Disabled Veterans Memorial's Struggle Near its End

A 2.4-acre site next to the U.S. Capitol, home of the future American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial, is about to see extensive prep work in advance of what its backers hope is an imminent start of construction. Located across from the U.S. Botanical Garden at 2nd and C Streets, SW, the site was selected due to its prime location just off the Mall and within view of Congress, but it's caused some headaches.

Conceptualized in 1997, the Memorial's Foundation, a non-profit formalized in 1998, first set out to raise $85 million in private funds through its Capital Campaign. Thirteen years later, and with approximately $10 million coming from over a million disabled veterans through the Disabled American Veterans association, the Foundation is only $250K shy of its goal.

Congress approved the memorial in 2000, and Michael Vergason Landscape Architects' creation "Fire in the Grove" won the Foundation's design competition to solicit architects, in 2001; architects Michael Vergason and Doug Hays then set about to hone the design. After 9/11, however, the section of C Street running through the memorial's site was seen as a dangerous truck-bomb route to the Rayburn building, and the design was reconfigured accordingly, and first presented to the necessary commissions in 2006.

In 2009, the Commission of Fine Arts approved the design, followed by the National Capital Planning Commission in 2010, and construction documents were given the final stamp of approval these past few months. Earlier this year, in April, a general contractor, Tompkins Builders Inc. - who rebuilt the Reflecting Pool and built the WWII Memorial - was selected, followed by a May announcement that sculptor Larry Kirkland had been commissioned to create four bronze pieces.

The Foundation expected to move on construction this summer, but, as project executive Barry Owenby explained in early August, there was a delay in obtaining construction permits from the National Park Service due to continued site-specific difficulties: five utility companies have facilities on and/or through the site that would have to be relocated. Furthermore, the project required additional federal funds in order to manage the necessary street closures and infrastructure improvements that accompanied the utilities relocation.

Yet, finally, the Memorial Foundation reports that "significant offsite work" has begun, including the purchase and fabrication of materials for the Memorial, including fountain pumps and piping, stainless steel, metals, electrical equipment, and granite (a significant chunk of costs): Bethel White for the Wall of Gratitude, Virginia Mist for the plaza paving, and St. John’s Black for the fountain and reflecting pool.

Architect Hays explained that, while the original idea was to use marble, the NPS requested a more durable material be used, and granite was selected.

"It's a unique design," said Hays.
"Sometimes [a design] can become watered down [through the approval process], but that's not the case here. I think it's actually become better."

Three glass walls will be made of "48 laminated, 5-ply panels of Starphire glass, with inscriptions and images embedded in the interior panes." This is the same glass used in the Apache helicopter and B-2 bomber.

A flame will flicker in the center of a star-shaped fountain at the heart of Memorial, and a grove of trees will surround the site, which will also offer a parking lot for the disabled.

Hays, responsible for overseeing the ongoing process of design and document approvals over the past five years, added that, "The design is to say thank you [to disabled vets], to educate the general public, and to serve as a reminder to Congress what the cost of war is." He noted that, although Michael Vergason Landscape Architects is the firm responsible for the memorial's design, Shalom Baranes became the architect of record last year.

The first (fully funded) phase of construction will be the rerouting of communication lines to and from the Capitol, and the second phase will include the realignment of C Street and relocation of utilities, after which construction of the actual memorial can begin. Although Owenby said in August "we are doing everything possible to shorten the Memorial’s construction time," the VFW reported recently that completion is likely to be in November of 2013.

The Memorial Foundation's co-founder, Lois Pope, a philanthropist and former actress/singer on Broadway, was inspired to create a memorial for disabled veterans after singing for Vietnam War vets in the '60s. Actor Gary Sinise, notable for his role as Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump, is the Memorial's official spokesman.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

MLK Jr Memorial Unveiled Today

The recently finished Martin Luther King Jr Memorial, located in West Potomac Park at the intersection of West Basin Drive and Independence Avenue, SW, is officially open to the public, as of 11 am today.

The Memorial is the work of design-build team McKissack & McKissack, Turner Construction, Gilford Corporation, and Tompkins Builders Inc.

This week will play host to a number of events in advance of the official dedication on Sunday, August 28th, at 11 am. The dedication ceremony will be free and open to the public - preceded by music at 8:30 am and followed by a free concert, at 2 pm.

Entrance to the memorial begins at one of its principal symbols - the "mountains of despair," a reference in King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The twin granite slabs frame the entry, a pair of 30-foot stones 12 feet apart, appearing to have been sliced and parted, with inscriptions from the 1963 speech. Emulating the civil rights struggle, despair will lead to a path beyond, and having passed through it emerges the view of a single stone, the "stone of hope," appearing as if cleaved from - but beyond - the struggle.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Martin Luther King Memorial Taking Shape

Its not easy building a monument on the National Mall. And yet despite the intentionally time-consuming, necessarily frictional process, construction of a 4-acre monument to Martin Luther King Jr. is now, finally underway on the Mall's Tidal Basin.

After decades of preparation, and a groundbreaking back in 2006, the achievement may seem at once inevitable (3 ex-Presidents have lent their support, and corporate sponsors read like a Forbes 500 list), yet so long in conception that DC residents could be forgiven for having not noticed. Hidden from Independence Avenue by a nondescript beige wall, what began 3 or 4 decades ago, depending on who you ask, is at last technically under construction, as contractors begin to place 300 concrete pilings - Venice style - into the silty marsh of the Mall. The pilings will ready the site - a river, after all, until the late 19th century - to accept what will effectively be a large landscape project supporting oblong granite memorials to the civil rights leader.

Once completed - possibly by next summer - the park-like memorial will wrap around the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin, opposite and viewable from the Jefferson Memorial.

Visitors will enter from the northwest edge, near Independence Avenue, by way of a new walkway past the World War I Memorial to better connect the King Memorial to the Mall - a necessity for an area that serves as DC's main attractant but fails to provide for those who show up by car. No designated parking will be added.

Visually, visitors will be greeted by one of the monument's principal symbols - the "mountains of despair," a literal embodiment to a reference in King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The twin granite slabs will frame the entry, two 30-foot sentinels 12 feet apart, appearing to have been sliced and parted, bearing inscriptions from the 1963 speech with themes of justice and hope. Again emulating the civil rights struggle, despair will lead to a path beyond, and having passed through it emerges the view of a single stone, the "stone of hope," appearing as if cleaved from - but beyond - the struggle. Harry Johnson, President and CEO of the Martin Luther King Memorial Foundation, takes up the vision of the entrance: "It will look like a mountain that's been split in two. Outside is rough, simulating the roughness of the civil rights movement. You still have not seen Dr. King until you get closer to the Jefferson. It will appear as though the stone of hope will have been cut from the mountain of despair. [King] will be carved on that stone." In fact the granite, quarried in China, is too big to ship in tact, and will be cut into sections and reassembled on site. Lei Yixin, a Chinese sculptor, designed the statue.

Having crossed the memorial to the 28-foot sculpture of King carved into the granite, who stares back at the entrance, arms folded, the visitor will be surrounded by 700 feet of arcing inscription wall that peaks at the entrance at 12 feet in height, decrescendoing down to two feet at the ends, which bow toward the Tidal Basin. Selected quotes will be etched into the surface, which in its first design was intended to flow with water during the summer months, a feature removed when the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) determined it would interfere with visitors' ability to read the quotes.

Set just behind the arcing wall are 24 large, raised semicircular niches, each designed to "commemorate the contribution of the many individuals that gave their lives in different ways to the civil rights movement." Each will allow a private, reflective space dedicated to individuals that died in the civil rights struggle; some will be left blank "in deference to the unfinished nature of the movement."

Hundreds of trees will be "randomly massed" throughout the exhibit, with evergreen Magnolias along the perimeter, Oaks tracing the arc of the stone exhibit, and Cherry trees weaving into the Cherries that now dominate the circumference of the basin. According to Johnson, the Foundation, which has been responsible for the design and construction of the memorial, will add another 200 cherry trees along the tidal basin. Despite the addition to the canopy Johnson says it "will be very visible from the Jefferson Memorial, you will be able to see Dr. King and the memorial." None of the current Cherries will be removed.

The project to build the memorial has been a separate struggle worthy of its own narrative. The official website dates its inception at 1984 (Wikipedia brings it back to 1968), when Alpha Phi Alpha, a fraternity to which King belonged, first proposed a memorial on the National Mall. After much lobbying and rallying, President Clinton signed legislation authorizing the memorial in 1996. The Foundation was formally organized in 1998, and fundraising began in earnest. Unprecedented corporate support (General Motors eventually gave $10m, Tommy Hilfiger gave $5m, and thousands of other corporations have made contributions), gave the tribute momentum, and the development process its acme. In 1998 the National Capitol Planning Commission (NCPC) approved a site at Constitution Gardens.

But in 1999, the CFA, which has authority to approve every element of any memorial, voted against the eastern end of Constitution Gardens as a site, contradicting NCPC's approval, and later that year the two commissions approved the Foundation's request to move the site to the Tidal Basin. In 2000, the Foundation reviewed more than 900 submissions for the design of the memorial, and later that year selected ROMA, a San Francisco-based design firm for its concept of the memorial park. In 2004, Devrouax and Purnell, a DC-based architecture firm, was picked to carry out the task. Devrouax had worked for the city on almost every high-visibility project - projects like Nationals Stadium, Ronald Reagan Airport, the new Convention Center, and the African American Civil War Memorial. According to Marshall Purnell, a principal at Devrouax, he suggested that his firm and ROMA for a joint venture to keep ROMA actively in the process of implementing its design.

While work got underway, the relationship between the Foundation and the Devrouax did not survive the project . "We continued to submit designs, but at some point we fell out of favor with the Foundation" said Purnell. "We were pretty deep into the process by that point, about 65-70% finished with the construction designs and documents." No one involved wants to discuss why the Foundation chose to remove them, and Purnell will not cast aspersions, saying only that "it got sort of ugly. The contract was terminated."

Up until that point the memorial's construction seemed imminent. Congress had just donated $10,000,000 in matching funds, and a groundbreaking had been scheduled for 2006, but other problems beset the project. Fundraising efforts were complicated by King's family, which demanded royalties from money raised using King's name and image in marketing for the memorial. Some supporters protested that a black sculptor had not been chosen, and others decried the choice of Chinese granite, noting that the use of Chinese workers, who are poorly paid and treated, was not respectful of their own civil rights struggle.

With funding lagging, a new design team did not begin until the summer of 2007, when the Foundation selected McKissack and McKissack, Turner Construction, Beltsville-based Gilford Corporation, and Tompkins Builders (now owned by Turner). According to Lisa Anders, Senior Project Manager at McKissack, the engineering firm was chosen because they have "done work on the Mall, and worked on Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, and we are a minority CM and architecture group, so we bring that to the project."

In 2008 the Commission of Fine Arts asked for a reduction in the size of King's statue and the stone of hope, stating that "the statue design is difficult to evaluate because such colossal human sculptures are rarely created in modern times...the recent imagery of such sculptures includes television broadcasts of these statues being pulled down in other countries, a comparison that would be harmful to the success of this memorial." Commissioners commented that only statues meant to be viewed from a distance were now built so big (both Lincoln and Jefferson nearby likenesses are smaller), and created the suggestion "of a colossal statue rather than a depiction of an actual man." The Commission also disagreed with the heavy use of bollards, and the resulting shift in perimeter security to a more natural barrier slowed the project by up to a year.

Despite the complications, work now appears to be in its last phase. With $107m of the projected $120m project already raised, the National Park Service issued construction permits last October, and on December 28th of 2009 initial site prep began on the site, which should wrap up in a little more than a year. Says Purnell of the original design-build team "I would just like to see the Memorial built." It now seems certain he will get his wish.

Washington DC real estate development news

Capitol Hill Tower

Capitol Hill Tower, 1000 New Jersey Ave., SE, Washington DC Capitol Hill Tower was built by Valhal Corporation of New York, completing in May, 2006. The 334-unit building is a "condo-op" (more coop than condo), with some of the best pricing in the city at the time of sale, with 12 studios, 209 1-beds, 120 2-beds and 3 3-bedroom units. Sales began in October 2005, and continued through 2010. Building amenities include a pool, fitness center, and attended front desk; pets allowed. Finishes are simple and plain - the building will never win awards for design either inside or out - but its draws are the proximity to Metro (one block) and to the ballpark. SK&I Architectural Design Group designed the building, which was assembled by Tompkins Builders. This was definitely a pioneering project for the area, surrounded at first by vacant lots and industrial sites, but the opening of the Nationals Stadium has changed that somewhat, and now significant residential and office construction is underway, as well as a nearby bike path along the Anacostia as part of the Capitol Riverfront neighborhood. Post your comments about this coop below:

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

Getting Serious at Howard Town Center

After years of vying for the opportunity and negotiating the development, Castlerock Partners LLC finally has plans to break ground on the 2.2 acre Howard Town Center come Fall 2010. Along with development partners AVCO Interests LLC, Hardie Industries Inc and, of course, Howard University, Castlerock secured the site a year ago. The team is still working through the design phases with architects Devrouax and Purnell. Opting not to pursue a PUD, the team added Tompkins Builders as the general contractor in November, a sign the time for waffling is through.

Tim Kissler, CEO of Castlerock, told DCMud that the design phase moves forward as the team shops around for retail tenants. "First priority is a grocery store. Once that is set, we move on to other spaces and prospects," said Kissler. The grocery store was a prerequisite of the RFP and upwards of 45,000 s.f. has been tossed around as the size. Kissler added "leasing interest is strong, despite the slow economy." The rest of the retail space could total 78,000 s.f. with the University looking to support small local businesses in some of the space.

The developer has yet to commit to firm figures on the actual breakdown of residential units, but most recently has suggested there would be 420 units with the required minimum of 8% set aside as affordable, much to the disappointment of the surrounding community.

DC real estate and development news.

The Floridian Goes South?

Buyers at The Floridian condominium in Shaw received some unwelcome if unfortunately common news last week when they were informed they would be unable to settle on their contracts until a lien and lawsuit involving one of the lenders was resolved. The condo project at 919-929 Florida Avenue, by Kady Development, has been funded by "a number of different" lenders, including Bank of America. Contract holders have had their settlements delayed until the disputes are resolved.

"The situation is that the seller, about three weeks ago, disclosed to all of our potential purchasers and [current] owners that he is having an issue with the lender and hopes to get it resolved within - what he said at the time - a month, but that he couldn’t be certain. So, we've been working with anyone who is under contract and new potential buyers and telling them that information,” said Gerard DiRuggiero of Urban Land Company.

“[We] can’t settle [contracts] at the moment. So, it’s just weekly updates and we’ve cleared that with all the buyers. Again, people are remarkably flexible and we’re giving them the information that we know. The residents seem to be handling it well and they love the building and the location,” said DiRuggiero. The Florida Avenue project sits amid several sites that were intended for development, such as the Atlantic Plumbing site, but that never materialized.

However, as of last week, the 118-units in the development’s dual, Eric Colbert-designed 8-story towers boasted an occupancy rate of 50% according to the sales team, though DC government records show only 29 recorded sales - after having begun sales in October 2005 and beginning settlements in the first half of 2008. Like the Metropole, a nearby project which was taken over by the lender in April and has been all but invisible since, the Floridian’s sales center at 913 Florida Avenue, NW, remains technically open for business…for now, at least, but without a date certain for resolving the issue. The project was built by Tompkins Builders.

Post your comments about this project below

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.