Rendering by Lori Steenhoek via Capital Pixel

Living above one of the better supermarkets in town and also within sprinting distance of neighborhoods like Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant, and U Street seems has quite the appeal. So much so, that Douglas Development is banking on being able to sell apartments in such a setting that don’t have any windows.

The real estate blog UrbanTurf reports that some of apartments currently being finished above the Harris Teeter supermarket at 1631 Kalorama Road NW will be lit only by skylight. How is this possible? Well, the units are being converted from the abandoned skating rink that once occupied the domed building, and while the outer ring of apartments will get natural light from a horizontal direction, eight loft spaces in the building’s interior will be completely enmeshed by drywall on all four sides. As UrbanTurf describes them:

The dome reaches a ceiling height of 20 feet, so the architects designed units that step up to lofted sleeping areas to make the most use of the heights. A ring of 31 apartments will surround a center block of eight more. The residences on the perimeter have sleeping lofts at the back, and the eight central units, which have no access to the perimeter windows, will be lit by skylights.

The above rendering comes via the design firm Capital Pixel, which accommodated the oddball layout of the building with these curved lofts. The curved part of the ceiling reaches 33 feet in some places.

Douglas is calling the development The Citadel Apartments, after the movie theater that took over the building following the shuttering of the National Arena, a skating rink and bowling alley that opened in 1947. Lots of history, cool design, and a good location? Almost worth giving up most natural light.