Partial Approval for Armed Forces Retirement Home

The DC Armed Forces Retirement Home will move forward with the development of 77 of its 272 acres, or "Zone A," thanks to the National Capitol Planning Commission's (NCPC) partial approval. While the AFRH submitted plans for the redevelopment of four zones throughout the campus, which sits east of the Georgia Avenue Corridor and West of North Capitol Street and Irving Street, NW, the NCPC approved only Zone A; other zones will proceed on an as-needed basis. The mixed-use development, still undetermined in composition, will be the first development on the site in more than 50 years.

Zone A will host the most extensive development of the four zones and is slated for improvements to take on an "urban character with a building typology that is sympathetic to the character and scale of existing AFRH contributing buildings and landscape…" Ehrenkrantz Eckstut and Kuhn Architects (EEK) have been working with the development team, a partnership between the General Service Administration and Charlotte-based Crescent Resources, LLC, to create a mix of uses that could potentially include research, office, residential, hotel, retail, and educational uses through private leases. The maximum allowable gross area will be 4.3 million s.f. with over 6,000 parking spaces.

The AFRH is a federal agency, but relies on a trust, rather than federal funding, to operate, allowing it to use its underutilized land to generate new sources of revenue for the veterans' home. The new funding anticipates the future Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who will require long-term, specialty care.

The GSA was not disappointed by the partial approval; according to Tim Sheckler, project manager GSA, the development team knew that complete approval was unlikely. “The NCPC required that the home submit a plan for the entire site and then as part of the discussion at the meeting, it was decided the Zones B and C would be pulled back into the home's zone. That means that they will develop Zone A first and evaluate its financial return. It was always the home's intention to develop Zone A first,” he said.

The NCPC's report says Zones B and C will be "returned to the AFRH Zone", meaning that plans for a mixed use development on Zone B, and townhouse residences on Zone C, will be on hold pending the success of Zone A's development. The AFRH will continue to own and maintain the area and may even lease the property to the National Park Service.

The developers' plans include sustainable development features to, “enhance the overall design, natural environment, and quality of life of the community” by creating a mixed-use, clustered development with walkable space, bike ways, sidewalks, and parks. Zone A will likely achieve Gold LEED certification for overall neighborhood design; residential buildings over three stories, office buildings, and historic adaptive reuses will also earn LEED certification for New Construction.

Established in 1852, the AFRH services over 1,200 veterans and the DC campus boasts proximity to three metro stops; the Georgia Avenue-Petworth, Brookland-CUA, and Fort Totten Station; the master plan is the first attempt at improving the campus in over 50 years. Crescent Resources, LLC was selected as the master developer in March 2007, when they proposed the development of,"300 units of affordable housing, market-rate rental and condominium units, medical office space, a small hotel, a grocery store and other ancillary retail, as well as transitional housing for military veterans." The AFRH doesn't anticipate full build out of the zones for 15-20 years.

Arlington Kids Get High (School)

Arlington County Public Schools is pouring more than $100 million into the new Yorktown High School located at 5201 N. 28th St, a handful of blocks from the intersection of Glebe Road and Lee Highway and just a stones-throw from Greenbriar Park. The design scheme, by Ehrenkrantz Eckstut and Kuhn Architects, was approved on October 18, 2007. Now, the public school system has officially set the general contractor's bid schedule for the 300,000 s.f. project, setting the submission deadline for April 1st in order to precipitate an ambitious groundbreaking date of May.

Yorktown High School is one of three high schools located in Arlington, Virginia, and has 140 faculty members and a student body of 1600 students, placing in Newsweek's Top 100 list of U.S. Public School's since 2003, ranking at number 59 in 2007. The school and its faculty are notoriously responsible for breeding successful talent of the late Dr. David Brown, who died in the Columbia space shuttle accident, and Katie Couric, who did not.

Anyway, Yorktown's redevelopment has been discussed since 2002. The project has been phased to remain fully operational during construction (students not being easily distracted by noise); phase one was constructed in 2004 and added a three-story, 55,000-s.f., 30 classroom building. The current portion of the project will serve as the second and final phase for the high school's redevelopment, and will decrease the buildings' footprint while increasing its interior space.

Phase two is much more intricate: the first step involves demolishing an existing one-story classroom wing and replacing it with a wing that contains a cafeteria, administrative offices and classrooms. Step two will demolish existing space to make way for a swimming pool, auxiliary gym and performing arts theatre. Finally, contractors will destroy the gymnasium and relocate it to the outskirts of the campus adjacent to the swimming pool. To fill the space where the old gym stood, a bleeding-edge media center will take up half of the old gym's footprint, while the other half will remain open space and be landscaped to serve as a courtyard for students. The final step will be to remove the last vestiges of the old Elementary school building and pool.

Master Planner Selected for Southwest Waterfront Project

It has been some time since we last heard word regarding the massive $800 million redevelopment plan for the Southwest Waterfront along the Washington Channel. Now home to middling touristy restaurants and asphalt lots, developer Hoffman-Struever Waterfront LLC (PN Hoffman and Struever Brothers, Eccles & Rouse) and the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. (AWC) are hoping to transform this prime real estate into a mixed-use maritime, commercial, residential and cultural destination by the year 2017. And now comes word that Hoffman-Struever and the AWC have selected New York-based Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects as the master planner for this project from a pool of 15 applicants. Ehrenkrantz was selected based on its past waterfront experience on Manhattan’s Battery Park City and Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

When completed, the Southwest Waterfront project is expected to contain up to 825 mixed-income housing units, 200,000 sf of cultural space (such as a museum, church and civic space), a 450-room hotel, 84,000 sf of office space, 317,000 sf of retail space, and 2,000 parking spaces. The project will also improve public access to the waterfront with 13-acre waterfront promenade, public piers, and public plazas. The fish market now on the site will be preserved and renovated. Other items on the drawing board include a possible aquarium, space for Cirque du Soleil, and a facility for the Living Classrooms Foundation.