Before renovation, the house at the corner of 27th and Edison Street in Arlington, Va., was a modest, two-story colonial, built in the post-war moment when houses were small and cars were large. Today, the house is a graceful composition of brick, glass and wood-accented rain screen known as +2edison7—Studio Twenty Seven Architecture’s playfully disjunctive name for this high-performing renovation with humble bones. Today, +2edison7 dwarfs its previous incarnation much in the way a 1950s land yacht might dwarf the current owner’s Miata. Yet, despite its added size, the renovated house performs like a Tesla.
As the personal home of one of the principals at Studio Twenty Seven Architecture, +2edison7 was a case study designed to push the envelope for efficiency in a residential project. The renovation more than doubled the volume of the original building, from 1,300 square feet to 2,800 square feet; yet its systems operate at more than 60 percent greater efficiency than before. The home has garnered multiple certifications, including USGBC’s LEED BD+C: Homes v3 Platinum and Home Innovation Research Labs (HIRL, formerly the NAHB Research Center) National Green Building Standard (NGBS) Gold Level. It is also certified as an EPA ENERGY STAR New Home, EPA Indoor airPLUS home, and locally at the Gold level in the Arlington County Green Home Choice award. Finally, the yard is a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat. Indeed, +2edison7 may hold more sustainability accolades than any post-war tract home in the mid-Atlantic.