Thursday, April 26, 2012

HPRB Hears Hine Project Changes


Changes to the Hine Project, such as reducing the height of a penthouse, improving transitions and adjusting facades, helped resolve some issues for the Historic Preservation Review Board, which voted today to approve a staff report recommendation that concludes "the revisions improve the compatibility of the conceptual plan and (are) consistent with the purposes of the preservation act."

The Board last approved a concept review for the development effort at the old Hine Junior High School Site near Eastern Market in August, at which time Board members offered guidance for further plan development.

Architect Amy Weinstein, a principal at Esocoff and Associates/Weinstein Studio, presented the revised plans and explained the changes to the Board, many members of which were not part of the initial concept review.

Changes include:
  • The alley side of the residential building on C Street was redesigned using different materials to set apart the base, core and top of the building similar to the front design.
  • New design features throughout the development include panel brick ornamentation, rolled coping in cast stone and copper, and bridged bay projections.
  • The 5-story piece on 8th Street transitions to the rest of the building with rolled edges and varied materials.
  • At D Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, the bays are extended and bridged to connect the retail spaces.
  • A larger setback and reduced height moves the penthouse above the office building at 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue farther out of view.
  • Twisted brick columns were added to the windows and clustered at the corner of 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
  • The plaza component at 7th and C streets now has more of a "late Victorian vocabulary."
7th Street
Although the Board did approve the staff report, members voiced concerns with the project.

Recommendations for continued development included more attention to the C Street alley design, reconsidering the water feature, looking at ways to better transition from residential to office space, and - this being DC - reducing building height.

Stanton-EastBanc team is developing the site, Oehme van Sweden is the landscape architect.

Washington, D.C., real estate development news


2 comments:

Payton on Apr 27, 2012, 1:12:00 PM said...

Geez, can this be done already? Having retail at that corner will really go a long way towards knitting together the seam between Barracks Row and Eastern Market. At this rate, though, and given how slow retail can be to lease, it'll be years until we see it. (What we won't be seeing from the sidewalk is the tippy top bit of the building, so I don't really care about that.)

Anonymous said...

I believe only one HPRB member expressed concern about the height.

Post a Comment

Commercial ads will be deleted, so don't even think about it.

 

DCmud - The Urban Real Estate Digest of Washington DC Copyright © 2008 Black Brown Pop Template by Ipiet's Blogger Template