Apartment & Condo Living
Of course, not everyone has a single-family house and a yard. In fact, a majority do not in Arlington and Falls Church City, where multifamily dwellings (industry parlance for apartments and condos) accounted for 65.5% and 53% of the housing stock, respectively, in 2019. Those numbers were already expected to increase in the coming years as municipalities add density to keep pace with population growth. (In Fairfax County, multifamily buildings represented 29.4% of housing in 2019, but are expected to account for 41% of it by 2045.)
Then came the pandemic, which has set two opposing forces in motion when it comes to housing, says real estate agent Trevor Moore, a vice president in Compass’ Arlington office—space and cost. On one hand, people want more space so families aren’t on top of each other. But with the economic downturn and spikes in unemployment, he says, large single-family homes aren’t an option for everyone. “It’s made people rethink budgets quite a bit.”
While move-up buyers with the means to do so are continuing to leave apartments and condos for townhouses and single-family homes, a significant share of the local population lives in mid- or high-rise buildings—where residents must reckon with dozens or even hundreds of other people in close quarters. Designer Phyllis Hartman is grappling with this issue for projects currently in development. She says she’s adding built-in office space in the apartments of one project in Reston (a direct reaction to Covid-19), but the bigger challenge is making people feel safe in the large communal areas of residential buildings that have become a draw in recent years for socializing and coworking.
“People in multifamily buildings are going to want to get out of their unit,” says Hartman, principal of Hartman Design Group in Rockville, Maryland. “The importance of amenity space is going to be increasing, not decreasing. It’s a matter of how we make adjustments.”
As it turns out, some of the spaces her firm has already designed in Arlington—projects such as 1800 Oak in Rosslyn and Instrata and The Bartlett in Pentagon City—are well equipped for the post-pandemic era. Small, shared work pods and glass-partitioned booths were originally designed for privacy and soundproofing; now they’ll add a layer of safety and physical distancing once common spaces open back up, Hartman says.
Going forward, she envisions fewer large, communal coworking tables in the common areas of multifamily buildings. Instead, watch for outdoor working pavilions equipped with power outlets; larger package rooms with self-service lockers; and separate delivery entrances.
For those who want to live and work at home—including small-business owners with employees—the newly opened Mission Lofts in Falls Church aims to offer a hybrid option, with 156 units designed for either residential or office use. Thanks to creative zoning that developer Highland Square Holdings worked out with Fairfax County officials, what used to be an office building has been transformed so tenants can either live or work there—or do both.
It’s proved an innovative way to convert commercial space that’s emptying out—a trend the pandemic will only accelerate as more people work remotely, says Rob Seldin, Highland Square’s CEO. “People have specifically chosen it because they can facilitate living and working in the same place.”
His company first developed this model in 2016 with e-Lofts in Alexandria. Now three more live-work projects in former office buildings are underway in the Skyline area of Bailey’s Crossroads, just south of the Arlington County line. “One of the big challenges for buildings is to be flexible and adapt to changing market conditions,” Seldin says. “It’s a huge problem—adapting buildings to how people want to use them.”
Arlington-based design writer Jennifer Sergent also pens our Great Spaces column. Follow her DC by Design blog at jennifersergent.com.