Green Public Housing Opens in Southeast

The Community Preservation & Development Corporation (CPDC) will lead a grand opening ceremony today for Wheeler Terrace, a public housing project in southeast DC renovated to hit green new green levels. Once a crime-plagued and filthy tenement, the seven-building project reopens today with expectations to redefine public housing standards.

Wiencek + Associates redesigned the buildings to achieve both LEED and Enterprise Green Communities certification, the first DC public housing project to do so. The 116 affordable housing units at 1217 Valley Avenue, SE will feature clean-air systems, white reflective vinyl roofs, a green roof demonstration project, and heat supplied by a geothermal pump: 100 wells 350-450 feet deep, utilizing a glycol anti-freeze that brings up water at a constant 55 degrees.

Plans to redevelop the blighted project date back to 2006, when the residents of Wheeler Terrace exercised their right to purchase the land under the District’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA). The Wheeler Terrace Tenant Association then selected CPDC as developer shortly thereafter. Turner Construction lead the renovation efforts at the 133,000 square foot site. Tenants of the project were relocated during construction and are now being repatriated to the updated complex. Time will tell if the green label keeps the crime at bay.

The celebration will be held today at 10am.

Washington DC real estate development news