    • Newsletters
    • Newsstand Locations
Reader Favorites
  • 100 Very Best Restaurants
  • DC-Area Events Calendar
  • Brunch
  • Neighborhoods
  • Newsletters
  • Directories
  • Washingtonian Events
Washington’s Best
  • Apartment Rentals
  • DC Travel Guide
  • Dentists
  • Doctors
  • Financial Advisers
  • Health Experts
  • Home Improvement Experts
  • Industry Leaders
  • Lawyers
  • Mortgage Professionals
  • Pet Care
  • Private Schools
  • Real Estate Agents
  • Restaurants
  • Retirement Communities
  • Wedding Vendors
Privacy Policy |  Rss
© 2025 Washingtonian Media Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Skip to content
  • Menu
Bronze beauty: This house—with its exterior of patinated bronze and mahogany—could be yours for a cool $11 million. Photograph by Paul Warchol.

Look Inside 12 of the Coolest Homes Around Washington

Here are the winners of Washingtonian’s 2022 Residential Design Awards

Written by Marisa M. Kashino
| Published on September 29, 2022
Tweet Share
Contents
  1. The 2022 Winners
  2. Detail Awards
  3. Multifamily Design Awards

For 41 years, Washingtonian has joined with the DC chapter of the American Institute of Architects to recognize outstanding work from local residential architects. To ensure an unbiased process, none of the jurors—architects from around the country—are local. Here are 2022’s winning designs.

The 2022 Winners

Photographs by Paul Warchol.

Bronze House on Chain Bridge Road

Firm: David Jameson Architect

Spec houses are typically designed to appeal to the masses. But this one, clad in patinated bronze, with walls of mahogany-framed windows and a garage for a car collector, is highly customized. “It’s totally unique in the market,” says architect David Jameson, who designed it for a parcel in DC’s Kent that used to contain a tennis court. Also unusual: It doesn’t have a basement. Functions that are often subterranean, such as a game room and an in-law suite, are instead on the third level. As of press time, the home was still for sale, listed for just under $11 million.


Photograph by © Anice Hoachlander/Hoachlander Davis Photography.
Photograph by © Anice Hoachlander/Hoachlander Davis Photography.

A Rowhouse Revisited

Firm: Bonstra Haresign Architects

Back in the 1980s, the couple who owned this historic rowhouse in Foggy Bottom hired architect Bill Bonstra to modernize it and design a rear addition. Some 30 years later, their daughter—now the owner—was ready for another round of renovations. Though his firm handles primarily larger-scale projects these days, Bonstra says this was a “very special” case. With the help of project architects Lizza Medina and Chau Pham, he devised a gut renovation that opened up views through the house and brought light into its core via skylights and glass floors. While the front facade remained mostly untouched, says Bonstra, the new design inside is “all about visibility.”


Photograph by Stacy Zarin Goldberg.
Photograph by Stacy Zarin Goldberg.

Takoma Park Treehouse

Firm: Wak Tok Architects

When architect Wakako Tokunaga set out to design a modern kitchen addition for her clients’ 1930s bungalow, the heavily wooded lot served as her main inspiration. “We sort of imagined this addition nestled in the trunks of the trees,” she explains. The new section of the home is perched atop stilts, adding to the treehouse vibe. A pair of skylights wrap from the roof down the side of the structure, making the interiors feel even more connected to the lush environs. Wooden, waterfall-style countertops on the island add a dose of warmth to the other-wise minimal space. Says the architect: “When you’re in the kitchen, you feel as though you’re outside.”

Photograph by Stacy Zarin Goldberg.

Photograph by Jennifer Hughes.
Photograph by Jennifer Hughes.

A Garden Office for the Covid Era

Firm: Wak Tok Architects

In March 2020, architect Wakako Tokunaga was about to sign a seven-­year lease on a new downtown office for her firm. Then, well, you know what happened. Though she was relieved to have narrowly dodged committing to an expensive lease, she still needed a place to work and to meet with clients. So she designed a 350-square-foot rear addition to her own Takoma Park home, relying primarily on organic, nontoxic materials such as plywood. Glass sliders open up the backyard office to a garden of native plants. Tokunaga employs two other architects who share the space with her, and she’s also talking to friends about using it to host yoga classes and art showings.


Photograph by © Anice Hoachlander.

Refuge on the Potomac

Firm: Page

This modern marvel on the Leonardtown, Maryland, waterfront could be straight out of a James Bond film. But its owner had another pop-culture reference in mind. “He came to us and said, ‘I want it to feel like a hobbit house,’ ” recalls architect Todd Ray. The client meant he wanted the home to be so integrated with the landscape that when you approach it, you almost don’t realize it’s there. To achieve that, Ray designed a concrete portal as the front entrance: “And through this threshold, you find this place of wonder.” A glass-encased courtyard and walls of glass looking onto the Potomac River further blur the boundary between indoors and out.

Photograph by © Anice Hoachlander.

Back to Top

Detail Awards

Two projects recognized for specific features

Photograph by © Anice Hoachlander.

The Loft in a Library Addition

Firm: McInturff Architects

The spectacular library above, built for 10,000 books, was an addition to a home overlooking the Potomac (earlier parts of which were also designed by McInturff Architects). Jurors were enchanted by a lofted reading area over its open core.

 

Photograph by © Anice Hoachlander.

The Staircase at the Balance House

Firm: Kube Architecture

This rowhouse renovation in Mount Pleasant was dubbed the “Balance House” by its architects because of the design’s reliance on balancing heaviness and lightness. The stairs, for which the project was recognized, exemplify this—a steel frame contrasts against light-wood treads.


Back to Top

Multifamily Design Awards

Photograph by © Anice Hoachlander.

Carver Hall

Firm: Bonstra Haresign

Originally designed by noted Black architect Hilyard Robinson during World War II, the LeDroit Park building was transformed into 63 below-market-­rate apartments. Though the project maintains its historic character, jurors appreciated the subtle modern updates.

Photograph by © Anice Hoachlander.

Park + Ford

Firm: Bonstra Haresign

The conversion of an outdated Alexandria office complex (part of which used to house the Department of Agriculture) into high-end apartments was praised by jurors as an example of adaptive reuse to which others should aspire.

 

Photograph by Ron Ngiam.

The Silva

Firm: Core Architecture + Design and Grimshaw

Jurors were especially impressed by the innovative facade, distinguished by projecting bays, of this luxury apartment development on Columbia Road in Adams Morgan.

Photograph by EL Studio.

 

Capitol Hill Micro-Community

Firm: EL Studio

This condo project’s two buildings mirror each other and share a courtyard, from which each of the four units is accessed. Large windows fill the homes with light.

 

Photograph by David Burroughs.

The Brooks

Firm: Ayers Saint Gross

Part of DC’s initiative to build short-term housing for families experiencing homelessness, the Brooks—in DC’s Ward 3—provides 50 apartments, indoor and outdoor play space, and many other services, all within a sophisticated design.

This article appears in the September 2022 issue of Washingtonian.

More: FeaturesAmerican Institute of ArchitectsArchitectureAwardsDC HomesHome DesignWashingtonian Residential Design Awards
Join the conversation!
Share Tweet
Marisa M. Kashino
Senior Editor

Marisa M. Kashino joined Washingtonian in 2009 and was a senior editor until 2022.

Longreads

Perfect for your commute

Does Eleanor Holmes Norton Still Have What It Takes to Fight for DC?

Why PETA’s Ingrid Newkirk Is Still Getting in Our Faces

Human Decomposition Has Been a Mystery–Until Now

Rep. Jennifer Wexton’s Way Through

Related

What Could Happen to DC’s Brutalist Buildings If the Federal Government Sells Them?

DC’s Black Architects Are Finally Getting the Documentation They Deserve

How to Embrace Slow Home Design This Year

Wallpaper Is Back. Here’s How to Transform Your Home.

© 2025 Washingtonian Media Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Washingtonian is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Privacy Policy and Opt-Out
 Rss
Get the best news, delivered weekly.
By signing up, you agree to our terms.
  • Subscribe
  • Manage My Subscription
  • Digital Edition
  • Shop
  • Contests
  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs