For Washington D.C., the Wendell Mansions apartment building is an address with a pedigree.

It’s a four-story, Beaux Arts masterpiece designed in 1906 by Edward H. Glidden, protégé to Paul Cret. It’s on Ambassador Row, a stone’s throw from Georgetown and Dupont Circle. And at one time, it was a residential hub for the Kennedy administration, with cabinet members, a Supreme Court judge and Leticia Baldrige, Jackie’s social secretary, all tucked away inside.

Now architect Suman Sorg is living there. She acquired Apartment One (there’s only one per floor) in the middle of the recession, and got to work on a modern makeover.

“I was in a house, and it was too big, and on too many levels,” she says. “I wanted to move into a flat.”

She tore out walls to open up spaces with 14-foot-high ceilings, but left the ornate, period windows in place. Then she restored its dining room, living room, bedrooms and master bath.

“I used mirrors, strategically placed, to reflect light out,” she says. “The kitchen is open with glass walls, and the closet in the bath has glass walls – all to harvest the light.”

Finally, she demolished a number of smaller rooms to create a painting studio.

“I wanted to have a place to show my work, a place to paint and a place to have friends and guests in,” she says.

It may be in the center of the nation’s capital, but the experience she’s created is decidedly European.

“It’s very French – you feel like you’re in Paris,” she says. “All the light illuminates the art and the furnishings are very modern, so there’s quite a contrast.”

Which suits a city like Washington to a T.

For more information, go to http://www.sorgarchitects.com

[slideshow id=1021]