Marriott's New Bethesda HQ

The skin on the 22-story Marriott headquarters in Bethesda is nearly installed, providing an early look at the one of the many projects that will line the Bethesda stretch of Wisconsin Avenue.  The site 800 feet north of the Bethesda Metro station at 7750 Wisconsin Avenue will serve as Marriott's new global headquarters opening in mid 2021, and include an "urban campus," chosen for its urban amenities and proximity to public transportation. The project will include a 244-room hotel operated by Marriott opening in 2022.  Boston Properties and the Bernstein Companies jointly own the land and are co-developing the hotelier's headquarters, while Bernstein will solely own and develop the hotel.  The projected $600 million project will be home to an estimated 3500 Marriott employees in the the 785,000 s.f. office building.

General Contractor Hensel Phelps is building the pair of towers that were designed by Gensler to achieve LEED Gold standards.

Bethesda Maryland commercial real estate news

Market Terminal - Signal House Tops Off

Signal House, the 10-story office building at Union Market, has topped off and is in the process of adding a skyline to the warehouse district.  The speculative office project is part of Market Terminal, an ambitious 1.25m s.f., 4-building project converting a series of warehouses and parking lots into a mixed-use project.  Kettler kicked off development by receiving zoning approval for the overall project, and in early 2018 Carr Properties acquired the office portion from Kettler, as well as another lot purchased from Douglas Development, undertaking the sole office building surrounded by numerous residential projects, both completed and underway.

Like most large projects in DC, Market Terminal was appealed and delayed by local appealer and delayer Chris Otten.  With that process having been resolved, Carr has now reached full height on the 225,000 s.f. tower 2 blocks from Union Market and less than a 5 minute walk from the Noma Metro station.  Designed by Gensler, an international architectural firm, with interior design by Streetsense / Edit Lab, the building will feature double-height ceilings in sections as well as "some of the tallest ceiling heights and widest column spacing in the city," intended to reflect its industrial surroundings with a "truly unique" metal, glass and terracotta exterior.  Carr has not yet announced any tenants for the building that will complete in early 2021, but is implementing a suite of tenant and building health measures, including seeking LEED Gold certification, fully outfitted bike room, Fitwel Star rating, rooftop solar array, and, heck, even a karaoke room on the roof.  12,340 s.f. of retail will round out the ground floor. 

click on photo for picture gallery

Project:  Signal House

Address:  350 Morse Street, NE, Washington DC

Developer: Carr Properties 

Architect:  Gensler

Interior Design:  Streetsense / Edit Lab

Construction:  John Moriarty & Associates

Use: 12,340 s.f. of retail

Expected Completion:  February 2021

Washington DC retail and real estate development news

New Renderings for Ballpark Project

With plans now officially on the table for Square 701, the block-long development just north of the ballpark, new images reveal additional details about the project that will add an 11-story office building, 170-room hotel, and 2 residential buildings to the ballpark area.  Work on the buildings is still at least 6 months away; developers Skanska USA and Grosvenor Americas closed on their purchase just last month and are now working on details of the by-right development.

Skanska will build the office building, designed by Gensler, and Grosvenor will build the hotel and 285 residential units, designed by Hickok Cole.  55,000 s.f. of retail space is also planned.  Since that announcement, new renderings have surfaced, see below.  The new office building is being designed to earn a LEED Gold platinum rating.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Grosvenor, Skanska Close on Ballpark Site, Hope for Construction Next Summer

The Capitol Riverfront neighborhood got another shot in the arm today as developers announced a new project adjacent to the Nationals ballpark.  Developers Skanska USA and Grosvenor Americas closed yesterday on their purchase of the long block on 1st Street, SE, between M and N Streets, just north of the ballpark, and hope to begin construction by next summer.

The site, known as Square 701, will hold four buildings with more than 650,000 s.f. in total:

-An 11-story, 224,000 s.f. office building (built by Skanska, designed by Gensler, see rendering below),

-A 170-room hotel (by Grosvenor),

-Two residential buildings with a total of 285 units and connected by a "trellised glass bridge" (by Grosvenor, designed by Hickok Cole).

In all, the site will offer up to 55,000 s.f. of retail space.  The land had been owned by Potomac-based Willco Companies since 1948, and was cleared of buildings several years ago; in a simultaneous transaction Grosvenor purchased nearly the entire block from Willco and Skanska purchased the northernmost portion of the site from Grosvenor.  The site is adjacent to the hole Monument Realty excavated in 2007 and has left sitting ever since.  Rob Ward of Skanska says that while Grosvenor and Skanska are not technical or financial partners on the project, they will be working in tandem to unify the site.

Ward tells DCMud that while Willco had its own plans for the site, both Skanska and Grosvenor are developing new building designs, which have been wending their way through DC's zoning process throughout the summer.  Ward expects that under the most optimistic circumstances work could be underway on either the residential or office component as early as next summer; to date the developers have been in discussion with the ANC and zoning officials but "don't have enough design to pull permits yet."  Ward says the project is "basically by-right zoning" and "consistent with what the city has in mind for the site."

The new building is being designed to earn a LEED Gold platinum rating.  McCaffery Interests will be representing Grosvenor on construction elements of the project, which include the alley (Cushing Place) between this site and Monument's land.  The alley is expected to be reopened, though Ward notes that he has no news on Monument's projections for work to resume.  Below is a site plan - north is up.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Populist Real Estate: Crowdfunding and Planning in DC

District Architecture Center, photo courtesy AIA, DC chapter

With DC growing by nearly 1,100 residents per month, according to the Office of Planning (OP), some residents might feel swept up in change.  But one OP initiative aims to frame DC residents as more than just "passive recipients" of planning and urban development.  The city is not alone; several groups - even a young DC company - are headed in that direction.

A "Citizen Planner Forum" was held Thursday night at the District Architecture Center, which opened last year at 421 7th St. NW.  The event marked the culmination in a months-long joint initiative of the DC Office of Planning (OP) and the Washington, DC chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to get input on place-making from people other than experts.

Real Estate and Crowdfunding

Before: Fundrise 1351 H St. NE, image courtesy Fundrise

Another example of projects built on the concept of collaborating with neighbors on development: Fundrise.  The new project in DC is based on using crowd-funding to buy properties, and the message "build the city you want to live in." Through Fundrise, the entity 1351 H Street has already gotten $215,000 in local investments to renovate a property on H Street, according to its web site.  The architect for the renovation is Michael Francis at Queue, LLC.

Daniel Miller is a principal at WestMill Capital Partners real estate development company and co-founder of Fundrise.  He spoke to the group Thursday.  Miller said Fundrise, which Launched just six weeks ago, is based on the concept that any resident of DC or Virginia can buy a $100 stake in a property and help jump-start a small business.  Miller said investors could also get returns.

Fundrise follows on the heels of WestMill's web site Popularise, a crowd-sourcing web site that allows property owners to survey citizens about what they want a property to become.  WestMill has used it to crowdsource ideas for its own property, but other real estate groups have used Popularise too.

Residents Re-framing Development Discourse

Offering another example of the way residents DC are already re-framing the discourse, Anacostia resident Veronica Davis talked about her experience as a co-founder of "Black Women Bike DC". 
Davis noted that growth can trigger tensions surrounding race and fears of being "priced out". An unexpected symbol of that tension, panelists said: bike lanes.

After: 1351 H St. NE.  Rendering courtesy Fundrise

Davis explained that for some residents of DC, bike lanes seem like harbingers of change, even omens of higher rent.  "We founded Black Women Bike to say – we do bike," Davis told the group. "And we needed infrastructure. Part of that is being visible."
 
That kind of citizen action is what the OP wants to encourage.  The aim is to "work together and not just talk at each other," OP director Harriet Tregoning told DCMud. "Our neighborhoods are going to be better-functioning if people feel they have a stake in their neighborhoods."

Carolyn Sponza of AIA DC, also an architect at Gensler, said the main themes that emerged from four earlier focus groups were: a desire for more education about the way planning works, an idea for a planning network that would connect neighbors across wards,  the need for public spaces and "somewhere to sit", and a need for new modes of participation in planning. 

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Brilliantly Big and Ingeniously Small

Q&A with Paul Sicari of McDermott Will & Emery LLP

and Terri Barnhart of Gensler

By Beth Herman

In a ribbon-cutting, red letter day kind of move from 600 13^th Street NW, international law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP officially took up residence on Monday in the shadow of the Capitol -- 500 North Capitol Street NW. Surely a view from the top.

Jettisoning a 205,000 s.f. former floorplate with superfluous aspects—in light of current video-conferencing technology—such as outmoded two-to-six-person conference rooms for out of town visitors, the decision to relocate the 450-member firm to 185,000 s.f. in an aging 1966 structure was a two-year (ad)venture in the making. An aggressive renovation process took around six months. DCMud spoke with McDermott Will & Emery LLP office administrator Paul Sicari and Terri Barnhart, a design director in the D.C. office of architecture firm Gensler, both of whom, along with MWE’s design committee, imagined and executed the renovation.

DCMud: What can you tell us about the site?

Barnhart: When it was offered by Boston Properties and Clark Enterprises, it was a building on the boards for a renovation for a B-class upgrade. We ended up doing a much more extensive renovation than was originally intended.

Sicari: It was the first home of the SEC, and when they moved out, a division of the IRS moved in and had been there for years.

DCMud: So we’re talking about everything: mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems, elevators, a labyrinth of safety and security systems, aesthetics—a total gutting.

Sicari: On the dozens of hard hat tours I gave, I’d tell people the only thing that stayed was the concrete, but to that we made changes too. In fact we took the roof off the building and added a 9th floor with a roof terrace, (affectionately) called the 10^th floor.

DCMud: Explain the program.

Barnhart: MWE put together a design committee, and we did a visioning session with them to see how to transform the building. We came up with the catch phrase ‘brilliantly big and ingeniously small.’ It represented how a global firm—there’s something very unique about them—how they hold their relationship with their clients, and they wanted to represent that. There’s a lot of client focus and community service built into the firm’s culture as well.

DCMud: So how did this manifest in the design?

Barnhart: We translated the culture into finishes and materials where we have this very large space for the conference center, and certain collaboration areas, but then we tried to focus it down into patterns and materials with different scales throughout. The artwork responds to that as well.

Sicari: The visioning session Gensler conducted with the committee was a virtual tipping point for me in setting the tone and design of the space. The catch phrase really helped define us: We’re an Am Law top 20 law firm, but what differentiates us from our competitors is we have a lot more of these customized smaller practice groups. Our competitors probably don’t have an alcohol/ beverage group. You almost never find a substantial IP prosecution group. We want clients to feel like it’s a boutique firm, even though we’re a giant footprint. ‘Brilliantly big and ingeniously small’ became the lens through which we looked to design our spaces.

DCMud: How did you define spaces?

Sicari: With a firm made up of a lot of small practices, it’s easy for people to get into their silos so they don’t get to know the person down the hall. Even though it’s still a law firm with a lot of walls, we talked about taking a space and making it more of an open concept. We used a lot of glass in the design. We created zones where people are forced to interact. Law firms in the past tended to create three or four copy areas— a copy area on each floor in the name of convenience. We said we don’t want that—we want to create one giant space where people might bump into one another and get to know each other.

DCMud: Doesn’t that mitigate productivity?

Sicari: We created spaces where people can grab coffee, or put their lunch, or pick up a color print job, and thereby interact with their colleagues. Knowing your neighbor is just as important to us as is someone being fast at picking up copies.

DCMud: Are there examples of how the firm may have increased productivity through design?

Sicari: A ‘team room’ is a great example of a concept that we had. It wasn’t about a room; it was about workflow and providing better support not just for our lawyers but for our clients in this more technological 24/7 age that we live in. A team room is a space for a collection of three or four secretaries working staggered shifts and hours, so that we can provide uninterrupted coverage 12 hours a day, five days a week. This kind of thing used to be called a secretarial pool, but that implies anonymity.

DCMud: We understand you are seeking LEED Gold for this reconditioned space. Can you talk about the materials used?

Barnhart: Veneers and substrates are FSC-certified. We used low-VOC paints, glues and sealants, and low-flow plumbing as well as higher efficiency VAV’s. Because of the building’s location and repurposing in an urban setting, we were able to obtain points as well. Occupancy sensors are in place and a lot of glass brings in natural light. There is a fitness center and bike racks.

Sicari: The building is now known as the McDermott building and is within eye shot of everyone who passes through Union Station. That was an exciting element for this location as well. We are really proud to be here.

Washington D.C. design news