Common Resurrects 100-Year-Old Washington, DC, Church as Coliving Apartments

In top-tier cities across the U.S., coliving provider Common has made a name for itself by offering affordable living options for renters, many of whom are recent transplants and looking to connect with other residents in their building.

For one of its recent projects in Washington, D.C., where it currently manages eight buildings, the company converted a neglected church into shared living units in this reverent remodel.

The 100-year-old Mt. Rona Missionary Baptist Church, located in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Northwest D.C., had fallen out of consistent community use. Outlier Realty Capital, an investment firm that uses a value-add strategy to create “naturally occurring affordable housing” that isn’t subsidized by the government, purchased the building in 2016 and sought out Common to renovate the structure into eight coliving apartment units now dubbed Common Monroe.

“The developers at Outlier found this project and really saw its potential. We were brought on to work with [architecture firm] StudioMB to give the church new life and think about how to best build a functional apartment building that people really want to live in,” said Jenn Chang, vice president of Common Studio, the company’s in-house architecture and design team. “Common’s mission is to drive affordability by lowering entry price points to really beautiful buildings across the U.S. We were able to add value to the community by adding new, attainable housing quickly without long construction timelines and fancy towers.”

Residents at Common-managed properties rent individual bedrooms in furnished apartment suites with shared kitchens and common living spaces. The price, which at Common Monroe currently starts at $996 per month, includes utilities, Wi-Fi, cleaning services and household supplies.

At the outset, the design studio at Common and its partner StudioMB were confronted with what was essentially “one giant room” in the original church structure, said Chang. They built out three floors of apartments to create the 46 bedrooms across 8 units within the expansive space, ultimately converting 4,000 square feet of usable floor space into 18,000 square feet of shared living space.

Chang and team wanted to preserve as much of the original character of the building as possible and leave its historic features intact.

“Throughout Common Monroe, you can find historical details purposely poking out and celebrated, rather than covered by drywall, showing how underutilized buildings can be thoughtfully transformed to increase attainable housing in cities that need it most,” said Chang.

The team left elements that were structurally sound and celebrated them as focal points in the space. The classic bell tower was transformed into the entrance and stairway, and the original roof supports and spire in the ceiling give the top unit an open and airy feeling. The old church walls are also incorporated into the design with whitewashed exposed brick, ornamental niches and original arches adding texture and character to the units.

Of course, when adapting an old building into one that is modern and livable, updates are necessary. For example, the team tried to leave stained-glass windows where possible, but many were not energy efficient and had to be replaced.

“We did have to remove a few religious symbols, but we kept a lot of the existing details, like altars and arches, which kept church’s essence,” said Chang.

“The balance of creating residential, livable space within an existing structure that you have to alter is a big challenge in and of itself,” she added. “Making sure it’s livable includes picking out what you want to reserve and preemptively thinking about how those elements will interact with the room of the future. What was really nice about the church was that layout-wise, there were many nooks and crannies to work with to make it functional.”

The units come furnished for residents, and the design team chose rich textures like leathers, velvets and bold colors to contrast the light and airy architecture and to help ground the space, said Chang.

Chang says the average Common renter is 30 years old — they’re at a stable place in their career, but don’t yet have the money to purchase a home or rent an apartment alone.

“We want shared living to be accessible and inviting, and the community is what allows us to create that experience,” she said. “We find that many people seek out coliving because they are looking for the experience and the adventure [when moving to a new city], and we try to facilitate connections so people can organically form communities.”

While the pandemic caused many renters to leave the city or shared living situations in search of more space for teleworking or less-dense cities, Common is still bullish on the concept of coliving after the pandemic and, in fact, maybe in spite of it.

The property management firm connects residents in the building through an app, allowing them to engage with other renters beyond their shared housemates, and provides events and opportunities for them to meet.

“This has been very successful. We’ve seen our residents host their own potlucks and Thanksgiving dinners, plan outings and start their own social media channels. We know that our residents still crave a sense of community, especially as a result of COVID-19,” said Chang. “Especially since [the pandemic], people are becoming more and more isolated, and I think renters will crave interaction on the other side of this.”