On an unremarkable Washington street across from Rock Creek Park and five minutes from the Kennedy Center, one white house stands out. Tour buses pass by and art students come to sketch it.
2130 Cathedral Ave. in Northwest is an unabashedly modern house that reaches for the stars in its aesthetic vision, simplistic beauty and its setting high above the street.
Architect Errol M. Adels built the house for himself in 1987 in a 30-foot-wide overgrown lot that contained a giant granite outcropping too formidable to dig out. It was a steep and difficult-to-work construction site but “when the house was finished it caused quite a stir,” he said.
“I didn’t want a formal house with one room leading to the other,” said Adels.
The result is three interior levels that stretch the boundaries of height, juxtapose linear and round shapes in comfortable relationships, and open the interior to the landscape outside from every room.
“We love the view of the park from every floor,” said Jackie Chalkley, referring to her husband. They own the house now and have lived in it 14 years. “It’s wonderful to see the change of seasons. They’re like a work of art unfolding before our eyes.”
A charcoal slate staircase encased by a low white wall rises from the street to the living room level where it meets a 20-foot sheer glass wall. At the top of the stairs you enter a hallway and are greeted with an explosion of natural light.
The living room is a stunning white space roughly 20 feet high and wide open like the outdoors. Two wood sculptures from Mali, 8- to 9-feet long, decorate the space. There’s a fireplace — over which eight works by Yuriko Yamaguchi hang — but no conventional walls. One wall of square niches, showcasing colorful contemporary ceramics, separates the living room from a small library.
Chalkley uses the library — which boasts a low ceiling, gray walls and built-in bookcases for a music and book collection — as an office. “It is a peaceful refuge,” she said.
A rounded white wall that embraces the shape of the granite rock ledge underneath and encloses a piano-shaped terrace that is built into the hillside at the living room level. The towering trees of Rock Creek Park seem to hang in the sky from this vantage point and the view is magnificent.
“When we entertain we use the front terrace for cocktails especially after the sun has gone over the house,” said Chalkley.
A circular stairway — white-framed with black-carpeted steps — rises three levels. It appears suspended and when you climb to the dining room on the second level you’ll think you are floating.
Two sides of the dining room are open to the living room and from your perch at the table you can see the park across the street and the private back yard, through the glass wall at the back of the house.
Circling up the stairs to the top level a Richard Serra etching titled “Bessie Smith” catches your eye. The majestic master bedroom boasts two prints by James Brown and another wall of niches framing ceramics. A glass wall and outdoor balcony run the length of the bedroom and adjacent bathroom.
The simplicity of the house is breathtaking. “It is a show house but our greatest pleasure has been living day-to-day and enjoying the beautiful design and space,” said Chalkley.
The home is on the market now, offered at $2,250,000 by Washington Fine Properties.
