c’mon builders, where are the front porches??

I have always liked those houses. I like the street/area too.

I think they’re fantastic. Very modern with clean lines and simple, minimal features. Quite beautiful. Its like looking a the future of row houses, now!

I believe all of the modern buildings were built/ are owned by United House of Prayer (UHOP) and are rental units. At least some are market rate but I don’t know the whole story/history of the development.

The ones in the top photo were built on the site of a former gas station (sometimes I find tire irons in my yard from said gas station)… which gives an inkling of how the block has changed.

People are afraid of that section of N St. because it is a pretty bad neighborhood. I lived there for over a year until fairly recently and while nothing happened to me (thankfully) my roommates were mugged separately in the same spot a block away by the same person at different time. Another roommate had a gun pulled on him when he was sitting on the front steps smoking a cigarette.

This neighborhood has a ton of potential, but you couldn’t pay me to live there again, right now it is mainly a shithole.

Also I wouldn’t want a place where people walking bye could easily see into my house unless I kept the drapes down, it sort of defeats the purpose of having such a big window.

The older ones are Section 8 – 2nd Northwest Coop. The N Street side is generally fairly quiet (notable exception of shots fired one weekday in July this year), but there’s a lot of action on the 5th Street side.

Suzane Reatig (the architect, as previously linked by Jake) has done several apartment buildings and sets of townhouses around Shaw, including at least four buildings that the United House of Prayer rents (including the one I live in). They’re nicely done.

Come on guys, that’s my neighborhood you’re talking about.

Petworth, especially the area around the metro is about equally as sketchy as Shaw is. As a longtime resident of DC and both areas specifically its interesting to see what people are scared of. Shaw isn’t quite as bad as the scaredy cats on this forum are making it out to be..look at the crime maps people…crime especially in dense cities is going to be ubiquitous. Take out your headphones, get off the phone and maybe you wont get jacked by opportunistic criminals that exist everywhere in DC..

ignoring the architectural design points here, the urban planning points are ones i think should be looked at.

the older buildings are all garden apartment buildings, which are a horrible scar on the urban framework of the city.

the new buildings (i’m not a fan of the design, for what it’s worth), at least fit into the urban framework of the neighborhood.

porches on them would sure be nice, though!