1362 Otis Place, completed in 2006, broke new ground as the first small-scale LEED-Certified spec development in the Washington area. 3DG purchased the property as an unusually wide Wardman row house with a beautiful façade and a coveted location just blocks from the Columbia Heights metro. But, like so many other houses in the city, it had fallen into disrepair after many years as an investor-owned rooming house, with leaky windows, old appliances and virtually no insulation.
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In short, it was a huge drain on the environment.
3DG used the building as a showcase for a wide range of environmentally sustainable technologies and construction methods. The building contains two two-level condominiums, each with two bedrooms and two baths, and filled with luxury features and exquisite design details that characterize all 3DG development projects.
What's perhaps most significant about the project, though, is that 3DG was able to demonstrate that genuine sustainability does not have to come at a significant price -- in cost or in lifestyle. The cost to build using sustainable materials and environmentally responsible construction methods was nominally the same, and the home looks and functions as it would have if sustainability had not been considered at all.
The main difference: building it didn't trash the environment, and living in it won't either.
