PN Hoffman has announced that their downtown condo project is now going forward as an office building. The building, at 10th and G St, NW, will change from market rate condominiums to a mixed-use commercial center. Two years in the making, the project will create 140,000 s.f. of Class A office space atop a newly constructed First Congregational United Church of Christ (FCUCC).
PN Hoffman has been working together with ER Bacon Development LLC to finish design plans; the purchase agreement of air rights above the church's land has been finalized as of October, while plans to rebuild a new, two-story church underneath the commercial space are still in progress. The existing church, built in 1959, is set to be demolished in December. According to PN Hoffman, development of the church will include "approximately 36,000 s.f. of space comprised of a sanctuary and social service area...the facility will provide spaces for conferences, lectures, offices, classrooms, and music events." As part of the church's resurrection, the apportioned social service space under the glass-and-steel office structure will be leased to the Dinner Program for Homeless Women - definitely a mixed-use endeavor.
The current church is in dire need of an upgrade, hence the uncommon leveraging of sacred air rights. Meg Maguire, Chair of the Site Development Task Force for FCUCC explained: "There are many things wrong with the church, it isn't handicapped accessible, all of the systems in the church are in really bad shape and need to be replaced, so we were looking at a huge investment. Even if we made that investment, at the end of the day we were not going to have the home that we would need in the 21st century...we were very fortunate to find, in ER Bacon and PN Hoffman, a partner...It's been an incredible team effort."
The commercial portion of the site will house eight stories of office space and include a third floor outdoor-terrace so cubicle inhabitants can grab a breath of fresh air in between long hours of business-as-usual. The building's design is set to achieve a LEED Silver rating by incorporating a green roof, use of recycled construction materials and minimization of water usage. The design will serve as PN Hoffman's very first venture into the world of commercial office development. PNH had previously planned to build 140 "luxury" condominiums above the homeless shelter.
Cunningham + Quill Architects is handling the office space design, while NY-based Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects has created plans for the church. Construction is set to begin in February, 2008 with an expected completion date in the fourth quarter of 2009.
7 comments:
wow that's ugly
Makes more sense this way. Who would have paid over $600 a square foot to live above a homeless shelter?
the rendering is squished. you should fix it if you can.
I posted the rendering untouched, aside from cropping out the blank areas - but since you asked, I attempted to de-squish it. Let me know if this looks better!
I have two renderings up of this project. Feel free to post them here. dcthegroundup.blogspot.com
Wow - the future is here as DC grows (to see a mixed use building a la REM Koolhaas Delirious NY). I like that the design looks at the classic modern Mies Van DerRohe inspired library next door - very cool addition to DC's trendy architecture pantheon - watch out London. [Funny how people love their plasmas, iPods and new cars - and yet when it comes to architecture they like their buildings to look like crap from the 1800s - LOL]
who is going to want to pay mid $40s NNN to be above a homeless shelter?
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