With its’ 60th anniversary just around the corner, Arlington’s
Marymount University looks to be buying itself a $25 million present a few years early.
Next month will see
Dewberry Development break ground on two "contemporary neo-classical buildings"
that will take the place of a Marymount parking lot bounded by Old Dominion Drive, Yorktown Boulevard and 26th Street North. Plans for the
Davis Carter Scott-designed sibling structures, a dormitory and academic building respectively, were initially approved by
Arlington County Board of Supervisors in July 2007.
Rose Bente' Lee Ostapenko Hall (good luck to the co-eds stammering over that one after a few jell-o shots), the 6-story, 75,000 square foot dormitory going up on the site, was named for – you guessed it -
Rose Bente' Lee Ostapenko, the University’s current Secretary to the Board of Trustees and founder of the
Rose Bente' Lee Endowed Scholarship Fund. Ms. Ostapenko also lent funds (and, surprise, her name) to Marymount’s student center in 1999.
That 239-bed facility will be erected concurrently with
Caruthers Hall, a 4-story, 52,000 square
foot academic building. The new building will house classrooms, lecture halls, faculty offices, and lab space for health science, chemistry, physics and biology. The facility is being named in honor of
Preston C. Caruthers, chairman of Arlington real estate firm,
Carfam II Associates LP, and longtime Marymount supporter.
The 2 new structures will both sit atop an underground, 4-story, 145,000 square foot parking garage that will contain 370 new spaces. A new plaza will straddle the gap between the academic building and dormitory, while an overhead pedestrian footpath will be erected across Yorktown Road and connect the facilities with Marymount proper.
“This initiative responds directly to Marymount’s most critical needs,” said university president
Dr. James E. Bundschuh. “The new facilities will help us meet the increasing demand for campus housing, significantly enhance instruction in key academic programs, and address the parking challenges that we have faced for several years.”
The 4 Arlington communities bordering the Marymount campus - Old Dominion, Donaldson Run, Yorktown and Rock Spring – have already lent their approval to the project.
Davis Construction and
Harkins Builders Inc. will be going to ground on the site starting next month. Further BIDs are due by September 25th. The project is slated for completion in time for the start of the 2010 academic year.
Encore Development and their engineers at Dewberry and Davis are wrapping up razing and land development work at 4800 U Street, NW, making way for eight, freshly-cleared lots that range in size from 6,000 to 12,500 s.f. Located just a block from MacArthur Boulevard, the parcels, dubbed Berkley-Chase, are now "up for sale to either individuals or home builders," according to Encore principal, Steve Kay and will sell for $925,000-$995,000 each.
The Berkley-Chase development makes up approximately half of the 3.2 acre parcel Encore originally purchased back in 2007. Encore sold the other half of the property to the St. Patrick's School before razing the late 1940s home on the property, commencing sewer work, and putting in a series of retaining walls between the lots for sale and the adjoining St. Patrick's School property.
Kay says his company has quietly begun putting the lots on sale and is "working on a couple potential deals now." To date, none of the lots have been sold, but more prominent listings with Washington Fine Properties should be popping up in the coming weeks. 
