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If you loved opera so much that you would travel from one city to another to attend various opera openings, where would be the best place in Washington, DC, to live? Peter and Ingrid Willson are putting down roots right next door to the Kennedy Center at the Watergate, where they recently transformed two adjacent apartments into a single magnificent residence.
“Ingrid had a very clear vision of what she wanted this apartment to be, which is fairly rare with clients,” says Architect Brad Mellor of Ponte Mellor Architects Ltd. Mellor, Rui Ponte, his partner and the lead architect on this project, and Sonia Lamas, the interior designer, formed the team that made this 2,850-square-foot apartment sing.
“We gutted the two apartments down to the mechanical systems,” Mellor says. “We opened up everything back to the front door. From the moment you step inside, you see the view. We took down every interior wall except for walls that had plumbing.” (The plumbing couldn’t be moved because it connects to other apartments.) Now, almost every space, with the exception of the bath and powder rooms, has a direct view outside.
An Intoxicating View
Ingrid loves the open space, view, and location. “We can walk to the Kennedy Center and Georgetown,” she says. The Willsons often entertain other opera and symphony enthusiasts, performers, and directors.
Pete, an entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in physics, formerly owned an electronics company, and is retired. His study provides another captivating view. “I spend so much time in that study. It’s so serene to look out over Roosevelt Island,” he says. “It’s a bucolic view in the middle of the city.”
Pete adores airplanes; he’s owned a few over the last 15 years, up until last year. He not only doesn’t mind being on the flight path to Reagan National Airport, he enjoys it. “We hear the planes and Pete says, ‘Oh, that’s a such and such,’ ” Ingrid says.
Leaving on a Jet Plane
Aside from the fine craftsmanship, such as the long, gently curved bulkhead that stretches from the kitchen to the study and the intricate flush reveals around the doorways, one of the most distinctive architectural features is the rotunda Rui Ponte designed to separate public from private rooms. “It’s a little gateway to their private space,” and echoes the curved elements of the building, Ponte says. Ingrid specified that she wanted a private bath, so Pete’s bath is to one side of the rotunda, while hers is to the other, and their bedroom is beyond. The glorious transitional space, which includes a shallow plaster dome, provides a lovely gallery for more of Ingrid’s photographs.
With their main residence in Naples, FL, a condominium on North Lakeshore Drive in Chicago, and a cabin in the Shenandoah, the Willsons travel often. This is why the location of the Watergate suits their lifestyle so well. “You can’t get out of town faster than from here,” Pete says.
