Clarendon West Residential is a three-building development situated between low-slung single-family housing and denser high-rises in the Clarendon area of Arlington, Virginia. The Alexan Fitzroy building incorporates townhouse-scale design elements, which comingle with a pedestrian path to promote neighborhood connectivity. The two buildings that compose The Earl sit behind the Alexan Fitzroy off the busy Washington Boulevard. The main entries of each building sit across from one another through their public plazas that frame a larger urban living room mirroring one another.
The exteriors feature masonry and metal panels as the primary façade materials, complementing the character of the surrounding neighborhood while nodding toward a “timeless modern identify,” according to the architect team at WDG. The architect says the dominant brick material creates a field for the “articulated flourishes” of metal, such as the modernistic detailing of flying spandrels and cantilevered parapets. The primary massing for the Alexan Fitzroy steps at a low-, mid-, and high-rise level, with each step having their own distinct metal palettes and treatments.
“We had to turn a corner from a highly commercialized street to a residential area. It was very skillfully, artfully done to merge two different types of architecture that are responding to their adjacencies and somehow merge them to make it cohesive,” says Eric Schlegel, principal at WDG.
WDG associate principal Sungjin Cho says the mid-tier of the Alexan Fitzroy, created as a shoulder piece, features all metal and the building’s two-story lobby and amenity space. The 110-foot massing for the highest step of the building matches the high-rise buildings in the more urban area of Clarendon.
“The combination of the architectural articulations on the details to the massing strategy from low- to mid- to high-rise [and] the stepped massing, it created a pretty unique building,” says Cho.
Surrounding retail and restaurants promote a lifestyle for residents centered around social activity. The design in the three buildings accommodates professionals working remotely with flexible collaboration booths, work pods, printing stations, and a coffee bar in public spaces.
“All around these areas in Arlington, having an active pedestrian presence is very important. We integrate that in various ways throughout the project depending on what pedestrian experience there is,” says Schlegel. “It’s not one size fits all with this type of architecture, it is very responsive to the community and the context that it resides [in].”
