12 & Allison NE is an 82 unit town home development that preserves 2.6 acres of green space at the Josephites Seminary. The site is bounded by 12th, Allison, Sargent, 13th, and Varnum Streets NE and is it located across 12th St. NE Providence Hospital.
The fence artwork consists of alternating square and circular water jet cut painted medallions. The round medallions, consisting of oak leaves, and acorns celebrate the large oak trees on the site. The rotating square medallions celebrate the new community as well as its contextual insertion into the existing urban plan of the District of Columbia.
The round medallions play off the circular form of the Seminary while the rotated squares are a reference to the original urban plan of the District of Columbia. In the rotating squares, curving void t represents the path of the Potomac River; the alternating solid void pattern, the brickwork of the development; while the polygonal void cut out represents the Brookland/Michigan Park neighborhood in Northeast, DC where are the new brick townhomes are located.
The architecturally sensitive development will allow the Josephites to remain in the four-story brick seminary building they’ve called home since 1929.
