A Homey Tour of the Palisades

Hugh Newell Jacobsen’s Four Pavilions house from 1975 was revived and refreshed last year by Richard Williams Architects. It is on the Palisades Village house tour on Saturday, September 20, 2014.

This elegant farmhouse nearly gleams on the rise above its lawn. The house is on the second annual Palisades Village house tour on Saturday, September 20, 2014.

Neo-Georgian? French villa? Simple lines make this Palisades house a pleasure to look at. It’s featured on the second annual Palisades Village house tour, on Saturday, September 20, 2014.

What looks to be a contemporary updating of a more traditional two-car-garage house will be on the second annual Palisades Village house tour on Saturday, September 20, 2014.

WHEN MOST OF US think about the Palisades neighborhood of Northwest Washington, we probably picture the bungalows and cottages that line stretches of MacArthur Boulevard. Or humble farmhouses that have ambled their way into the 21st century.

We certainly don’t associate the Palisades–at least I don’t–with a modern pavilion-style house by Hugh Newell Jacobsen, who aggregates small units shaped after the simple gabled barns and other outbuildings of American vernacular architecture.

And yet, here is Jacobsen’s charming Four Pavilions home from 1975, renovated and preserved last year by Richard Williams Architects. New kitchen and baths, plus replacement cladding, roof, doors and glazing, ensure that the iconic work of modern residential architecture will thrive for another quarter-century.

Also on the tour is a contemporary home giving a new look to the common-enough midcentury two-car-garage-style suburban house. Of course there’s also an American four-square farmhouse, reclaimed and gleaming in bridal white at the top of its lawn. And a handsome eclectic home that seems to combine simplified Georgian shapes with the idea of a French villa.

The houses will be among the eight homes featured on the second annual house tour sponsored by Palisades Village on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Tickets are $30 per person in advance ($35 on the day of the tour) and are available online at Palisades Village House Tour. Or, call Palisades Village at 202-244-3310 during the week to make arrangements to pay by check or to get more details.

Pre-purchased and day-of tickets will be available at Our Lady of Victory School, 4755 Whitehaven Parkway Washington, D.C. 20007, as of 10:30 a.m. on September 20. All proceeds benefit Palisades Village, a nonprofit organization that helps seniors lead active, healthy and engaging lives as they age in the community they love.