Founders Square DARPA Building Complete, Residential Tower Next

The first stage of Ballston mixed-use mega-project Founders Square, a 13-story 350,000- square-foot office building at 675 North Randolph, is now complete, with the first (and only) tenant, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), now taking possession of the property. Developer The Shooshan Company now has a clear runway to break ground on the next phase of the five-building, 1.2 million-square-foot complex, the 17-story, 257-unit residential building at 4000 Wilson Boulevard.

“We’re in the very final stages of completion of 675 North Randolph, the new DARPA headquarters,” said Kevin Shooshan, Director of Leasing at the Shooshan Company. “It’s basically complete. [DARPA] is in the process of accepting the building, and transferring over floor by floor, a process which will go on the next few months, probably into the second quarter of 2012.”

DARPA, a secretive federal intelligence and research agency that, according to some reports, invented everything from the internet to GPS, was formerly headquartered down the road on Fairfax Drive in Virginia Square, and almost left the state on the recommendation of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 2005. But state representatives and two consecutive governors used a $10 million grant to convince the federal agency to stay in the area, pointing to the 800 jobs (including contractors) provided and $33 million dollars in city and state taxes paid by the agency each year. DARPA is paying $14.7 million a year on their lease.

The new DARPA headquarters, which is certified LEED Gold, is also the first office building in the area to meet the Department of Defense’s Level IV security standards, and will incorporate a secure parking facility and an 82-foot secured perimeter, and is a surrounded by a sizeable lawn that segregates it from the other buildings in Founders Square.

Now, says Shooshan, the focus moves to the residential building at 4000 Wilson Blvd. “Two hundred fifty seven units, seventeen stories, with construction set to begin in the first quarter of next year, and finishing in the first quarter of 2013,” says Shooshan. “The site plan has been approved for over a year now. Permits are lined up and we're going to pull them in a matter of weeks."

The 1.2 million square foot Founders Square project, designed by RTKL Associates, is also slated to include a 183-room Marriott Residence Inn at 650 North Quincy, and a 420,000-square-foot office building at 4040 Wilson Blvd.

Arlington, Virginia real estate development news

Rosslyn Office Project Breaks Ground Today

This morning marks groundbreaking at 1776 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, a self-financed Skanska development of a five-story office building with 108,000 s.f. of rentable space and 26,000 s.f. of retail. Skanska is shooting for completion in a year and a half.

Skanska purchased the site for $10 million in 2010 from George Contis, whose property had housed Medical Service Corporation International. Skanska will build out the RTKL-designed plans, having stepped into the shoes of this and several stalled DC area projects like the PN Hoffman office project at 10th & G and Opus's southeast office project at M and Half Streets.

The ground breaking ceremony begins on site at 11:30 A.M.

Arlington, Virginia Real Estate development news

Buildings at 1776 Wilson Blvd to Crumble Soon

As Skanska continues to build up at 10th and G Streets NW, approaching "concrete topping out," developers expect the current buildings at their project site on the west side of the Potomac to come down very shortly. Rosslyn's Medical Service Corp. International office, Arlington Motor Cars, and Fashion Dreams, purchased from George Contis for ten million dollars in early 2009, are set to be razed in early December. Already approved development plans were included in the deal, and Skanska will follow through on the original RTKL-inspired vision of 142,000 s.f. of office space with a full ground floor of retail at 1776 Wilson Blvd. Although construction won't be coming "out of the ground" until February, with an official groundbreaking happening shortly after, Jessica Murray of Skanska assured DCMud that "you'll see activity happening before then." While Murray was able to promise impending explosions (figuratively not literally) and subsequent dirt-pushing, she could not report any lease agreement for the office or retail space at this time. "You'll know when that happens," she added.

Meanwhile, Skanska reports that construction crews are "currently placing concrete on the seventh floor" at 733 10th Street NW. Masonry work should begin next month and curtain wall glass is anticipated to begin at the end of November. Murray also confirmed that developers expect the 3,946 s.f. purchased from the First Congregational United Church of Christ's (originally the owners of the property) stake in the ground-floor of the building will likely feature a "white tablecloth" dining establishment as well as a cafe. The Church will maintain its presence in the new building with a freshly designed 25,000 s.f. of worship and office space. Substantial completion of the building is expected in September of 2011.

Correction: Skanska representatives wish to impart to DCMud and their readers that in fact NO EXPLOSIONS will actually happen during demolitions in Rosslyn. Furthermore, the restaurant space going there is not white tablecloth, quite the opposite, as the style of eatery will be either "fast casual" or a café. Jessica Murray explained that this is an important distinction given the zoning issues at hand.

Washington, D.C. Real Estate Development News

Skanska Office Project to Fill in Wilson Boulevard

Skanska USA announced on Friday that it would turn a pair of single-family homes-turned business into a 5-story Class A office building in Rosslyn at 1776 Wilson Boulevard. The self-financed project will turn one of the increasingly scarce development cavities on Arlington's main boulevard into 108,000 s.f. of office with a full ground floor of retail, designed to meet LEED Gold standards. Skanska says demolition of the existing buildings will take place within the next few months.

Skanska purchased the site for $10m this summer from George Contis, who had planned and received approval to scrap his own Medical Service Corporation International and build a medical office building on the site, a project Contis intended to start in early 2009. Skanska will take over Contis' plans, including the "virtually column-free" RTKL designed building, adapting it to much sought-after office space (oh wait, we got it confused with 2005 for a minute). Executive Vice President Rob Ward called it "an extraordinary site" in a statement, and promised completion in about a year and half. A 231 space, 3-level parking garage beneath the building will service tenants. It also appears that Skanska will honor Contis' plans to extend N. Quinn St, connecting Clarendon and Wilson Boulevards, breaking up the "super-block" and adding a pedestrian plaza.
Skanska touts that green credentials will be achieved with a vegetated roof, "energy-efficient windows" (those crazy Swedes), power outlets in the garage for electric vehicles, and improved air quality "to enhance worker productivity." Future employees take note. Skanska's speculative office endeavors include an office building under construction at 10th & G in Penn Quarter; its construction arm is finishing up work on an office building at Half and K Streets, in southeast DC.

Arlington Virginia real estate development news

FDA Blooms at White Oak

The General Services Administration (GSA) is gearing up for Phase 4 of the $900 million (and counting) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Headquarters Consolidation at the former site of the White Oak Naval Ordnance Laboratory off New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring, MD.

More than 4,500 FDA employees have already taken up occupancy within seven completed White Oak campus buildings designed by KlingStubbins and RTKL and built by Tompkins Builders (a subsidiary of Turner Construction). Assuming additional government funding comes through for the 2.3 million square foot facility, construction on the final building should wrap up in 2013. Upon completion, about 8,000 employees from 39 leased offices across DC will relocate to White Oak, uniting at long last the likes of Center for Devices and Radiological Health and the Center for Veterinary Medicine, and fostering what FDA Commissioner Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach promised in a 2008 Consolidation Report will be a new spirit of "scientific collaboration."

Phase 4 of the project is slated to begin construction this February. This $130 million portion of the project will add 560,050 s.f. of office, laboratory, and research space to the campus in two buildings and will ultimately toss another 1,159 FDA employees from the Office of Regulatory Affairs and the Office of the Commissioner into the FDA party mix.

Bids for subcontractors are scheduled to be released any day. Until then, FDA Press Officer Chris Kelly tells DCMud that the FDA will be keeping mum "about the construction project, as it is procurement sensitive."

Silver Spring real estate development news

Silver Spring Library Nears Design Completion

The new Silver Spring Library has taken another step toward realization, with the release of initial designs born out of the county's design process. Officials expect to break ground, at least for site preparation, in the summer of 2010. Library construction has not yet been scheduled.

Work on the new library, at the corners of Fenton, Wayne and Bonifant Streets in downtown Silver Spring, has been underway since at least 1999, when Montgomery County approved an initial budget. The northern half of the site, on Wayne Avenue, will hold the library and Arts Center, the southern half will be reserved for future housing.

The 7-story building will be multi-purpose, with the first two floors designated, for now, as an art center with a combination of functions such as classes, offices and an art gallery. Floors 3, 4, and 5 will hold the library, and the 6th floor is set aside for county offices and possibly Health and Human Services office space. The top floor, stepped back, will hold meeting rooms for the library. Design specifications also call for a LEED-certified green roof and garden; plans for the 2nd-story pedestrian bridge from the parking garage to the library were scotched as being against Montgomery's urban planning guidelines.

The most interesting element may be the underside of the building, since the site is traversed by the proposed track of the Purple Line, and has been designated as one of the light rail stations, raising the main body of the library well above street level. "Anyone attending the design meetings would recognize that this is a challenging building, working with the purple coming right through" said Williams Evans, project architect for the Lukmire Partnership, which is responsible for the overall design. Lukmire specializes in such challenges, however. "Our firm is probably one of only a handful of firms that have done as many libraries as we have, 35 or 36, to date" said Evans.

Initial site planning was performed by RTKL, and interior design will be completed by the Sandra Ragan Studio. County standards require LEED Silver certification for the building, but Evans says the team is trying to achieve a Gold rating; though the Silver rating is required as a minimum to earn the county's Certificate of Occupancy. " That gets you up in the morning", Evans says of the requirement.

The final public design meeting will take place November 7, at 1pm, in the library at 8901 Colesville Rd.

Ballston Bus Garage Gets Final OK for Founders Square

The Arlington County Board and WMATA agreed last week on final terms of sale for the former WMATA bus garage site for the final piece of the Founders Square puzzle in Ballston. The site, at 675 North Randolph Street in Arlington, will be sold to Ashton Park Associates, LLC (APA). Though APA was chosen as the developer and executed a sale agreement in June 2007 for the entire property, the developer had since requested a phased purchase due to financing issues. Under the amended sale agreement APA, along with its managing affiliate The Shooshan Company, can purchase the property in two or three phases as long as the sale is complete as of December 23, 2011 for the agreed upon $25 million. The parties will close on the first phase in mid-November with Clark Construction set to dig-in before the new year.

The first phase, sold for an undisclosed amount, will be the home of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) when construction finishes on the 355,530-square-foot, 13-story, secure office building in 2012. To land the agency, Shooshan worked with architect RTKL Associates, Inc. to design a building that will meet LEED Silver requirements and the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Minimum Antiterrorism Standards for Buildings. It will be the first in Arlington to meet DoD’s new standards, featuring force protection, 82’ standoff distance and controlled parking.

According to John Shooshan, while most of the project will be financed through APA's own equity, the state of Virgina is providing a $10m grant to help defray the development and construction costs attributable to the force protection requirements under the DARPA lease. Tally another project to the list of those lubricated with government dollars, whether for leases, stimulus, or subsidies to keep development on track.

The DARPA building will be the first of the planned buildings for Founders Square, which is intended to house 26,000 square feet of retail space (8,000 of which is a standalone building that will be owned by a separate investment group and constructed by Paradigm Development), 730,000 square feet of office space in two towers, and another two housing towers with 378 residential units.

Arlington Virginia real estate development news

Founders Square Readies for Demo in Ballston

It looks like Old Man Economy might have finally started taking his pills again. After gaining approval from the Arlington County Board in July of last year, the Shooshan Company's ambitious plans for Founders Square, a five-building, mega mixed-use development in Ballston, seemed about as promising as a GM-backed pension plan. But despite slippery start dates in all types of construction, Shooshan's Vice President of Development, Kelly Shooshan, tells DCmud the project is still on track for its originally scheduled 2009 groundbreaking and that the company will be seeking a general contractor before the summer is out. "We're looking to probably be bidding the project in the middle of the summer and will probably start construction sometime in the fall or early winter," said Shooshan. Located on 4.6-acre parcel bounded by North Randolph Street, Wilson Boulevard and North Quincy Street in Ballston, the RTKL Associates-designed development will replace the industrial and non-tax paying bus lot known simply as the WMATA site, a gas station, a recycling center and a tre chi-chi Super Pollo chicken joint. Founders Square is intended to house 26,000 square feet of retail space (8,000 of which the Shooshan Company has since farmed out to Paradigm Development), 730,000 square feet of office space in two towers, and another two worth of housing for a total of 378 residential units. “The buses have been gone since March 27th,” said Shooshan. “When we start the project, it’ll start with demo…the site is just a one-story building, so it’s a very small portion of the construction timeline.” “Super Pollo will be relocating to the new retail building and there are several other tenants that have expressed interest in the other two spaces in the retail building. It’s very small retail, only 8,000 square feet. The first office building is a secured office building, so it won’t have any retail in it." The secure building will, though, have enhanced security features suitable for defense-related businesses. The development’s residential units are tentatively scheduled to hit the market as rentals and all five Founders' buildings will aim for a LEED certification. In the meantime, the developer has yet to definitively budget the project, as it is, in the words of Shooshan, “evolving over time with the present market conditions.” "There’s such a large spread right now with construction prices decreasing every minute, it’s really hard to give a formula on the whole entire project,” she said. In 2008, Shooshan completed Liberty Center in Ballston, a 21-story, 469-unit residential building. Despite continued development, the rough and tumble Arlington 'hood has somehow managed to keep its street cred intact.

Arlington Virginia commercial property news

Southeast DC Hospital Set for Mixed-Use Expansion

Though currently in the midst of a $79 million renovation, the District’s sole hospital east of the Anacostia River - the United Medical Center at 1310 Southern Avenue, SE - will soon be expanding beyond the confines of its medically-oriented mandate. UMC Development, LLC, in partnership with CMC Realty, LLC, are reviewing five teams of urban planners to add between one and two million square feet of new, mixed-use development to the hospital’s 17-acre campus.

Following a Request for Qualifications issued late last year, UMC has narrowed their list of contenders to five: Hord Coplan Macht, Land Design, Inc., RTKL, Beyer Blinder Belle and Perkins Will –SMWM. Once a final selection is made in the coming the weeks, the chosen architects will work side-by-side with UMC to re-imagine the hospital’s surroundings with new medical offices, mixed-income housing, affordable senior or veteran’s housing, community space and ancillary retail. According to representatives of UMC, they’re in the early planning stages of a development scheme that will be a boon to both greater Ward 8 and the hospital itself.

“We are focusing on the immediate needs of the hospital for the campus. This is the only hospital east of the river and we need to make sure it offers the same healthcare choices that people living on the other side already have available. Additionally, we need to enhance the lives of the surrounding community, which is desperate for retail. Banks, drug stores and restaurants have already approached us about space on the UMC Campus,” said Noah Nordheimer of UMC. “You have a large hospital sitting the middle of the site that’s not going anywhere...We just need to build around it, enhance it and enhance the community.”

Formerly known as Greater Southeast Community Hospital, the facility was acquired by Specialty Hospitals of America in 2007, the parent company of CMC Realty – a move funded in part by $79 million approved by the DC City Council “to help with the purchase, buy equipment and improve infrastructure.” Additions to the hospital itself, including construction of a new MRI Center, continue at this time, but according to UMC, the parties “would like to have a shovel in the ground within 12 months” on the mixed-use component of the redevelopment initiative.

UMC will be holding private meetings with potential architects and their teams over the course of the next months. Presentations will be publicly unveiled at a community forum currently scheduled for May 6^th at the United Medical Center Auditorium.

Arlington's Rosslyn Reinvention Continues on Wilson Blvd.

The Rosslyn reinvention continues on into 2009, as Dr. George Contis plans to scrap the current headquarters of his own health services company, the Medical Service Corporation International (MSCI) at 1716 Wilson Boulevard, in order to make way for a new 134,000 square foot mixed-use development. In a counter-intuitive twist, the project will receive a county subsidy for not building density near the Metro-centered project. The 5-story, RTKL-designed project will include 108,000 square feet of office space, coupled with 27,996 square feet of ground floor retail that is intended to wrap around three sides of the building and possibly include a small grocer as well as a restaurant or two (at least until local banks throw money at them to take the space), though the adjacent 1800 Wilson has vacant retail space remaining, two years after the project's completion, which must give them pause. The development will sit atop a 231-space underground parking garage and include an extension of Quinn Street between Wilson and Clarendon Boulevards, in order to provide a new connection to the adjoining Colonial Village Shopping Center. According to the Rosslyn Business Improvement District, Contis has also contemplated constructing a “small pedestrian plaza” at the site that will serve bikers from the nearby Arlington Boulevard, Key Boulevard and Curtis Parkway Trails. In keeping with the wishes of the Arlington County Planning Commission (ACPC), the project will also include a public arts component by artist Christian Moeller, funded by a donation from the Lincoln Property Company. The developer intends an appeal to greenies with a LEED silver certification. The pediatric cardiologist-cum-developer owns all office-converted residences at the site; the Arlington Motor Cars, the Medical Services building and a small clothing retailer will be demolished in the coming months to make way for the new development. 

Once completed, MSCI will continue to use 1716 Wilson as a base of operations for their continuing health services programs in various developing countries. The Arlington County Housing Commission’s Bricks & Mortar Subcommittee ruled in September 2007 that the development will be eligible for upwards for $400,000 in county affordable housing contributions, despite the lack of a residential component within the project. This is due to a complex system of exemptions within Arlington County zoning and density statutes that reward achieving particularly low-density at a site zoned as “’Medium’ Office-Apartment-Hotel.” The project was approved by the ACPC the following month. Most developers are still opting for size over subsidy, however, and will add to the "gateway into the downtown Courthouse" such projects as DRI’s expansion of the National Science Teachers Association headquarters at 1840 Wilson Boulevard, Elm Street Development’s sort-of-under-construction development at 2000 Wilson and Donohoe’s residential WRIT-Rosslyn Center at 1650 Wilson. Correction: Due to a misinterpretation of Arlington County documents, we erroneously stated that the $400,000 affordable housing contribution mentioned above would be going towards the project. In truth, it is the other way around; according to David Cristeal of the Arlington County Housing Division, “This would be a contribution TO the affordable housing fund…[it] should be clear that funds would be coming from the development to the County/Affordable Housing Fund."

Arlington Virginia retail and commercial real estate news

DCMud Reviews the Capitol Visitor Center

Last week, DCMud became the first media outlet in the world to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the new US Capitol Visitor Center (take that, Matt Lauer). The Visitor Center is scheduled to open to the public on December 2nd, the product of an 8-year, $600m, 580,000-s.f. construction project. Conceived originally as a tourist-friendly entryway that happily banished the surface parking lots and delivered the eastern lawn of the Capitol closer to the status quo ante of Frederick Law Olmsted's design, the Visitor Center now serves as the only public ingress to an increasingly restricted, post-9/11 Capitol.

Described by its detractors as a "monument to waste", and its defenders as better, cheaper and more justified than DC's new ballpark (with an expected 40 year life-span, at that), the project will be open to media scrutiny starting next month.

At 580,00 square feet, the RTKL-designed Visitor Center is nearly three-quarters the size of the newly expanded Capitol. Of that, 210,000 square feet will be accessible to the public; the rest is dedicated to private meeting space for the House and Senate. In all, it represents the 9th addition to our nation’s most recognizable building and the single largest incremental building project since the structure was (arguably) declared complete in 1863, after the Statue of Freedom was added to the Capitol dome.

Stretching from the eastern edge of Capitol steps to 1st Street, the street-level roof of the three-story Visitor Center will serve as the main pedestrian common, replacing the congressional parking lot. The landscape has now been transformed into a plaza that recalls Paris’ Louvre Museum with two raised skylights surrounded by long, shallow reflecting pools, providing both an architectural feature and strikingly bold views of the Capitol dome from within. At the rear, in view of the Supreme Court and Jefferson Building, the misting fountains from the site’s previous incarnation have been retained and will be turned on once again for the first time since the 1976 Bicentennial. The original, ornately designed parking lot lampposts have been preserved, albeit with a fresh coat of paint and in a slightly new configuration.

After a trip down a grand outdoor staircase and across the new visitor’s reception green – which features historic, recently transplanted Capitol trees - visitors will be ushered into the Center itself. Painstakingly designed to be architecturally true to the old Capitol, down to the flawed marble that mimics the original material, and statuary that once sat under the dome, the entry hall is impressively grand for a structure invisible from the street. While it may lack the architectural awe of the original Capitol, the grandeur of the dome, or the detailed beauty of the original frescoed ceilings, it is the Center's ability to move masses of people on a continuous basis that prevailed as the Center's design theme. Unlike the older portion of the Capitol, designed to stupefy the People with a building worthy of its ambitious and newly codified experiment in government, every feature within the Visitor Center is composed and synchronized to give 2500 sightseers per hour the full Capitol experience without venturing above ground, and shortening the epic wait time that tourists sometimes encounter.

As a start, eight magnetometers replace the one that tens of thousands passed through yearly. Once inside, visitors are free to explore at their own pace or queue for a “timed visitor’s pass” to secure a guided tour.

The first view of the Visitor Center is Emancipation Hall, a grand entry meant to showcase the diversity of America’s leadership. Populated by state icon statuary such as Hawaii’s King Kamehameha, North Dakota’s Sacagawea, Montana’s Jeannette Rankin (the first female member of Congress), and Utah’s Philo T. Farnsworth (the bane of most parents as inventor of the cathode ray tube). The Hall is clad in pink Tennessee granite and intended as an alternate space for presidential inaugurations in case of inclement weather. It is from within the Hall that aforementioned skylights offer up inspiring views of the Capitol’s dome - a view sure to be emblazoned upon post cards in the gift store.

Standing front and center in Emancipation Hall is the original scale model of the Statue of Freedom, the byproduct of which now perches on the Capitol dome. The model was moved from a storage space in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, where it had been mothballed, to become the appropriate centerpiece of Emancipation Hall - having been casted by a slave that went on to win his freedom.








The first stop off Emancipation Hall is the Orientation Theater, premiering a 13 minute film entitled “Out of One, Many,” (as in e pluribus unum, as on the seal of the United States, we remind our less civic-minded readers) directed by documentarian Donna Lawrence. The film is a visual timeline of landmark legislation passed in Congress, cast across a 34-foot Imax-like screen, with sound effects that reverberate through the 250-seat theater.

The Visitor Center experience ends in the Wall of Aspirations - a state of the art museum divided into sections, each dedicated to one of the underlying principles of the founding political philosophy - virtues such as Unity, Freedom, Exploration - each with its own section and relevant historic documentation. Documents such as Abraham Lincoln’s original notes for the Emancipation Proclamation will rotate in and out of the museum as the themes themselves change. Other attractions within the museum include a 1:20 scale recreation of the Capitol dome, interactive displays and “virtual theater” recreations of the House and Senate, with live feeds of each chamber.

And what would a trip to DC’s tourist attractions be without pricey museum food? The Visitor Center also sports a 530-seat restaurant that will highlight different types of American cuisine, rotating among state and regional cuisines.

The project initially broke ground in June of 2000. Following the events of September 11th, the original $265 million budget ballooned to $621 million – a sum that went in part toward a variety of cutting edge security features to be employed throughout. Most will be unnoticed by the visitor, while some security upgrades - such as moving the truck delivery bays underground - will offer aesthetic improvement. Delivery trucks will now enter through a subterranean tunnel that curves around the norther perimeter of the Capitol, freeing the outdoor space from the vehicular traffic and pavement that has marred the Capitol grounds for decades. The Visitor Center will be open to the press later this month, and open to the public in December. Metropole

Operation Facelift

In the coming months, three major landmarks - the Pentagon, the National Museum of American History and the US Capitol - will reveal their newly improved works to the public after years of intense and deliberate construction. In each case, the changes are by no means minor and should represent a sizable influx of interest in sites sometimes taken for granted by locals.

The newest monument/memorial in the metro area will be unveiled this coming September 11th, the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks that befell New York and Washington in 2001. The Pentagon Memorial occupies a 1.93 acre plot at the site of the attack and cost approximately $22 million, with another $10 million in projected costs for maintenance. Funding was provided by the Ford Motor Company, Chrysler LLC, AECOM, CSC, Adobe, Cisco Systems Inc. and Intel, as well as through private donations.

Although several smaller memorials have already been erected in and around the Pentagon (including the America’s Heroes Memorial and a chapel – both in the reconstructed portion of the building where it was struck by American Airlines Flight 77), this will be the first large scale project with individually dedicated cenotaphs to each victim. Those will take the form of cantilevered benches inscribed with the remembered individuals’ names and arranged according to their ages when they lost their lives. The space is to be augmented by a perimeter wall, several fountains and approximately 80 Paperbark Maple trees.

The memorial was designed by Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman of New York, following a design competition initiated at the behest of the government. A press release from the Pentagon Memorial Fund describes this newest addition to the Pentagon landscape as “a place for reflection, remembrance and renewal.”

On a less somber note, the National Museum of American History will reopen its doors on November 21st after a two year, $85 million renovation. The architectural facelift is said to represent not only a change in facade and decorum for the institution, but an extensive reorganization of its collection as well. The design team for the project was led by New York’s Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP and constructed by Turner Construction Company.

The centerpieces of the newly minted museum are to be a brand new sky-lit, five story atrium and an architectural approximation of the Star-Spangled Banner made of 960 glossy, polycarbonate tiles (“the dawn’s early light”) that will be the gateway to the gallery that houses the original flag - Francis Scott Key’s initial inspiration for the song that would eventually become the National Anthem. Another prestigious addition to the museum’s catalog will be an original, handwritten draft of the Gettysburg Address (loaned by First Lady Laura Bush from the White House collection).

The Capitol too is undergoing a new addition to its grounds. Currently under construction on the Capitol’s East Grounds, the new Visitors Center represents the largest ever addition to the building’s original plans in its 215 year history. Measuring in at 580,000 square feet, the RTKL Associates-designed structure is currently projected to cost $554 million, after months of running over budget and behind schedule. The new Hill landmark will finally open its doors to the public on December 2nd – exactly 145 years to the day after construction on the Capitol was officially declared over (and 7 and a half years after the Center broke ground).

Intended to be waiting station for tourists as they await entrance to the Capitol itself, the Visitors Center is meant to also serve as an attraction in its own right. The features revealed so far include a museum, a cafeteria for both visitors and Hill personnel, two theaters and meeting and conference rooms for members of Congress and their various committees.

Measures, such as the choice of new center’s location on the Capitol’s eastern face, were undertaken in order to prevent the construction from detracting from landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s original plans for the grounds. Trees, fountains and other landscaping accents will be added in order to minimize any visual alterations to one of the few buildings instantly recognizable to all Americans.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

Founder's Square Approved

The Arlington County Board approved late Saturday The Shooshan Company's plan to turn an Arlington bus garage, Shell gas station, recycling drop-off center, and Super Pollo restaurant into a five-building, mixed-use real estate project that will expand Mosaic Park and bring retail, residential, and office space to the Ballston Metro area. A far more sightly use of the land, the county anticipates that the project will bring increased green space and revenue to the county as the current bus garage paid no property taxes. The 5.35 acres, bounded by North Randolph Street, Wilson Boulevard, and North Quincy Street, will host 26,000 s.f. of ground-floor retail, two residential towers with 362 units, and a single story, relocated Super Pollo. 

The residential buildings will climb to twelve and seventeen stories, one office building will rise fifteen stories, and the final office building - a secure building built to house defense-related facilities as part of the 2005 BRAC - will rise to thirteen stories with an 82-foot setback. Designed by global design firm, RTKL Associates, Inc., the project is planned to achieve LEED certification and position the highest buildings on the north and west sides of the site - farther from the Ashton Heights neighborhood and closer to the Ballston Metro Station. As part of the usual county-developer negotiation process, Arlington will expand the now 1.08 acre park onto the development site, a concession that will give the developer bonus density. According to the board, the ability to retain federal defense contractors and the ability to expand open, public space was well worth the trade. Other community benefits include sidewalk improvements, nineteen units of affordable housing, and pedestrian access through the site. Groundbreaking is anticipated for late 2009. The architects are also responsible for the FDA Headquarters in White Oak Maryland, Downtown Silver Spring and Reston Town Center. The Arlington-based developer is responsible for several buildings in the Ballston area including One and Two Liberty Center.

Arlington Virginia commercial real estate news

Washington Adventist Hospital Presents Silver Spring Move

On Thursday, the Montgomery County Planning Board is considering the Washington Adventist Hospital's request to develop a 49-acre property in the White Oak region of Silver Spring. The hospital purchased the land in 2007 for $11 million after determining it had outgrown its century-old home at 7600 Carroll Avenue in Takoma Park, a 294-bed, 14-acre campus with 13 of those developable.

The hospital describes its current facilities as “crowded,” "difficult to access,” “aging,” and “inefficient.” Geoffrey Morgan, Vice-President of Washington Adventist’s Vision for Expanded Access, WAH's strategic planning group, spins it more professionally, citing “a host of physical challenges related to a constrained campus.” The hospital’s property used to be bounded by woods, which have since been developed into a residential area leery of helicopter noise and confined by neighborhood- sized roads; i.e., slower route to the ER.

The new property is located about six miles north of its current location, on Plum Orchard Drive just off of Cherry Hill Road, less than a mile from the intersection with Route 29. The development plan calls for growth in two phases. The first includes construction of the main eight-story hospital, an ambulatory services center, two parking structures, and a medical office building; and later, construction of a second medical office building. Morgan’s theoretical timeline has the project breaking ground in 2010, with the first phase estimated to take three years.

Vision for Expanded Access has consulted RTKL Associates throughout the site planning and master planning process. According to plans, while the new facility will have approximately the same number of beds as the old, the increase in space means that most of them will be private, rather than shared. The hospital will feature “state-of-the-art equipment and technology, and more space for clinical services, including cardiac care, emergency medicine, oncology services, behavioral health care and other medical services. The new design also incorporates enhanced patient safety and improved visitor and patient flow throughout the facility.”

True to its Adventist founders, the hospital emphasizes its “holistic approach to community health care, which focuses on the well-being of mind, body and spirit of patients, visitors and staff.” In keeping with these beliefs, it is planning to build green and achieve LEED certification.

If the Planning Board recommends approval, the process will move to the Hearing Examiner and Board of Appeals for consideration, followed by the Planning Board. Morgan expects that zoning approval will take the rest of 2008. To move, the hospital must also apply for a certificate of need, administered by the Maryland Health Care Commission.

Good luck, Washington Adventist Hospital. We hope you get approval stat.

MLK Ave Gets Reconstructive Surgery (Minus the Botox)

Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, SE had been eyeballed as an upgrade- needy thorough- fare long ago; but since late 2006 the Great Streets Initiative, a partnership between the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) and a slew of other government agencies, held design charrettes and open forums for Ward 8 residents to design and create an enticing MLK corridor for the future. The conceptual design process, headed by RTKL, was completed in November of 2007. Now, DDOT has chosen a consultant, Volkert and Associates, Inc., who will take RTKL's vision to the table for final design and construction drawings. The beginning of the final design phase was estimated to begin in late February until put on hold by DDOT due to a DC Water And Sewer Authority (WASA) storm sewer separation and water main expansion project in the same area.

The MLK Jr Revitalization Plan has involved a mix of processes, requiring transportation and pedestrian traffic research, urban aesthetics and contextual meshing, streetscape analysis and (probably most challenging) public involvement and approval. The Ward 8 Business Council, Fairlawn Citizens Associates and ANC 8A, among others, were all given the opportunity to offer their two cents throughout each of the three public meetings.

RTKL's concept plan is comprehensive (see picture below), involving the revitalization of a big chunk of MLK Ave. from the 11th Street Bridge to Suitland Parkway, transportation improvements to ease traffic circulation and an overall attempt to enhance the streetscape image with "respect [for] the area's historic nature," according to the concept plan. As if the task weren't large enough, concept designs call for the modification of four branching streets: Howard Road, W street, Good Hope Road and 16th street. Some of the technical details involve the reconstruction of all roads but 16th Street. Changes would include the reduction of one northbound lane on MLK Jr., and the removal of curbside parking along Good Hope Road to alleviate congestion during peak-time commuting. Metrobus' U2 and B2 are also planned to be re-routed to use MLK Jr. from the Anacostia Metro Station to Good Hope Road; the current routes follow W and 16th streets. To increase pedestrian activity, architects have also proposed a new bike route along Shannon Place.

As for beautification, sidewalks will be reconstructed throughout the corridor and will feature decorative brick patterns, public art and curbside foliage in order to to "introduce visual interest," according to RTKL's design. Two types of streetscape furnishings were suggested; traditional benches and the like for MLK Jr. Ave, Good Hope Road and W Street, and contemporary furnishings (ever heard of an avante-garde trash can?) for Howard Road.

The current timeline, provided by Great Streets, indicates that final design drawings could last as long as ten months, which would put the start into Spring of 2009, with completion sometime in 2011.