Aya

This project was selected as a Merit winner in the 2021 Residential Architect Design Awards, Affordable Housing category.

"The architecture has a sense of character and optimism, and it capitalizes on light and views. Bravo!” —Juror Carlos Madrid III

As a welcoming, dignified, and beautiful hub for vulnerable families, the Aya is the kind of project every city needs. Located on one of Washington’s original arterial streets, the affordable housing project by Studio Twenty Seven Architecture and Leo A Daly provides short-term emergency shelter for up to 50 families. Its seven-floor ziggurat form—designed to preserve the tree canopy and maximize daylight—shimmers with a glazed north façade that looks toward the Capitol, while the south façade’s checkered window pattern reveals a warm color palette within.

Commissioned by the district, the Aya provides seven to 10 units per level, as well as laundry facilities, a dining area, a computer room, monitoring stations, private and family bathrooms, and a sublevel neighborhood health center. The east elevation features outdoor play areas on each floor, while the faceted west elevation creates small green roofs that become a “front lawn” for the unit above. The project received unanimous support from the neighborhood advisory council.

PROJECT CREDITS:
Project: The Aya, Washington D.C.
Owner: Dwayne Gentry
Architects: Studio Twenty Seven Architecture/Leo A Daly JV Representative: John K. Burke, Principal, (Project Manager through BZA submission) Jake Marzolf, Project Designer Pierre Gendreau, QA/QC Manager
Structural Engineer: Silman Associates Representative: Vassil A. Draganov
M/E/P Engineer: Setty Associates
Civil Engineer: A. Morton Thomas
Surveyor: Bill Gilbert
Geotechnical: ECS Capitol Services
Cost Estimate: TCT Cost Consultants
Land Use Attorney: Holland & Knight
Archeologist: John Milner Associates
Acoustical Engineer: Acoustical Design Collaborative
Size: 53,005 square feet
Cost: $21,000,000

Materials and Sources:
Acoustical System: Armstrong
Adhesives/Coatings/Sealants: Dow
Appliances: General Electric
Building Management Systems/Services: Tridium
Ceilings: Armstrong
Concrete: Superior
Exterior Wall Systems: Brick by Hohman Barnard
Flooring: Roppe Corporation
Glass: YKK system with Glass Dynamics
Gypsum: National Gypsum
HVAC: Titus, LG
Insulation: Dow Corning
Lighting: Columbia, prescott, litecontrol
Lighting Control Systems: Schneider
Masonry/Stone: Brick by Hohman Barnard
Paints/Finishes: Benjamin Moore
Photovoltaics/Other Renewables:
Roofing: PAradiene
Site/ Landscape Products: Kompan
Structural System: post tensioned concrete
Windows/Curtainwalls/Doors: YKK