GWU Makes Claims to Historic Fame

Part of the George Washington University 2007 campus plan was an effort to create a special historic district on the Foggy Bottom campus. While that has not yet happened, this week the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) will consider a precursor, granting historic landmark designation to five campus apartment buildings and one office/studio. The HPRB Staff Report recommends that all six buildings be designated as landmarks in the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites and further recommends submitting the structures to the National Register of Historic Places. Recognizing the buildings as historic bolsters the effort to create a contiguous district around the GW campus.

The high-rise apartment buildings, according to HPRB documents, were largely built in the 1920's and 1930's when the area around GW saw a surge in demand for housing, thanks to the recently engorged federal government. The buildings are now used as residence halls; GW students/alums might remember The Everglades, The Flagler, The Keystone, Munson Hall and Milton Hall. Several of the buildings actually fall outside of the proposed historic district, but are considered historically significant enough to be landmarked along with structures inside the proposed boundaries.

The John J. Early Office and Studio would also receive historic designation. The studio was once the workspace of, you guessed it, John Earley, an artist, architect and engineer. We have him to thank for the idea for all the pre-cast concrete we see on buildings today. According to the HPRB staff report, you may have seen Earley's personal work on the ceiling of the Reptile House at the National Zoo or at the Justice Department. Located at 2131 G Street, the building is set back from the street and sits across from the new School Without Walls.

According to Bruce Yarnall of HPRB, the proposed historic district has not yet come before the HPRB; this week's review will merely examine elements within the plan for an historic district within Foggy Bottom.

Washington DC real estate development news

McGinty's Takoma Theater: After 86 Years, is "The Party Over"?

The battle between Milton McGinty, the 82-year old owner of the historic Takoma Theatre and Washington DC's Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) came to a head on Friday. McGinty appeared before the Mayor's Agent, arguing that his proposed apartment complex was a project of special public merit and that the failure to issue permits would cause him unreasonable economic hardship, appealing an earlier HPRB recommendation to block redevelopment.

As Director of the DC Office of Planning, Harriet Tregoning served as the Mayor's Agent, hearing testimony from McGinty, friends and former associates and Takoma residents. Tregoning gave McGinty until January 29th to submit documents supporting his claim that the theater can no longer remain operational without causing him undo financial strain. The community, including groups like the Takoma Theatre Conservancy will have seven days thereafter to respond to McGinty's new evidence.

According to McGinty's testimony at the hearing, he has spent more than $250,000 on renovating and repairing the theater since 1983, when he purchased the theater for $300,000. The theater, designed by architect John J. Zink, was built in 1923.

McGinty began leasing the theater for public plays and performances in 1995. In early 2007, he closed it down, then drew protests from the Takoma Theater Conservancy when he sought permits to raze the building to pave the way for office space. The HPRB blocked that, and McGinty worked with architect Paul Wilson to draw up a new plan to convert the space into a 43-unit, five-story apartment building while maintaining the theater's original facade and including a 100-seat venue. Last October, the HPRB once again disapproved of granting permits for a plan that called for demolishing 75% of the theater.

At the time of the hearing, McGinty had made no plans for public space in his design, nor had he planned the inclusion of an affordable housing component to the project outside what the Zoning Commission requires by law. Another strike: while arguing that his project is of "special public merit," McGinty added that the designs were "nothing out of this world."

Despite the community's reaction to the plans, McGinty was resolute in his decision to convert the space, testifying at the hearing that since 1983 he's been on the front lines working to put the theater "together piece by piece."

"It's easy for others to vote to preserve the theater. That's free," McGinty argued, and maintained that he has not received any formal offers from community members or developers hoping to purchase the property - though that's unlikely to happen, considering McGinty placed the property in a family trust to prevent a sale and told DCMud in August that he never has - and never will - consider a sale.

When asked whether or not he had taken into consideration HPRB's recommendations with his architect, McGinty said "no." He was equally clear on his position for the future of the theater as a public performance space under his ownership, stating that "after 86 years, if you'll pardon the expression, the party's over."

Depending on McGinty's ability to proffer evidence that maintaining the property without development would cause him undo financial strain, the party may, in fact, be over for development plans as well.

Washington, DC real estate and development news

Bozzuto Asks to Delay Mt. Vernon Development

The Bozzuto Development Company is asking DC for a two year delay on its planned residential development on New York Ave in Mt. Vernon Triangle, even as neighboring residential projects progress. Just last April Bozzuto Development Company President Toby Bozzuto told DCMud he hoped to begin construction in 2010. That now seems highly unlikely, so to be cautious the developer will go before the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) next week to request a two-year extension. The Bozzuto property will sit across from City Vista and adjacent to Yale Laundry, which just started construction on its second phase, despite ongoing sales that began in the summer of 2005. The WDG Architects-designed 13-story building at 460 New York Avenue, NW would include 87 residential units for a total of 85,555 square feet on a site currently occupied by an empty lot and two vacant, deteriorating buildings. Nothing is likely to happen soon. William McLeod of the Mount Vernon Community Improvement District told DCMud he was unaware of any updates or changes in the status of the development, and Sean Stadler, Associate Principal Designer at WDG said there had been no progress on the project since its initial zoning approval and that the developer had not begun hiring a general contractor. 

The developer originally received Zoning Commission approval in April 2008 for zoning amendments. The approval sanctioned Bozzuto's plans to move the three-story historic structure, dating from 1902, to an area zoned for smaller development while leaving the remainder of the lot for the larger residential building, which on New York Avenue will reach 130 ft in height. A ground floor fitness center (despite the Results gym at CityVista) and two levels of below grade parking will reportedly round out the development. The developer received approval in January 2008 from the HPRB to raze the two-story 1870s historic building because of the dire condition of the structure. Once the 1902 historic building is relocated on the western edge of the site, it will receive a full renovation to include 6 of the planned apartments. 

Washington, DC real estate and development news

Working Through Artistic Differences on U Street

Greg Kearley of Inscape Studio will go before the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) on Thursday for review of the proposed adjoining 3- and 5-story mixed-use buildings that, pending approval, will replace the currently vacant lot at 1932 9th street NW with work and residential space for artists. Developer and property owner Paul So also developed another property nearby, "510nm" at 1353 U Street NW. Both So properties are geared towards the arts community, though the Historic Preservation Office (HPO) staff report may lead to the HPRB "censoring" some of So's artistic endeavors. So wants his new buildings - a mixture of housing, office and studio spaces - to serve the burgeoning artist community in the U Street neighborhood. The building that will face 9th St NW is designed for four stories near the street, with a fifth-floor penthouse set back 18 feet, bringing the entire height to 58 ft, and will incorporate a mix of ground floor retail and second floor office space, the rest to serve as residential and studio space. The other building, connected via a breezeway, fronts 9 1/2 St and will be three stories to include live/work space for artists in the Hamiltonian Artists fellowship program. The first floor would have an open space for working and for the fellows to brainstorm; the other two floors are designed for discounted living space for fellows. So intends to build his second development to "LEED Platinum at least" - meaning exceeding the highest green rating standards. His current building on U Street boasts a long list of green design features including recycled paper countertops (Paperstone), daylit interiors, passive solar design strategies including southern exposure for passive solar heating in winter and overhangs at southern glazing for shade in summer, green roofs and rain barrels to conserve water usage. According to So, when he and his architect (occupying the office space on the second floor of his U Street building) were planning 9th Street, they consulted with the artists about their needs and came up with the common space for the first floor so they can converse, and special features like venthilation for work rooms. So what's the problem? The HPO staff report concluded that the three-story building on 9 1/2 St. could move forward, but the building planned for 9th St. was too large in scale compared to surrounding buildings. According to architect Greg Kearley, when the project went through staff review over a year ago, the plan was for a 5-story building on 9th street with a 6th floor penthouse, and the more diminutive adjustment seemed to be something everyone was "comfortable with." Owner So said his "game plan" is to go before the board to find out what "they would like us to do" so that he and his architect can accommodate their findings into a new plan. Though Kearley did express concern that a smaller building might not be economically feasible, considering much of the space is already slotted for use that will not generate much income. It would stand to reason that the extra floor and those penthouse condos are key to the developer's bottom line. Any fellow can see that.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

Historic Preservation Frowns on Takoma Theatre Plans, Again

It's never a good sign when a government office known for its design-heavy critiques starts the review of your project with "before discussing the specifics of the proposed design...," exactly how the Historic Preservation Office (HPO) staff report began for owner Milton McGinty and Architect Paul Wilson's plans to reinvent the Takoma Theatre in northewest Washington DC. The design for a 43 unit apartment building incorporates the facade of the historic 1923 Takoma Theatre and involves substantial demolition, about which neither the Takoma Theatre Conservancy nor, apparently, the HPO approve.

McGinty submitted a similar request in February 2006 to raze the building, with plans to replace it with an office building. The Takoma Theatre Conservancy formed in opposition to the application, leading to Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) denial of the request. This time around, the HPO waxed philosophical about its role in deciding the future of the property, namely whether it could rightly approve a design that according to various quoted definitions would "demolish" 75% of the historic building, including the auditorium and stage, thus requiring a raze application. The HPO recommends that the HPRB "reaffirm its position that razing the building is inconsistent" with the Historic District Preservation Act.

Still providing no actual review of the planned design, the HPO sets out "next steps" for the owner, such as building in the parking lot adjacent to the theater and funding this endeavor with grants available to such projects. The report also points to other historic theaters, like the Newton, Sheridan and Strand, that either have been or are in the process of being redeveloped without jeopardizing their historic integrity.

Finally, the report reviews the actual design, critiqued for not being "compatible in scale and height given its location on a street of modest one- and two-story" commercial and residential buildings. The staff also indicated that the proposed rooftop addition would subsume the underlying historic building, preventing the theater from being clearly distinguished as a prominent feature.

The HPRB will meet this Thursday to review the plan; while they are not required to agree with the staff report, they likely will do so and make the recommendations official.

* Renderings courtesy of Paul Wilson Architects.
*Picture by Loretta Neumann of the Takoma Theatre Conservancy.

Debonair Development Coming to Woodley Park

Woodley Park may soon become still more debonair now that the owners of the Debonair Cleaners at 2610 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Shahram and Maria Taginya, have taken on Annapolis-based developers Ashbourne Developments LLC to construct a four-story residential building directly behind their storefront. Entitled, surprisingly enough, the Debonair Residences, the project will include "up to" 14 residential units and span the length of the existing one-story commercial outlets on site - Fusion's Alley restaurant and Baskin Robbins, to name a few - from 2608-2612 Connecticut Avenue, NW, directly next to the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro. A rear-entry garage will be built at basement level for residents coping with the scarcity of parking along the retail strip and be accessible from 24th Street. Plans by Studio 27 Architecture include balconies overlooking 24th, with a fourth-story roof terrace, but the historically protected commercial building facing Connecticut will be simultaneously “renovated and restored to a condition respectful of the original architecture” - i.e. the original height and roofline will remain along Connecticut Avenue. According to Ashbourne President Crispin Etherington, a June 15th meeting with the local ANC 3C went “swimmingly,” though the project’s scheduled appearance before the District’s Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) has been pushed back to July for unspecified reasons. Ashbourne is currently projecting a third quarter 2009 start date for the Debonair “with delivery in the spring of 2010,” though a final construction schedule is contingent on HPRB approval. Monarc Construction will serve as general contractor.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

Meads Row Bids Adieu to the Atlas District

Late last month, Washington DC's Historic Preservation Review Board voted down a motion for the protection of Meads Row – a series of nearly century-old structures at 1305-1311 H Street, NE that owners Tae and Sang Ryu plan to demolish to make way for a new Atlas District parking lot, much to the dismay of the ANC 6A. With no recourse now left to the ANC, the owners are free to pursue a raze for the property, although, in the view of some city officials, the Ryu's new pay-to-park will have anything but a positive effect on the increasingly developed H Street corridor.

"The 1300 block…is the heart of the arts and entertainment district of H Street,” said ANC Commissioner 6A03 David Holmes, who had been acting as the commission’s “point person” on the Meads Row matter. “It’s the most successful area of H Street in terms of its redevelopment and rebirth from the tragedies that affected it from the 1968 riots and the loss of interest in the business district….[Now] it has lots of bars, lots of restaurants, theaters and so forth. That block is based on the historic architecture of the area and the loss of any of that fabric is important to the business model of H Street.”

The four buildings in question were designed by early 20^th century DC architect, Charles Meads, who was also responsible for some 105 structures on Capitol Hill. Of those, only 73 remain today, with the remainder having been demolished to make way for the Congressional Office Buildings and Senate Park. Meads Row represents the very last remnant of Meads’ H Street properties, which once numbered seven. During their heyday, the buildings boasted an assortment of “well-to-do” shopkeepers, who lived above their storefronts in the buildings’ second-story residential flats.

The properties' history in the area, however, was of little import to the HPRB, who in their denial of the landmark application, state,"Judged only for the H Street buildings Meads work would have to be considered typical of that of Washington's designers-builders of that era." Unsurprisingly, Holmes disagrees.

“These are some of the earliest buildings along H Street and they were important because the builder was trying to set a tone for H Street…They are very upscale and would be appropriate on Capitol Hill, closer to the Capitol, but he was putting it right at the boundaries of the old city’s L’Enfant plan,” he said.

Today, most of the Meads Row properties in are in functional, though somewhat degraded, condition. 1311 H St. has been condemned by District authorities and currently boasts boarded-up windows and a damaged roof. Despite attempts from the ANC to facilitate historic restoration tax credits for the buildings, which directly neighbor the Atlas Performing Arts Center, the owners have expressed interest in no development scheme for the site other than asphalt.

“It’s as if they wanted to put [the properties] in that condition. It’s a practice we’ve seen on Capitol Hill in the historic district too…People want to put up a new three-story building and sell it, so they allow the old building to be demolished by neglect,” said Holmes. “He’s doing it simply to reduce his [tax] assessment by taking down the historic buildings and eliminating the improvements, so he won’t have to pay taxes on the land value…It’s a tragedy. These are important, attractive buildings.”

"Historic" Cleveland Park Pharmacy Set for Summer Opening

After more than two years of deliberation, Cleveland Park's new "historic" Walgreens at 3524 Connecticut Avenue will be opening this summer. Best known as the former site of the Yenching Palace restaurant, where intermediaries for President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev negotiated the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the site is currently is the midst of a commercial conversion, courtesy of Mid-Atlantic Commercial Properties (MACP) and Rust Orling Architecture.

"Construction started a couple of months ago. We’re hoping that’ll be completed this summer," said Randall Clarke, MACP Vice President. Construction is being overseen by the Dietze Construction Group.

Since purchasing the building in 2006, Walgreens reps have made numerous presentations of (and revisions to) their plans for the landmarked, 8,600 square foot site at the behest of the local ANC 3C and the Historic Preservation Review Board. In doing so, the development team arrived at a retro-esque design that recalls its original 1945 facade and will certainly make it one of the swankiest pharmacies in the District – but at the expense of a brief construction timeline.

“We went through the HPRB process and, as a result of that, we had to be careful in the demo and do some extra things, so it’s taking a little longer than it would have otherwise. But it’s plugging along,” said Clarke.

The Cleveland Park site will be Walgreen’s second location in the District; the first, at 22^nd and M Streets, NW, opened in March. A third location is planned for Connecticut Avenue and Veazey Terrace, NW in Van Ness, and won zoning approval early April. In all, the drugstore chain plans to open 495 new locations in North America this year.

Historic Hill Hospital Going under the Knife

The Old Naval Hospital Foundation (ONHF), working in tandem with the Office of Property Management (OPM), is growing closer to a final design concept for the restoration of one of the District’s oldest medical facilities, the Old Naval Hospital at 921 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE. If all goes according to plan, the 145-year-old, Civil War-era institution, which has gone largely unused since 1999, will re-emerge as the Hill Center - a non-profit educational facility for "lifelong learning, cultural enrichment and community life."

Part and parcel with the Hill Center’s mission statement will be a complete refurbishment of the hospital and its grounds. BELL Architects is planning, since condos are probably out of the question, that the building’s top floor will be devoted to office space for community organizations, while the remainder of rooms will be retrofitted for all-purpose uses, capable of hosting “meetings, workshops, lectures, recitals, after-school tutoring, art exhibits, receptions and the many other functions and events that make a neighborhood a community.”

The ONHF has already secured sponsorship from the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop and Capitol Hill Computer Center for select events. Meanwhile, the carriage house adjoining the main building will converted into “a family-friendly café.” According to architect David Bell, the “project’s goal is to create a community center that doubles a commercial building, in keeping with the scale and shape of the original building.”

But similar plans have appeared - and evaporated - before. OPM first announced their intent to restore the property in 2002 and have vetted several projects, but some area residents expressed concerns that the project is now moving too fast at last month’s meeting of the ANC 6B and cited the need for more community input. Members of the project team, however, were quick to disagree.

“Take a look around. This building is deteriorating,” Bell told the commission. “I’m concerned [that the longer we wait] the more difficult and expensive this will be.”

The ANC subsequently approved the design. However, according to Ann Brockett of the Historic Preservation Review Board, the project has yet to be scheduled for HPRB review – a process that can take anywhere from weeks to (gulp) years. Nonetheless, the ONHF is optimistic that they will soon be making headway on the renovation. “If all goes as planned with leasing, permitting and construction,” reads their project plan, “the Center will be open and operating at the beginning of 2011.”

N Street Hotel Prolongs the Agony

If Development Hell is a real place, surely the planned renovation of the former Gralyn Hotel and Woodbine Apartments at 1743-1755 N Street, NW holds a place in its ninth circle. Since purchasing the stately and historic Dupont Circle properties in 1988, Washington DC real estate tycoon Morton Bender and his N Street Follies Ltd. (NSF) corporation have pursued a variety of redevelopment schemes for the buildings - all of which have been vacant for more than a decade. First, it was going to be an office building and apartment complex - but, since that attempt fell apart in the late-1990s, NSF has been pursuing a hotel for the site. It’s not going well.

This week, NSF was back before the DC Board of Zoning Adjustment (their fifth appearance in two years) to request several variances for the project. Once again, the Board postponed their hearing, this time until October. According to ANC 2B05 Commissioner Victor Wexler, the BZA hearing is just the latest in an eternity of changes and stay requests that Bender and company have wrangled out of the system.

“It’s been going on for many years and I just walked into it,” said Wexler. “I don’t know what this Bender wants, but he’s been turned down by the Federal Court, he came back on appeal and now they want an extension. It’s beyond me…I think Bender would like it to go on forever, so he doesn’t have to pay taxes.”

And The Washington Post agrees. According to that outlet – which in 2006 described Bender as “a litigious developer” and “not a man who likes to negotiate” – the hullabaloo surrounding the N Street site is, in fact, based on Bender’s contention that the District has overvalued the property and charges him a tax rate far in excess of its intrinsic worth. It can't help the District recently raised its tax rate on vacant property from 5% to 10% of the appraised value; according to DC tax assessment records, they're currently valued at $12.5 million. In 2004, he told the Washington City Paper, he wasn't even sure if they had ever been added to the city's vacant property registry.

“What difference does it make?” said Bender. "The bills come in, they get paid.”

Perhaps to prove a point, NSF consequently let the six historic buildings at the site lapse into disrepair over the past decade. Since purchasing the century-old buildings for $8 million in cash in 1988 and finally vacating the final tenants from the 1755 N Street Apartments in 1998 (reportedly by slashing the tires on the last remaining occupant's car), next to no upkeep has been performed on the properties – leading to a 2005 citation for “demolition-by-neglect” from the DC Board of Condemnation for Insanitary Buildings and the site’s inclusion on DC Preservation League’s 2007 list of Washington’s "Most Endangered Places."

"They're not endangered," Bender told the Post following the site's inclusion on the list. "I maintain them." In the same article, he laid blame for the delays afflicting the project at the feet of "unreasonable preservation protections." Nonetheless, the buildings' windows were subsequently boarded up.

But while the properties themselves have seen better days, that hasn’t stopped NSF from continually tweaking their redevelopment plans. Said Bender at a January 2006 BZA hearing:

We were going to [do] an office building [and] apartment house and that didn’t receive too much acceptance. We then have been working on it and have come up with doing a hotel…After going to the ANC and the Office of Planning and hearing all the negative comments, I went back to the architects and said…what can we do?…So we cut the building back from 117 hotel units to 77. We cut the garage to 96 from 127 and minimized whatever issues would be questionable by anybody.

The reduction of the scope of the project, however, hasn’t put its critics to bed. Over the past two years, the Dupont Circle Conservancy, the Historic Preservation Board, the local ANC and host of area businesses and office tenants - including the Tabard Inn, Science Services Inc., United Auto Workers, the Penn Art Ladies, the Middle East Institute and Johns Hopkins University – have all voiced their disapproval of the planned hotel's design scheme. In the meantime, NSF has traded up architects for the project – from JSA Inc. to HAA Architects – and legal counsel. Only after the project’s next BZA appearance this coming October 13th will we know when (and if) N Street will be seeing ever being seeing a new hotel.

For what it's worth, the N Street "folly" is one of the numerous legal battles Bender has immersed himself in over the years. In 2006 alone, he was engaged in two concurrent lawsuits. The first against Independence Federal Savings Bank, where, as the majority shareholder, he waged an unsuccessful take over the District-based financial institution. In the second, he was drawn into a bitter dispute with residents of Northwest's Palisades neighborhood - including former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his wife, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell - when he sought to build thirteen "mansions" on thirteen acres adjoining Chain Bridge Road. For one of the few times in a conflict-studded career, he lost. Said Mitchell of her opponent: "[He's] a developer with the deepest of pockets and no sense of community obligation."

Homes, Not Houses for the Mount Vernon Triangle

Property owner Abbas Fathi has received preliminary staff approval from the District’s Historic Preservation Review Board to construct a “two-unit, three-story, three-bay wide brick veneer rowhouse-form building” at 1213 4th Street , NW. Unlike most District development these days, however, Fathi isn’t looking to cram the new development full of “stainless steel amenities” or flip it for a profit before the year is out.

“It’s not condos or rentals,” said Fathi. “Two families are going to live there and I’m going to give it to them.”

Fathi intends to deliver the units to members of his own large extended family that has roots up and down the East Coast and it’ not the first time he’s sought such a project. He’s also currently in the midst of similar initiative at 100 Bryant Street, NW – a property he picked up for $399,000 at January’s Department of Housing and Community Development “nuisance property” auction. Says Fathi: “My brother lives outside the area, but has been wanting to join us, so we’re going to renovate the house for him and his family.”

Designed by architect Bill Washington, the three-story project at 1213 4th Street - which is currently a vacant lot only few blocks from that large-scale testament to the breadth of Mount Vernon Triangle redevelopment, CityVista - will measure in at 3,3000 square feet, to be divided between its two future families. If Fathi has his way, both will be moving in as soon as possible.

“We’ve gotten both ANC approvals…because there are two [with jurisdiction in the area]…If we go and get full approval next week from the HPRB, the following day we’re going to go and apply for permits with the DCRA,” says Fathi. ““If we’re able to start in, say, March or so, we should be finished in about 8 months.”

The HPRB staff member tasked with evaluating the Fathi project has largely consented, with one interesting caveat. “There is the possibility that remains of a 19th century structure/occupation of the lot are present,” writes Meyer. “Archaeological investigations may be warranted.”

Given that the HPRB, as a whole, almost always follows recommendations made by staff, this should pose little to no problem for Fathi – especially given the diminutive dimensions of his 4th Street lot. Other quandaries raised in the report include window widths, dimensions of a cornice and the height of the “main entry header.” Nonetheless, final approval is expected to be granted at the HPRB’s March 26th hearing.

HPRB Approves Hinckley Hilton...Again

Plans to expand one of Washington's newest landmarks, the Washington ("Hinckley") Hilton Hotel, have been authorized by the District's Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) for the second time in as many months. Apparently, after last month's approval, architects Beyer Blinder Belle tweaked their design - presumably, in order to appease local organizations, such as the Kalorama Citizens Association and Dupont ANC, that questioned the project's impact and design sense. Subsequently, hotel owners Lowe Enterprises Real Estate Group were forced back before the HPRB, which after approving the project, subsequently voted to be rid of the hotel once and for all by delegating approval of any further changes to their staff.

Washington DC real estate development news

Howard Theater Revamp Gets the Go-Ahead

Washington DC’s Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) has unanimously approved Ellis Development’s plans to rehabilitate, restore and expand Shaw’s historic Howard Theater. The developer, in concert with Martinez and Johnson Architecture, aims to reinstate the famed 98-year-old dilapidated building to its former iconic status as one of the District’s premier theater and music venues – with a few extra additions such as modernized backstage facilities, an in-house restaurant and a gift shop. Ellis principle Chip Ellis told DCmud recently that the renovations are expected to get underway next August, though funding has remained an obstacle. Whiting-Turner will serve as the general contractor. Ellis has also been planning the Radio One residential and office project nearby, but which has not gotten out of the ground.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

Whitman-Walker Stalls at the HPRB

As expected, the Historic Preservation Review Board sided with Historic Preservation Office staff and has sent JBG’s proposed redevelopment of 14th Street's Whitman-Walker Clinic headquarters back to the drawing board.



After a 6-2 vote, the panel told the developer and architect Shalom Baranes to “restudy the proposal with regard to the design of the facade and the location of the garage entrance, to incorporate on-site interpretative information on the historic role of the Whitman-Walker clinic, and return to the Board when appropriate.”

The development team had previously taken a lashing from both the local ANC and Board of Zoning Adjustment with regards to perceived design flaws in the residential project.

A Scaled Back Utopia on U Street

Robert Moore of Georgetown Strategic Capital LLC (GSC) and Eric Colbert & Associates have gotten the go-ahead from two of the District’s governing bodies – the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) and the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) – to move forward with their mixed-use Utopia development at the southwest corner of 14th and U Streets NW.
Utopia has been in the approval queue for more than a year, but only now able to move through the approval process after obliging several variance requests. As such, the building will no longer feature a rooftop pool, and will top out at 90 feet, instead of the proposed 100. The building’s design was also tweaked to allow for varying levels of density throughout the parcel, which occupies two adjoining historic sites at 1912-1944 14th Street NW and 1400-1418 U Street NW.

Nonetheless, the project is still an eagerly anticipated addition to the U Street corridor. GSC intends to bring 230 rental apartments and 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail – an amount that will double the amount of shopping and dining on the block – to complete what it has dubbed an “urban living experience.” Accordingly, Utopia is being pitched as the new home base for young professionals who clog the area on Friday and Saturday evenings – not surprising, given its proximity to Donatelli’s similarly-envisioned Ellington building (and election night’s impromptu Obama street party - aka "Change-fest '08"). The project will include an affordable housing component, the extent of which is yet to be determined.

As of now, the project is still on track to hit its intended 2009 start date, with grand opening scheduled for 2011.

Washington Hilton Landmarked

Some say the aerial view of the Washington Hilton in Dupont looks like a distant seagull, some say the hotel looks like a sedentary spaceship. The Historic Preservation Review Board says it looks like a historic landmark. In a 5-2 vote at their July 24th meeting, the board designated the Washington Hilton Hotel at 1919 Connecticut Avenue, NW a historic landmark based on "Criteria D and F", architectural significance and the work of a master.

In his staff report prior to the meeting, Tim Dennee, Architectural Historian for HPRB, recommended that the Board designate the Hilton, built from 1962-1965, a historical landmark and wrote, "Its sinuous massing was a radical departure from traditional local architecture as was its use of column and slab construction throughout, and uniform, pre-cast concrete, windowed wall panels."

In addition to his praise for Architect William B. Tabler, who designed the 1,250-room full-service hotel and whom Dennee described as "no household name, but nonetheless an extraordinarily prolific and acknowledged master of hotel design," Dennee pointed out the hotel's significance as the site of the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan and as a venue for events attended by subsequent presidents.

But not everyone was as convinced that the hotel was worthy of landmark status, which not only puts it on the National Register of Historic Places, but also makes the building subject to preservation law, which "requires review of proposals for new construction and additions, demolition, and exterior alterations." Among the reasons the two dissenting members - and several local residents - opposed the landmark were doubts about the distinctiveness of the building, the significance of the architect, and the owner's motivation in landmarking it.

There has been some speculation that the applicant and owner, C.J.U.F. II Destination Hotel LLC, a partnership of Los Angeles-based Lowe Enterprises and Beverly Hills-based Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds, LLC, created by basketball star Magic Johnson, applied for the landmark to be eligible to apply for a parking and loading waiver in the event of future on-site construction or renovations. The HPRB can't confirm this, as the owner did not discuss it with them, nor did they officially submit future construction plans. The developer bought the hotel in May of last year and is currently working with the HPRB to come up with a residential concept that is applicable to the now landmarked hotel.

Dennee, on the other hand, said it seemed like the owner applied for the land mark to beat other applicants to the punch, "In his testimony before the HPRB, the owners’ rep seemed to suggest that the motivation was largely the fact that they recognized it as an important building and thought that someone else might nominate it as a landmark. The owners apparently wished to manage any risk and the timing by forwarding the nomination themselves," he said.

"We have the zoning and development right to build, but now that we had the hotel landmarked, we have to have any building concepts approved. We want to work with the community and the HPRB to come up with a concept that works with the landmarked building. We felt that if we landmarked the hotel ourself, we were opening doors to the community to have a good rapport. We want to set a precedent that developers should be landmarking their own buildings rather than fighting it," said Sarah Hubbard, Development Manager at Lowe Enterprises.

"We want to be proud of the fact that it's recognized as a historic site. There were things left out of its original design and now we want to bring the historic site into the 21st century, so any addition would not only be a modern addition, but it would fix some urban design problems like open space and pedestrian access," said Hubbard.

According to William B. Tabler Architects' website, the sprawling form, a result of the District's height restriction, "gave every guest-room a view with light, space and air. The curve allowed for an efficient double loaded corridor while breaking the endless vista that usually occurs in such long buildings." The landmarking process is intended to protect the physical fabric and appearance of historic structures. We think Jody Foster will be impressed.