Cheers to the Australian Embassy

The Australian embassy on Scott Circle celebrated its 50th year in 2019, but that was its last, with demolition underway to build a new chancery seven blocks due north of the White House in the diplomatic heart of Washington D.C.  Bates Smart, the Australian architectural firm that designed the original mission, has fashioned a replacement that will up the sustainability ante while "paying tribute to the unique Australian landscape."  The embassy staff has meanwhile decamped at the National Geographic headquarters on 17th Street during construction, demolition of the structure is nearly complete.

Having outlived its useful life - the familiar scaffolding and Australian scenery cocooning the building protected passersby from the crumbling exterior - its successor will be clad in vertical strips of glass, an interior atrium, and will be designed to achieve the "highest global environmental design standards available."   A green roof with photovoltaic panels will top off the building, while the white Tennessee marble of the prior facade will be replaced by what its designers claim will be a slightly shifting facade, heavier on the north side where marble dominates, turning to a "crisp... vertical horizon edge" facing Scott Circle.  The new embassy will take roughly the same shape, set back again from Massachusetts Avenue, when construction completes in mid 2022.

Project:  Australian Embassy

Address:  1601 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington D.C.

Architect:  Bates Smart

Construction:  Clark Construction

Expected Completion:  Mid 2022

Washington D.C. retail and real estate development news

Demolition and Preservation at Former Chinese Embassy

Drive by the former embassy of the People’s Republic of China on Connecticut Avenue and you’ll see an interesting sight: a building façade propped up by an elaborate set of braces, next to another building undergoing wholesale demolition.

Much demolition has already occurred. But the facade is being preserved as part of the Sheridan-Kalorama Historic District, and will be incorporated into a new building on the site that’s been designed by Esocoff and Associates.

While the embassy proper decamped for Van Ness Street in 2009, the new Connecticut Avenue building will serve as the embassy’s residential and consular building, containing 136 mostly two-bedroom apartments for diplomatic staff, and some office space.

The original embassy was actually composed of two distinct but connected buildings. The more historic structure at 2310 Connecticut Avenue was built in the 1920s, and its façade is the one that’s being salvaged. The other structure, at 2300 Connecticut, was the hulking, largely unadorned building that most observers remember as the Chinese Embassy. It started out in the late 1940's as a hotel, but was turned into an embassy after Nixon’s visit to China in 1972.

Now, most of the latter building is being reduced to rubble. “I think one of the reasons we had unanimous community support was that removing a building that unappealing was a mitzvah—a good deed,” explained Philip Esocoff, adding that demolition of the newer building should be complete by the end of 2012.

But the older building has a different, more delicate story.  Braces have been utilized to preserve the two outside walls and strengthen them against wind while the building’s interior is removed. “We will cut away at the wall behind it, but we’ll have to do it carefully, by hand,” said Esocoff. “That’s a particular kind of process, saving a front wall: you don’t want to rip the building down inside because it might pull something off.”

Esocoff rendering of the new building's facade

Esocoff said the workers—part of Clark Construction team, unlike the previous Chinese construction crew in Cleveland Park —are salvaging some of the old bricks and ornamental metal balcony railings, which will be incorporated into the new structure. Though it will include an interior courtyard, the new building will fill in some of the empty space that lay above the old edifice's lobby and will therefore be largely the same size as the original set of buildings.

“I think it’ll be a very well-constructed building, a little higher quality than we might do on a standard apartment house because they plan on being there forever. It’ll be institutional grade,” said Escoff. “And this will really improve the vista as you come down from the bridge.”

Groundbreaking will occur after the first of the year, with the first step being an excavation of the property’s lower levels to include a parking garage.

Washington, D.C. real estate development news

Chinese Ready to Take Out 2300 Conn. Ave

The embassy of the People's Republic of China received an OK last week from the District's Historic Preservation Review Board to finally demolish its aging residential and office building for embassy staff at 2300 Connecticut Avenue.

As part of its weekly reviews of raze permits, the HPRB said Jan. 20 that the 200,000 square foot, 8-story brick building was clear for demolition.

The building, formerly the 1940's-era Windsor Park Hotel, was purchased in the early 1970's just as diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the PRC began warming after President Richard Nixon's historic visit in February 1972.

Esocoff & Associates, which has also designed 400 Mass. Ave and the Dumont, is the architect for the new embassy staff residential building, (pictured, above) which is expected to be completed in 2014.

The new Chinese embassy (pictured, left), designed by famed architect I.M. Pei, moved to its new location at Van Ness Street and International Drive in April 2009.

Clark Construction Group LLC of Bethesda is listed as the contractor for the demolition, according to the permit. The construction of the Chinese embassy using imported labor in 2008 led to some grumbling among the building trades about not using American hard-hats, though embassy construction is usually performed by the resident country's workers for security and diplomatic reasons.

Washington D.C. real estate redevelopment news.

Congolese Buy 16th Street Mansion for Embassy

A grand home on 16th Street from 1894 that's served many lives is taking on a new one as the Congolese Embassy. Currently under contract, the home is listed at $5.75 million and is a short sale. Built in 1894 for $40,000, the home was designed by William Henry Miller for Supreme Court Justice Henry Brown, who lived in the home until his death in 1913. After stints as home of the Persian Legation and the American Zionist Organization (not simultaneously), the Toutorsky clan bought the house to use as a conservatory, the role it served for forty years, until it was bequeathed to The Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins in 1988. The school sold it, after which it eventually landed in the hands of the current owner, Humberto Gonzalez, who bought the home for $2.2 million in 2001. Gonzalez, who has at times run a bed and breakfast out of the mansion, listed the home for sale in 2008 before contracting with the Congolese - that's Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, i.e. led by Joseph Kabila - not its junior neighbor to the west. Should things go as planned, the embassy will vacate its current digs at 1726 M Street, NW, for a 6,700 s.f. lot with 12,000 s.f. of space. In the meantime, the embassy requested, then withdrew, a plan for a circular driveway, which would have had to go through zoning adjustment. As filed with the BZA by the embassy's lawyer on February 9th, "Time is of the essence in the completion of this Chancery application in order to meet the short sale agreement deadline with the Bank of America. The President and CEO of the America [sic], personally, has gone to great lengths on behalf of the Republic of the Congo to facilitate and expedite this short sale transaction. The inability to timely complete this transaction with the Bank of America would be an embarrassment to the government of the Republic of the Congo."

Washington DC commercial real estate news

An Embassy for a Home

For those in the market for a wildly grand home in DC, 1824 R Street, NW, is for sale for an asking price of $15,500,000.  The Georgian mansion was the former Embassy of Singapore until seven years ago, when it was fully restored. Jim Bell, real estate agent for Washington Fine Properties notes how difficult it is to find this much space (13,000 s.f.) in a downtown residential property, though the building, likely built in the 1800's (the courthouse that stored the papers apparently burned down, so it's not entirely clear what year the home was built), is zoned for multi-purpose use. The space had been renovated by the son of the most recent owner, a doctor with a passion for architecture and design. The dwelling is being marketed as an embassy-turned-residence, a "single family home for the past 7 years," but DC residents know that it was the short-lived Artists Residents Inn. What's so great about the home? For starters, large windows facing south and west exposure allow plenty of light, or in realtorspeak, "a magical glow." Let's talk numbers:

• 13 fireplaces
• 18 flat screen TV's with surround sound
• 8 bedrooms
• 9 full baths
• 2 half baths
• 13 HVAC zones
• 1 gym
• 1 "telecommunications room" with
• 1 steel-enclosed "panic room"
• 1 massage room
• 3 laundry rooms (including "concealed laundry room")
• 5 parking spaces
• 6 countries represented in the home: French limestone, Italian marble, American pine (reclaimed from a Buffalo, NY schoolhouse) as well as pine from a Pennsylvania barn, an 18th century Spanish door, a 19th century Portuguese door, and a 19th century Indian door.

In the event you'd need a display area, there's a gallery near the foyer on the ground level, as well as a family room-slash-home theater, a powder room and an office. The second level entertains, with a living room, sun room, library, formal dining room, and the eat-in kitchen with a terrace, finished off with upgraded appliances, naturally. Four bedrooms reside on the third level, each with its own fireplace and en-suite bathroom. But the fourth level provides a bit more exclusivity to get away from the kids, with a master suite with sitting room and full bath, as well as two more bedrooms with bathrooms. There's an in-law suite in the lower level, as well as the gym, massage room and panic room, should the market tank after the settlement papers are inked.

The half bathroom on the first floor is hidden by a swinging bookshelf. Master bedroom, part of master suite

The kitchen offers plenty of light and additional terrace seating.

The breakfast room on the first floor houses one of thirteen fireplaces. That's alot of duraflame logs.

The ground level family room traverses the width of the home.

Modest guest quarters on the third floor.

A second bedroom on the third floor is masculine in its decor.

Guest suite, with fire sculpture, inspired by Salvador Dali.