Title: Georgetown Car Barn Adaptive Reuse
Location of Proejct: Washington, DC
Project Completion Date: 2017
Firm Name: Clark Nexsen

Short Description: The Georgetown Car Barn renovation transforms the first floor of a historic streetcar terminal into a university classroom and office building. Taking advantage of its prominent location and highlighting its exterior stair made famous by the film “The Exorcist,” the building is reimagined by interventions capitalizing on daylight, circulation, and the buildings’ historic attributes. Restored window openings highlight the program inside and activate the stair. By pinning the refurbished barn doors in the open position, and infilling the archways with highly-transparent curtainwall, the design gives the illusion that the historic doors are reopened, bringing new life to the Georgetown landmark.

Architect's Statement: The Georgetown Car Barn renovation is an adaptive reuse project that transforms the first floor of a historic D.C. landmark to house Georgetown University’s Master of Arts in Government program, the University Press, and swing space in the form of classrooms, offices and conference rooms.

The Car Barn was designed by Waddy Butler Wood, a successful D.C. architect from the late 1800s/early 1900s, and constructed in 1895 by the Capital Traction Company as a union terminal for the city’s streetcar lines. It has undergone several renovations since then, the most extensive of these occurring in 1911 and 1950.

Occupying a prominent location along M Street at the end of the Key Bridge, the Car Barn is a Georgetown landmark. The building may be best known, however, for the large exterior stair along its west elevation connecting M Street to Prospect Street, three stories above. This stair was featured prominently in the 1973 horror film, “The Exorcist,” where the protagonist Father Karras tumbled down the 75 steps to his death in the movie’s climatic ending. “The Exorcist” Steps have been officially recognized as a D.C. tourist attraction, and a major piece of this renovation project involves restoring the Car Barn’s west elevation adjacent to these stairs to their original appearance.

The original window openings along this elevation had been blocked in with CMU at some point and faced with non-functioning aluminum louvers. As a part of this renovation, however, the openings were opened back up and infilled with new double-hung wood windows to match the color and configuration of the original windows. The openings that were hidden from view by “The Exorcist” Steps were infilled with aluminum storefront. These recreated openings provide much needed daylight to the deep footprint of the existing structure and create a visual connection to the outdoors and “The Exorcist” Steps.

The large arched openings at the southwest corner of the building were also restored. These openings originally served as the access points for streetcars. At the two west openings, the original large wooden, folding pocket doors remained, while the original overhead door at the south opening was lost to some previous renovation. The design concept for the renovation of these openings was to make it appear as though these original doors were opened, as they would have been in the building’s early days when streetcars entered and exited. The pocket doors were refurbished, and then locked in place in the open position, while the arched openings were infilled with a highly transparent glass-fin curtain wall system.

The graduate student lounge now occupies this southwest corner of the building, and benefits from the ample daylight provided by these restored openings, as well as the visual connection to the city beyond. Access to daylight and views was an important consideration in the layout of the two main program elements as well. Both the Master of Arts in Government program and the GU Press each have some exposure to the restored openings along the west elevation, and also open onto the new lobby/lounge space along the south side of the building. Within this new lobby/lounge space, the original green and white patterned terrazzo flooring was restored. Ramps, sloped floors, and wheelchair lifts were incorporated into the floor plan to connect the various levels within the first floor, making the facility fully accessible.

The existing Car Barn structure is a hybrid of cast-in-place concrete, load-bearing masonry, and steel frame construction. Cast-in-place concrete was used for new areas of floor slab, and a self-leveling hydraulic cement underlayment was used to level out and repair damaged or uneven portions of the existing floors.

In certain areas, the existing interior brick masonry was left exposed. This existing brick had been painted many times over the years. Through a series of test batches, the design team selected an acid wash that removed much of the old paint, but still left some of it behind, telling the story of the building’s many renovations over the years. In other areas, an air barrier, thermal insulation, and gypsum wallboard were added to the interior side of the exterior walls to improve the building’s thermal performance.

Along the west elevation, previously blocked-in window openings were reopened and infilled with new wood windows with a custom casing profile. The windows were glazed with insulated glazing units and featured simulated divided lights to match the pattern of the original windows.

The three large arched openings were infilled with a glass-fin structural curtain wall system.

In the Lobby/Lounge area along the south end of the building, an existing terrazzo floor was patched and restored.
Occupancy and daylight sensors were installed throughout to control the interior lighting. This system reduced the building’s electricity consumption while ensuring adequate light levels.