National's Get First LEED Stadium

Today marks a new era in both Major League Baseball, and DC history. The US Green Building Council today officially designated the National's Ballpark as the first major stadium in the US of A to be LEED Certified. HOK Sport, the division of HOK Architecture specifically devoted to the design of athletic venues, received LEED Silver status, the third-highest step on the LEED ladder. Before construction even began, developers removed the site's contaminated soil and shipped it off to Soil Safe Incorporated, which recycled it. After the site was replenished with fresh loam, construction teams buried six ginormous sand filters to prevent litter and "wash-down" water from finding its way into the Anacostia River. Also, because of the proximity to the Metro, bus and bike routes, the Green Building Council considers the site itself a contributing factor to the eco-friendly development. HOK achieved LEED Silver certification through a number of different methods. First and foremost, the stadium was designed to save millions of gallons of water. This was done in two ways: Plumbing fixtures that conserve almost four million gallons of water were used in the construction. In addition, HOK designed the stadium to use air-cooled - rather than water-cooled - ventilation systems, an upgrade that will save an additional six million gallons of water. Nats stadium also has a slew of recycling bins located throughout the ballpark; now fans can dispose of their Budweiser bottles appropriately instead of just tossing them. Roughly 20% of the stadium was built with recycled materials, and more than 5,000 tons of construction waste were recycled. For the final touch, HOK used efficient lighting, added a 6,300-s.f. green roof to collect rain water, and created signs around the park to highlight its eco-friendly aspects (we're not really sure how that helps global warming, but it was in the press release). Gregory O'Dell, CEO of the Washington DC Sports and Entertainment Commission boasted: "Creating a green ballpark was as fundamental as any requirement when we decided to embark on this mission to build a new state of the art stadium for the Washington Nationals." Now if we could only come up with an eco-friendly (and stomach-friendly) design for a hotdog.

Washington DC commercial property news

NoMa Development Breaks Ground, Part VII

On Monday, at 10:30am, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and assorted camera-seekers will join developer StonebridgeCarras at 2nd and N Streets, NE, to break ground at for the first phase of Constitution Square. The developer will officially kick off its 1.6 million square foot project (pictured) at the ceremony, a mixed-use building that will include 440 apartments, a 200-room Hilton Hotel, a 50,000 s.f. Harris Teeter grocery store and massive office space - 589,000 in Two Constitution, and 350,000 in One Constitution. The project is the first major mixed-use project to break ground in the NoMA neighborhood.

StonebridgeCarras, with Chicago-based partner Walton Street Capital, had announced several major leases over just the past few weeks, including the Department of Justice lease of 88% of the office space of Two Constitution Square, and the 20-year lease of Harris Teeter, which hopes to open in late 2010. The project sits adjacent to the New York Ave. Metro station; the residential portion will be designed by Bethesda's SK&I Architectural Group. HOK Architecture is designing the office space; the project is being ambitiously designed to achieve a LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

New Addition to Mt. Vernon Triangle in Spring '08

A brand new $55 million multi-use development is almost set to materialize in Mount Vernon Triangle as developers and architects put the finishing touches on design plans. 459 Eye Street NW will be the new site of Walnut Street Development's Eye Street Lofts, a 12-story structure which will house 164 apartments and more than 15,000 s.f. of community-serving retail space.

The lot, which spreads from 443 to 459 Eye Street, has been planned for development since 2005, when Walnut Street had originally proposed condos for the site. Unfortunately for the condo market, a historic preservation impediment hindered Walnut Street's vision. The Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) halted the plans because of the Central Auto Works garage, a historically-designated structure that currently sits on the lot. Architects HOK Group have decided to incorporate the entire aged structure into the new edifice by piercing columns through the building. Once the columns are in place, Tompkins Builders will have to construct footings beneath the garage to support 10 stories of new construction. The auto garage isn't the only structure being preserved on the site; two existing row-houses are being used in the design-plans as well as an historic blacksmith shop.

The existence of historic structures on the site presented unique obstacles for Walnut Street. HPRB required 9 months to approve project - but subsequent to the extended waiting period, Walnut Street faced an invariably different economic environment. In reaction to the drastic change in the market, developers circular-filed the initial condo proposal and entered into a waiting game to stalk the perfect economic conditions for a rental project; it seems that time is now. Ground is expected to be broken by Spring of 2008.