1620 Q Street: Single-family House into Six Apartments -- Just Like Next Door

A committee of Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2B/Dupont Circle heard a proposal on May 7 to convert a single-family row house at 1620 Q Street NW into six condo units. The planned development has much in common with the house-to-multiple condo conversion now taking place right next door at 1618 Q Street. For example:

1620 Q Street

• It has the same architectural firm, Workshop T10.
• It has the same presenter, Desiree Hollar.
• It is requires approval from D.C.'s Historic Preservation Review Board, because...
• It is located in the Dupont Circle Historic District.
• The basement will be excavated to enable conversion to living space.
• A third-floor pop-up will be added to the rear of the building.
• The third-floor pop-up will not be visible from Q Street.
• There will be two parking spaces in the rear of the building

It was reported at the meeting of ANC2B's Zoning, Preservation and Development (ZPD) Committee that the former owner of the house at 1620 Q Street was a man who had protested vigorously a few months to ANC2B against the renovation at 1618 Q Street. The man told ANC2B last December, for example, the proposed new roof deck on 1618 would look directly into his bedroom and "destroy my peace". The former owner was also concerned with damage to his home's foundation from the next-door renovation, and with noise.

There was no additional information at the meeting about the recent sale of the house at 1620 Q Street, or about the motivation for the sale. On-line information shows only that the house was sold to Abdollah Poozesh in 2003 for $680,000.

Robin Deiner of the Dupont Circle Citizens Association said the former owner had been "driven out of the neighborhood".

Workshop T10 told the ZPD Committee the basement of 1620 Q Street was currently 6 feet 8 inches high. There would be excavations so that the floors were nine feet below the ceiling.

Of the planned six units, five will be one-bedroom apartments. The other will be a two-bedroom apartment on the top floor. This apartment only will have access to a roof deck. 

Consulting the neighbors on this project is easy for Workshop T10. They are developing the building to the east. The building to the west is Hank's Oyster Bar. The developers had tried to get in touch with Hank's but had had no response. No one anticipated Hank's was likely to complain about the conversion.

There was no official vote on the project but the committee seemed favorably disposed toward the project. ZPD Committee Chair Leo Dwyer (Commissioner for district 07) indicated a resolution would be prepared endorsing the project.

ANC2B has a lot on its plate this month, so it has scheduled two separate meetings of the full ANC. 1620 Q Street will be considered at the second of the two meetings, which will take place at 7pm on Monday, May 19, 2014, in room 500 of the Berstein Office Building (1717 Massachusetts Avenue) of Johns Hopkins' School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS).