Beginning in 2017, D.C.-based design consultancy OPX embarked on a monumental project for long-time client AARP—a complete restack of the organization’s headquarters. After completing the ground-up renovation of each of the 500,000-square-foot building’s ten floors, attention shifted to the building’s aging roof. Erik Wyche, who served as a project architect and project manager on the AARP headquarters transformation, saw this full roof replacement as a key opportunity to activate some of the building's most valuable yet underutilized space.
“We saw so much unrealized potential in this rooftop,” describes Wyche. “With D.C.’s height limitation, a ten-story building is rather unique—it feels like a skyscraper. And in this particular building’s location with prime views of the Capitol and the Washington Monument, we thought it was so important to completely rethink this occupiable rooftop space and make it a multifunctional destination for people. We wanted it to be big enough and have the flexible amenities needed to comfortably host events ranging from a large internal meeting to a casual evening cocktail hour,” Wyche says.
Designed with adaptability at its core, Landscape Forms’ Upfit structure system became a main facilitator of flexible use on the rooftop terrace. “Upfit checked all the boxes for the type of adaptable structure we needed,” describes Wyche. "The weather sensors that allow the roof louvers to open and close depending on the conditions were a huge selling point for us—the ability to maintain the open air feeling and still make the space usable on days that were too sunny or with too much rain was a very important criterion.”
Wyche and the OPX team landed on a design that used three adjoining Upfit units to create 48’ by 16’ of total covered outdoor rooftop space. These abutting structures can serve as one large continuous meeting space, or with Upfit’s infill panels, can become three distinct areas to serve different purposes.
Joining the three standard Upfit units, Landscape Forms worked with Wyche and OPX to create an additional customized Upfit structure to serve as a privacy screen for the terrace. “Above all, the whole process of designing and spec’ing our Upfit solution was refreshingly easy,” says Wyche. “I hope I get the chance to work with Upfit again—we mainly focus on interiors, but fingers crossed we get to work on another rooftop."
For more information, visit www.landscapeforms.com.
