MONROE SQUARE

This project included the renovation of the existing brick home and the architect’s home and the infill of new homes surrounding them.“Walking through his lawn, one gets a sense of his larger vision, what he calls “shared visual green space.” His house, 319 Monroe Ave., shares open space with three other houses all of which are hemmed in by the same iron fence. The largest of these houses is an old brick boarding house Nichols renovated. It sits much closer to the road than two houses, which Nichols designed, on either side. Nichols designed the porches of these houses to be on one visual plane. From the parking lot across the street, it appears that all the porches are on one level, an optical illusion produced by adjusting the height of each porch in proportion to the distance of the observer. Nichols, whose designs of porches, pillars and farmhouse styles to match those of a century ago, wants his buildings to, ‘blend into what was there seamlessly.'”

-Brendan Mintner
Alexandria GAZETTE PACKET, September 1998