Lobbying for Attention: Luxurious Condo Lobbies

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INSIDE THE BELTWAY, lobbying can be an art form.

Inside District condominiums, the lobbies can be artwork.

Without a front yard to make a first impression, condo lobbies become the landscaping and signal the value of what's inside to potential buyers.

A swanky lobby can be a status symbol and a selling point. It can add to a pad's property value — and its price tag. In the same way your wardrobe can reflect your personality, a grand entrance can make a fashion statement for your home.

"When you put on a nice suit versus a pair of jeans, does it change the way you feel?" asks Eric Inman of Hickok Cole Architects (1023 31st St. NW; Hickokcole.com), which has designed dozens of housing developments in the District, including the Kenyon Square condos in Columbia Heights. "Design is the same way."

We scoped out four winning entries in Washington condos.

» 22 WEST CONDOMINIUMS,
1177 22nd St. NW
The lobby of 22 West (22west-dc.com) manages to make a sleek, contemporary design feel warm and organic rather than sterile and cold. The soft gray volcanic stone floors blend with zinc panels, which are repeated on the exterior of the building. A 20-foot wall of glass stretches from floor to ceiling to let in natural light and, with an indoor seating area curled up against the dense bamboo landscaping outdoors, the lobby gives visitors the sense that they're lounging in a garden.

Robert M. Sponseller, design principle of the project for Shalom Baranes Associates (3299 K St. NW, Suite 400; SBaranes.com), used an in-situ concrete wall, a modern approach to landscaping material that resembles a skate park or highway divider, to isolate the teardrop-shaped lobby from the traffic and cleverly conceal the gas station next door.

"We let the natural materials speak for themselves," Sponseller says. "It was rich enough to make a unique feel without decorating."

In other words, the architecture in this space is also the interior design.

Emily Walsh, a member of the building's sales team, says the strong look has been a draw to buyers at 22 West, where 92 units range in price from $783,500 to $3.9 million. The first residents moved into 22 West a year ago, and the building is currently about 45 percent occupied.

The contemporary feel of the lobby extends throughout 22 West. Even the elevator lobbies integrate basalt, concrete and zinc panels, with burnt orange rugs that complement the gray.

Design should be consistent from the entry experience on up into individual condo units, says Sponseller, who won the 2009 Grand Award for Multifamily Design from the Residential Architect Design Awards for his work on 22 West. "The lobby is your front door," Sponseller says.

» BARCELONA CONDOMINIUM,
1435 Chapin St. NW
At the 30-unit Barcelona Condominium located between Columbia Heights and Adams Morgan, an unfortunate support column in the middle of the lobby became the building's calling card.

Andreas Charalambous of U Street's FORMA Design (1524 U St. NW, Suite 200; Formaonline.com) says the firm turned the steel post into an asset by giving it a free-form shape and covering it in two-tone mosaic tiles. The condo's namesake — the Spanish city of Barcelona — and its signature Gaudi architecture inspired the playful look, Charalambous says.

"We creatively solved the problem," he says. "For guests, it makes the building stand out. It's not another box. You have to take chances to make something worth talking about."

FORMA also cut out a deep rectangle in the wall where the mailboxes nest, which echoes the 3-D, recessed shapes in the ceiling and the curves in the floor tiles. A glass and steel railing is simply placed alongside 10 steps to the elevator.

Barcelona's lobby does not have a front desk or an amenities bar. The name of the development, which was built in 2006 and sold out a year later, is not plastered across its exterior. It's quite understated and more typical of a District lobby — part mud room, part mail room, part front door. But the geometry of the design adds action and interest. And at night, the whole lobby glows. As guests walk up the steps of the steep hillside on Chapin Street, they see the column towering through the glass door.

"People say that it's so unexpected," Charalambous says. "The entrance has to be fun and memorable."

» THE CHASTLETON,
1701 16th St. NW
A mile away in Dupont Circle, 3-foot-tall gargoyles hover above the entrance to the Chastleton (Chastletondupont.com), a 1920s hotel converted into a 300-unit cooperative. The $5 million renovation, completed two and a half years ago, maintained many of its signature historic features.

Inside the lobby, residents walk across the original marble mosaic floors and past an oversized golden Egyptian mirror. A two-story window, flanked by the laughing gargoyles, lights the sleepy interior. The best view is from the second floor, leaning over the cast-iron balcony railings, eye-level with three hanging chandeliers, and looking out across 17th Street. Those who want to linger can lounge in the nooks overlooking the courtyard.

The Chastleton, which is 97 percent sold (remaining units range from a $189,000 studio to a $479,000 two-bedroom unit), drew many history-buff buyers, says sales manager Brenda Moreno.

"The lobby is an extension of your home," Moreno says, "and your co-op fee pays for those common elements, so you should enjoy it."

» KENYON SQUARE, 1390 Kenyon St. NW
The grand staircase of Kenyon Square's (Kenyonsquare.com) foyer pays homage to older District residences, but guests might mistake the new building's great room for an upscale cocktail lounge. To the left of the entrance, an asymmetrical concrete fireplace offsets dominant red walls. Half-moon benches nestle in window seats, flanked by towering white drapes.

Kenyon Square, which opened in 2007 and was named best mid-rise condominium of 2008 by the National Association of Home Builders, has sold 80 percent of its 153 units. One-bedroom lofts are listed at $439,000; two-bedroom units cost $505,000 to $595,000, depending on square footage and floor plan.

Eric Inman, one of the project designers with Hickok Cole Architects, says the firm wanted Kenyon Square's interior to feel more like a boutique hotel than a condo building. Inman hopes the combination of old design elements with the new construction reflects the revitalization of the Columbia Heights neighborhood outside.

"We started to play with the traditional elements and exaggerate them in a modern sense," Inman says. "We introduced elements that would normally be foreign to the space to make a starker contrast."

Imagine Pottery Barn meets Mondrian. The coffered ceiling's grid of beams and dark stained wood complement the oculus, a 5-foot-diameter window above the doorway. The same trim frames the flat-screen TVs showing CNN next to the coffee bar where residents pick up bagels in the morning.

"The space is intended as an extension of your living room," Inman says. "There needs to be a sense of home, a sense of permanence."

Written by Express contributor Josie Roberts
Photos by Lawrence Luk for Express; courtesy Forma Design, George Travis/Keener Management, Anice Hoachlander/ Hoachlander Davis