ARC Report
Report of the Architectural Review Committee (ARC), April 2026
Meeting Details
- Meeting Date:
- Monday, April 6, 2025
- Format:
- This meeting was held via ZOOM.
Attendees
- Christine Hobbs
- Ron Ngiam
- David Kay
- Winthrop Brown
- Ana Evans
- Tina Mead
- Stefan Hurray
- Stephen Hansen
Additional Attendees
- Andrea Pedolsky, President, Cleveland Park Historical Society
- Ellen Goldich, Executive Director, Cleveland Park Historical Society
- Peter Miles, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (3C05)
- Rick Nash, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (3C08)
3141 34th Street N.W.
Description
3141 34th Street is a contributing structure in the Cleveland Park Historic District, dating from 1924 and sits prominently at the corner of 34th Street and Lowell Street, across from John Eaton School . The proposal presented includes removing the existing rear addition, formerly a sleeping porch and replacing it with a new, slightly larger addition. This addition will step down and step back from the house with a glass hyphen. It is also proposed to expand the south facing 3rd floor dormer with an expanded dormer, approximately doubling the length of the dormer. The driveway will be widened as well. The materials include a textured, patterned brick on the new addition.
ARC Recommendation
Located on the corner, this house has two street facing facades, 34th and Lowell Streets. The ARC has no objection to the concept of the proposed addition. However, the details are very important and the ARC supports the use of the patterned, textured brick, rather than the previously proposed fiber cement panels for the addition. The patterned brick will help differentiate the new addition from the existing house. The ARC does not support painting the brick which will change the character of the façade and blunt the distinction between the new addition and the historic house. The ARC is also concerned that the expansion of the 3rd floor dormer will move it too close to the front façade of the house and to the street. The garage, facing Lowell Street, is literally and figuratively the foundation of the new addition and needs additional articulation so that the addition does not appear to float above that space.
3433 34th Street N.W.
Description
3433 34th Street was built in 1919 and is a contributing structure in the Historic District. One or more additions were added to the house in the 1990’s. The current front porch consists of five bays, some of which were added during the renovations and some are original to the house. The proposal includes enclosing two of these bays with glazing. There would be no change to the structure of the porch, although the flooring would be replaced.
ARC Recommendation
Front porches, those spaces that provide an interface between public and private life, and a connection to the community, are one of the defining characteristics of the Cleveland Park Historic District. Found in many styles, porches help unify the neighborhood’s varied architecture. Enclosing front porches changes the façade and the character of the house and of the streetscape. As the Design Guidelines for the Cleveland Park Historic District state “Porches on front elevations and visible side elevations should not be altered and every effort should be made to maintain them.” The ARC does not support enclosing the front porch on this contributing structure.