A lot at the corner of Vermont Avenue and T Street, NW, in the heart of the U Street neighborhood, is about to get an infusion of six new condos in three townhouse-style buildings. The two-over-two units, sitting almost on top of the U Street Metro station, will range from approximately 2,000 s.f. to 2,400 s.f. with two floors for each unit. The three lots are part of a larger parcel that was once home to a four-story apartment building, "The Cameron," which was built in 1899 and destroyed in a fire in the 1960's. The new condos will be a huge improvement over the site's use as a parking lot for the neighboring Masonic Temple.
The three upper units with have roof top terraces, all will have one private parking space, two of which will be private attached garages. Two of the houses (four units) will face T Street and one will front Vermont Avenue. Mimicking the style of the neighborhood, the Lessard Group designs take their form from Queen Anne and Romanesque architecture; the corner of Vermont and T Street will likely feature a tower that conforms to the many existing historic homes in the surrounding community. The matter-of-right development will go before the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) this week and received an approval in the HPRB staff report.
Developer Derek Huetinck said a date for construction has not been scheduled, but he is filing for permits and hoping to begin by the end of this year. In a best case scenario the units could deliver in the first half of 2011. Huetinck said he was "unsure of final sales prices for the units at this time" and that the project "likely will not open for sales until after construction has begun."The site was formerly the proposed home of Evanti Condos, a 14-unit project by Macy Development and the Masonic Temple, which owned the land, but which never broke ground. Huetinck obtained the properties under his project entity T Street Builders, LLC in November 2009 for $770,000.
Washington DC real estate development news
8 comments:
EEEK! Buildings that will actually fit in nicely! Now wait till the style police over at Historic Preservation shoot it down because it's "not of our time", which is code for it's not a modernist glass box from pre-WWII bauhaus. Unlike the Lacey condo, which the blogeratti salivated over, and which already looks like buttocks, this building will age gracefully, and my guess will resale a lot better than the "classic" fishbowl condos.
I agree, my first thought was, "look at that historic rehab."
i wish they were going up across the street from me.
People, please! You can't tell d*ck from the rendering. It depends on the detail, the windows, doors, and a dozen other things that go into the facade. The thing that differentiates good architecture of yore from today's crap is the detail, for the most part. Unfortunately, Lessard has been known to build some two-dimensional garbage in the past, let's hope its different. I'm encouraged by the rendering, but if they have fake mullioned-windows and brick pavers to make the facade look more solid, it will be such an obvious knock-off that it will be offensive. I guess we will have to wait and see.
Aggreed that the detailing means a lot, but a well detailed glass wall is still a thin, cheap looking, dirty, unsustainable, and dehumanizing glass wall. Jus say'n
Oh, I'm so happy about this. Thank you, Lessard Group and Derek Huetinck. This is the most encouraging architectural news of the week (for me).
Now, the devil is in the details. Please, don't make this project offensive to the surrounding properties by using poor-quality materials. Thank you.
I live right across the street from here and have to say that I'm thrilled with the presentations that they've given so far. (The only downside is that my dream of hitting the lotto and buying that lot to make myself a mansion is now dead.) Also, HRB doesn't really have much say; this is a "matter of right" project. In any event, I think the staff report was positive.
nice!
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