Rental Revamp: How an Architect and a Writer Made a Brutalist D.C. Town House Feel Like Home

Renting doesn’t have to be a consolation prize, but it often feels like one: It’s where we end up when we can’t quite hook onto the property ladder. But in the right conditions, it’s an opportunity to live outside our price point—but within our budget.

For architect Jeff Gillway and his wife, Kim Gittleson, it was also a lifeline. The couple uprooted their lives in New York City to move down to Washington D.C. while expecting their first child. A well-timed rental contract offered them the stability to lay down roots for real.

Kim’s work as a journalist has taken her around the world—she once moved between London and New York five times in a single year. But when Kim took a job based in Washington, D.C., in 2024, she tried commuting each week from the couple’s rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn. By early 2025, it was time for a move, and to buy their own place.