Turret Vision in Del Ray

Tim Whitney's First Renovation Plan Was Modest. When It Was Rejected, He Went With a Tower.

When Tim Whitney's plans to enclose his front porch and add a second story were shot down, he started thinking that a rear turret would eat up less of his back yard. Some neighbors like it; others are appalled. (By Lucian Perkins -- The Washington Post)

Commonwealth Avenue in Alexandria is lined with historic bungalows, tidy Queen Annes and two-story Foursquares in muted earth tones. And one other house: Tim Whitney's, with the giant, pointy, sky-blue-roofed tower looming high over the leafy neighborhood.

The neighbors either love it or hate it. Most hate it. They call it the Mushroom. The Pencil. The Folly. The Silo. In some circles, it's known simply as the Spite Turret.

Whitney didn't set out to build a tower. And some might say the neighbors made him do it.

At first, he just wanted a bigger house. But along the way, his modest renovation project has become a six-year ordeal that has tested the boundaries of where one's personal space and taste end and the fabric of the community begins. And it's not over.

"We have experienced a lot of intolerance and harassment," Whitney said, "ranging from people making nuisance calls for inspections to materials being stolen to our vehicles repeatedly having fruit, yogurt, eggs, tomatoes, et cetera thrown on them, to broken truck windows to extension cords running from the temporary power being cut and stolen . . . "

In 1998, Whitney and his wife, Kareen, bought a cute, one-story bungalow in Alexandria's funky Del Ray neighborhood. Two years later, with a third child on the way, they thought the 1,000-square-foot house with one bathroom felt cramped. They decided they loved the neighborhood too much to move. So they figured they'd add on.

He had a PhD in materials engineering and a job at Mitre Corp. He figured he could do it all, from the architectural drawings to hammering the nails. He invested in design software and got to work. His first plan was modest enough. He wanted to enclose the front porch in glass and add a second level.

That's where the City of Alexandria came in.

Whitney's bungalow was built in 1930 about 20 feet from the street. A 1951 zoning law required all houses to be set back 25 feet from the street, but it didn't affect Whitney until he wanted to build on top of the offending front and side portions of the house. He had to request a variance.

That's when his neighbors weighed in.

On his August 2000 application, Whitney said the design would be economical because he wouldn't have to dig a new foundation. He wouldn't have to build off the back of the house and eat up the back yard he wanted for his kids to play in. Most importantly, he wrote, the design would not "change the character of the neighborhood."

His next-door neighbor, Eric Wagner, chairman of the city's planning commission, wrote a letter supporting what he called a "minor variance." Six other neighbors signed a petition to help Whitney's cause.