The Wine Man Cometh

By Beth Herman

It's his time, by design. For venerated former French pastry chef Michel Richard (writer’s note: in the 1980s, my Valley girl friends and I doubled our Jane Fonda workouts due to weekly pillages of his S. Robertson Blvd. patisserie in L.A.), reinventing himself as a celebrated Hollywood restaurateur, and then again in Washington, has had several iterations, but maybe none as personal as his latest venture: Michel.

Hanging his toque in the former Maestro (restaurant) space at the Ritz-Carlton, Tyson’s Corner, Richard encouraged his friends at Group Goetz Architects (GGA) to use a pinch - or maybe a gallon - of alchemy in creating a space that naturally reflected his signature style and food, but genuinely trumpeted the wine connoisseur within. With his D.C.-based Citronelle and more moderately-priced and GGA-designed Central, restaurants representing a more high-end and down-in-the-(Manhattan) boroughs kind of ambience, respectively, the concept for Michel is more bistro than urbane, though Richard’s sophisticated palate and passion for the grape are manifested in its velour fabrics and deep, sumptuous colors.

"He wanted the look to be contemporary but also like going to a winery, a vineyard,” said GGA Principal Al Gooden, noting the celebrity chef’s robust personality and penchant for randomly seating himself at a table to ask surprised diners how he’s doing. “He’s not interested in your coming, eating and going,” Gooden continued, explaining that the traditional measure of restaurant success is the quick turnover. “He wants you to make an event of it.”

Wood, Walls and Wine

Located off the 4^th floor Ritz Carlton lobby, the 4,800 s.f. Michel came together in a warp speed-like 14 weeks, thanks to Forrester Construction Company, with a magic budget of about $800,000 (far less than most high-end restaurants of its ilk). The space boasts a 19-ft.-tall glass wine room displaying all of the restaurant’s wines, adjacent to the space’s entrance stairs, and at the bottom of the stairs, where the maître d’ is posted, a pickled grey wood wall – actually a large sliding door – swings out and becomes a total opening, according to Gooden, with the effect both dramatic and contemporary. For the first image as diners enter the restaurant, which takes into account what Gooden called Richard’s “unproclaimed logo: the tossing of plates” (echoed in Citronelle and Central), the architects used LED lighting to illuminate a 6-foot stack of translucent plates, 3 feet in diameter, which appear to float as they are tossed into the air. In the dining area, raised leaf-pattern bolsters in a light green color, such as one might see in a vineyard, complement burgundy banquettes and mahogany tables redolent of wine country colors. Built for 124 patrons, which includes the option to incorporate 16 seats of a private dining room directly into the space, Gooden said among the room’s focal points is the 9x3½-foot chef’s table made of honey-colored alabaster with deep purple veining. Strategically backlit (it glows), the team decided to suspend the table with cable using one small leg to stabilize it.

Retaining the previous restaurant’s coffered ceilings, the architects removed crown molding and added silver leaf which they uplit so that it sparkles like champagne. A white tensile fabric, suspended from the ceiling in individual bowl-like fashion, contains LED lighting that meanders from various purples to greens to ambers, and an open kitchen design makes diners a part of the process. “Michel wants you to have a real experience here,” Gooden affirmed. “The funny thing about the space is that the color scheme, lighting and selection of materials is very regal,” he said, acknowledging his client’s homage to quality and great wine, “but the seating and placing of elements are all very casual – very relaxing.”

Energy, Efficiency and Eggs

Avoiding landfills by retaining some of Maestro’s elements for sustainability purposes was paramount in Richard’s plans. To that end much of the older kitchen equipment - such as grills, steaming pots and fryers - was refurbished, with the addition of more efficient burners. Various functions of the Ritz’s current restaurant kitchen (or room service restaurant kitchen, as Gooden referred to it), shared space with the former Maestro kitchen, and Richard elected to maintain the shared facilities, such as the dishwashing area, though some Energy Star equipment had to be purchased. “It saves energy and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of construction,” Gooden said. “It was a very good move.” In best practices form, any new woods used in the restaurant space, including the entrance’s grey pickled wood wall, were reconstituted and came from within 500 miles. Adhesive for the ceiling’s silver leaf was low-VOC, carpeting has a minimum 30 percent recycled product and fabrics and finishes were all local and readily available.

Noting that the firm really had two clients, Richard and the hotel, Gooden said Ritz-Carlton, owned by Host Hotels and Resorts, was adamant about being involved in the design and all approvals. “The restaurant is, after all, only accessible through the hotel, without its own entrance,” Gooden explained, adding that the corporate design team was present throughout the entire process. “They were definitely active, which worked out really well because the great thing is they are really excited,” he said, noting the plan to position Michel, which the restaurateur has designated his flagship, as a “destination restaurant,” with customers coming to dine and then perhaps deciding to stay over (the opposite of most hotels). Additionally, like his predecessor in the space, Richard has elected to serve breakfast, as well as lunch and dinner, to perpetuate the D.C. “power breakfast” paradigm, but ideally with his own signature patisserie offerings – the hallmark of his early career.

“We teamed with a lot of really good people to make this happen,” Gooden said of the project. “You can sit down and totally focus on the experience.”

Photo credit: Len Depas and Sokol Kokoshi

Ansel Adams Slept Here

by Beth Herman

Well, OK, he didn't exactly sleep there, but for Group Goetz Architects (GGA) President and CEO Lewis J. Goetz, making a home at The Wilderness Society, 1615 M Street NW, for 75 of Adams' seminal landscape photographs was a design of somewhat personal proportions. "I got to meet him once," Goetz said, reflecting on his own interest in black and white photography and what it meant to stand before the iconoclastic naturalist and photographer himself. "Ansel Adams was a hero for a lot of photographers back then,” he affirmed, having purchased his first Nikon with the funds from an architectural award he received in college. "Adams was able to capture pure black and white and every shade of grey in between, not to mention the incredible sights he was able to photograph,” Goetz said. Because Adams and the Washington, D.C.-based Wilderness Society, founded in 1935 to protect and preserve natural resources and public lands, had confluent missions, it was both fitting and immensely generous that the photographer would have donated what Goetz believes is the largest assembly of his art to any institution. “Every famous picture he’s done is here, which is pretty amazing,” he said. The problem, according to Goetz, was that only about 20 percent of the collection had been displayed in the Society’s dark lobby for many years, with “portable elements” on which they’d hang lights. “The pictures are not that large,” he observed. “They’re 16x20 and some are smaller than that. There is very intricate and delicate detail. (The way they were displayed), you couldn’t see the pictures – this amazing collection.”Citing periodic economic delays and several subsequent efforts to pare down GGA’s initial concept for the gallery space (what should have been an eight-month design/construction effort stretched into 18 months), The Wilderness Society eventually secured the necessary funding to move forward with the gallery design, which complemented a renovation of its existing D.C. headquarters. Supported by art consultant Cynthia Reed and John Coventry of Coventry Lighting, Goetz maintained that gallery space wants to be about the art, not the gallery, noting the great galleries are secondary to what’s showing. “It’s the simplicity of it that sets it apart,” he explained, adding that you don’t want to compete with the subject. That said, designing for a specific, permanent collection instead of a revolving space that may support many different artists over time had its own set of advantages and challenges. While standard operating gallery procedure is to have a space that is clean and unfettered - a simple box without distractions, Goetz explained, because Adams’ photographs were black and white, it made sense that the space should also be black and white. And because the art reflected different subject matter, though within an environmental realm, the team decided to separate or break down the gallery so that it wasn’t just one 2,900 s.f. room. In this regard, and with extensive linear wall space, jagged breaks, or openings, were created to bisect the space so that visitors could peer through to other parts of the exhibit. The angular openings, resembling large, rugged faults in Adams’ natural rock formations, serve to mirror and enhance the experience rather than detracting or calling attention away from it. With Ansel Adams’ work, Goetz observed, “It’s not about the space. It’s standing two feet from the wall as you walk through it.” At the end a concealed door leads from the gallery into the Society’s conference room, with the objective that all who enter the building must first pass through its special gallery space, which is open to the public. With an eye to sustainability and where LED lighting was considered, in the end the team decided that generationally it doesn’t have the right quality for gallery use, though in another year, Goetz speculated, it may be considered. Occupying the entire second floor of the building, The Wilderness Society’s headquarters also underwent a makeover with an emphasis on sustainable features such as low-VOC paint, water saving fixtures in the bathrooms, recycled drywall and a concrete floor that was made in place, requiring no manufacturing. The mechanical system was zoned to provide a lot of control, according to Goetz, in order to save on energy, with lighting that utilizes motion sensors and controllable dimmers. With what may loosely be termed more ebullient designs in their passbook, such as Michel Richard’s Central restaurant, Goetz explained the firm has “a very pragmatic approach to design,” which enabled them to create a space that subordinated itself to something else. “To me, design is about solving problems,” he said, “so if we solve the problem, then we did a great job, and if we can do it in a beautiful, poetic way, then we did an even better job.” A good photograph is knowing where to stand. – Ansel Adams

Office Trends: Condos on K Street

A McPherson Square office building next door to Archibald's Gentleman's Club will soon become 12 office condo units, offering ownership opportunities for businesses or organizations downtown at 1522 K Street, NW.  The 11-story, 1964 office building is undergoing a face lift at the hands the Detroit-based MayfieldGentry Realty Advisors, which purchased the property in May 2008. The office condo option is a new trend, just check out J Street's 111 K St NE building in NOMA; they're all the rage.

MayfieldGentry plans to split the 91,000 s.f. structure into ten 8,500 s.f. units and two 2,500 s.f. units and then sell the space off, floor-by-floor. According to Karen Waldon, Vice President of Asset Managment for MayfieldGentry, the company is "targeting LEED Silver" for the $6.5 million project.

The designers at Group Goetz Architects have a glass façade, updated conference and fitness facilities, and new stairs and elevator cabs in mind for the space. State-of-the-art heating and cooling systems and a 46-car garage will also be part of the finished package.

Marketing by Akridge has just begun for the space, but Waldon assures us that there has been "a lot of interest in the project." With a pitch that emphasizes tax-exempt bond financing to potential buyers as a way to make ownership in DC possible, it's not surprising that Waldon says her company hopes to "bring more of the associations and nonprofits back to downtown DC."

A final construction timeline for the project is still unclear. In mid-December Mayfield awarded the construction contract to Davis Construction to handle the heavy lifting. If all goes according to plan, downtown DC could be welcoming another crystal clear office structure to its brood as early as summer 2011.

The price per s.f. ranges from $526 to $676, which includes a build-out allowance of $60.00 per s.f. and two covered parking spaces.

Renderings provided by MayfieldGentry's brokers at Cushman and Wakefield

Washington, DC real estate and development news

Then There Were Three at Howard Town Center

It may be slightly less exciting than the McCain-Obama matchup (only slightly), but the contenders for the on-again, off-again Howard Town Center project have now been narrowed to just three: Archstone-Smith, Armada Hoffler and CastleRock Partners. A Howard University representative yesterday confirmed that two other bidders associated with the $30 million project - Monument Realty and the Trammell Crow Company - have been ruled out by the University as potential developers.

This marks Trammell Crow's second loss of the HTC project. When the HTC was first proposed in 2003, the development company walked away with a $56 million contract - only to watch it fall through when the Duke Plan, a new zoning overlay for the area, was introduced, and some have suggested that Trammell Crow may still have an actionable claim against the university.

Development on the 2.2 acre parcel is said to include a 300-unit apartment complex, parking and 70,000 square feet of retail, which must include a grocer under the terms of the RFP. The Howard Town Center project will be built at the current site of several Howard-owned properties at 2100 Georgia Avenue that have fallen into disuse. A recent Howard acquisition at Georgia and W Street, the Bond Bread Building, is also to be utilized in the redevelopment efforts. Howard acquired the building from the District of Columbia this spring in a land swap long opposed by the tenants of Bond Bread, which had sued the city over their rights to the building. Howard issued an RFP for the project (again) last May. Group Goetz Architects will be designing the project for the winning developer, a design that is strongly encouraged to be LEED certified.

Howard’s Communications Department would not discuss a date for the selection of a development team, but construction is planned to begin in August 2009.

Washington DC commercial real estate news