Art House Open House This Thursday

Sponsored Story
Arbor Media and Realtor Megan Shapiro of Remax Allegiance Capitol Hill present the first autumn "Art House Open House" event at 748 Seventh St., SE, Unit C. The public is invited to a happy hour Thursday October 14, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm to browse the work of local artists and to view the property. Wine and amuse-bouches will be served compliments of Marvelous Market Capitol Hill.

The work of the following artists will be represented:
Geoff Ault- photography (CITY Gallery)
Tim Conlon- graffiti artist (Studio H)
Ellen Cornett- pastels (CITY Gallery)
Sherill Gross- cut outs (CITY Gallery)
Liz Lescault- ceramic scuplture (CITY Gallery)
Katherine Mann- mixed media painting (Hamiltonian Gallery)
Steven Pearson- mixed media painting (Studio H)
Pam Rogers- mixed media painting (CITY Gallery)

About the Property
Perched above seventh Street SE only two beautiful blocks from Eastern Market Metro, 748 Seventh Street SE Unit C epitomizes Capitol Hill luxury. The open floor plan of the living space easily accommodates all of your guests both for dinner and for cocktails around a built-in gas fireplace. The beautiful Italian glass tile backsplash of the home's kitchen is a work of art in its own right. Your inner-chef will marvel at the stainless steel appliances and ample granite counter-space. As an added bonus, the kitchen spills onto a family room and a private outdoor terrace. Upstairs, the master bedroom suite boasts year-round views of the Capitol, a massive walk-in closet and a bright, spa-like bathroom. Down the hallway, two bedrooms and an adjoining bathroom finish off this 2000 square foot new construction masterpiece. In addition, you'll never have to circle the block for parking as the unit comes with its own secured space behind the building.

About Art House Open House
As native Washingtonians, we can assure you that the most talked about topic in Washington has never been politics- it has always been real estate! Art House Open House, professionally curated by gallery director and owner Phil Hutinet, gives both real estate hounds and art lovers the opportunity to preview DC's hottest real estate while viewing the work of renowned local artists. See what art work looks like when it is taken out of the gallery and installed in the home.

Into the Light

By Beth Herman

In 1882, when the Edison Illuminating Company shined its 110-volt incandescent light on a brave new world from the Pearl Street Station, the lives of an estimated 59 trend-setting customers in lower Manhattan would never be the same.

When lighting specialist John Seward entered the world of lighting design and sales 101 years later, and with Edison’s parturient idea of the light bulb morphing into such behemoth concepts as fluorescent, metal halide and halogen lamps (or bulbs), compact fluorescent lights (CFL’s), decorative neon and that swinging ‘70s and’ 80s confection: track lighting, consumers were faced with choices rivaled only by the late 20^th century’s emerging electronics technology.

Confronted even more today with ecological, economical, aesthetic and progressive choices that may have rendered even the reportedly indefatigable Mr. Edison catatonic, merchants, designers, engineers and consumers face an evolving market that, by the 4^th of July, has already relegated the previous January’s breakthrough product to the cornfield.

The Incredible Shrinking Filament

“The tendency is actually about less lighting now, if anything, in the interest of energy costs,” said Seward, who is now president of D.C.-based Illuminations, Inc., which provides product showrooms and expert solutions for lighting. “Rather than just putting in a dozen recessed figures at 150-watts a pop, people are much more concerned with the number of fixtures that are going in there,” he explained, noting consumer reaction to trends that point to a smaller carbon footprint.

Observing that the commercial lighting industry has changed entirely with a stringent 1-watt per s.f. government mandate, Seward said the requirement has filtered into the residential market as well. Savvy homeowners are increasingly aware that incandescent lamps (or bulbs), such as the 100-, 75-, 60-watt versions, are scheduled to disappear from the market, with the 100-watt lamp gone within the next 24 months, Seward believes. “People are beginning to wonder, when they purchase a fixture, is it going to be adaptable to the changes in lamps that we’re now seeing,” he said.

LED There Be Light

According to D.C. interior designer Susan Stine, president of RedTeam Strategies, everyone wants to switch to LED (light emitting diodes) lighting. “All of my clients - commercial and multifamily residential - they’re all beginning to look at this technology,” she said, citing LED’s energy and cost savings, as well as its property limitations, in its current form. “It costs $360 a year to operate one (conventional) light bulb; it costs $36 a year to operate one LED bulb,” she explained. The problems, however, are that because the technology is still in a relatively nascent stage, LED lights are not powerful enough, as they are more about accent or spotlighting, and their “color temperature,” or range of color, is lifeless or very white - at the higher end of the color spectrum. “We are used to incandescent (and halogen) light, which is at the lower end,” Stine said, adding that residential, hospitality and retail expectations are in line with those products’ warmer, more natural light. 

In fact Seward said that when sustainability-minded residential customers ask to do an entire home using LED technology, he dissuades them and opts instead for LED in tandem with more mature forms of light. “It’s coming, but the technology just isn’t there yet,” he said of the former.

Acknowledging that his showrooms have always displayed a lot of fluorescent fixtures, Seward, whose business caters largely to the commercial trade, said the merits of using CFL technology include longer lamp life over incandescent, as well as a color temperature that doesn’t emit heat, unlike the former, thereby straining the HVAC system. 

When residential customers are approached about using fluorescent lighting, however, Seward said many recoil at the thought, recalling early incarnations of the technology which rendered it cold, flat and blue or white, much like LED lighting is now. Fluorescent lighting works much better with skin tone now, according to Seward, and color temperature can be variegated, making it more acceptable for kitchen and bathroom use, with the only caveat being CFL’s inability to work with dimmers. “Most people want the fluctuation in a dining room to create different atmospheres in that room,” he explained.

Time for Recess

Where recessed lighting is concerned, people are beginning to embrace the idea of CFL’s in their recessed fixtures, according to Seward, because again incandescent light is synonymous with added heat. Fluorescents’ longer lamp life - about 10,000 hours as opposed to 500-700 hours for an incandescent A-19 bulb - is important, though it is nowhere near as long as LED lighting where a fixture reportedly left on, unattended, could potentially last nine years. “We’re just reaching the end of tests on LED to figure out how long they do last,” Seward said, in that they are part of an industry that has not yet been regulated. 

Somewhere in the middle, halogen lights, popular in retail spaces and in lighting residential art due to their color rendition, have a lamp life of about 3,000 hours.

On the environmental downside, fluorescents contain mercury, Stine explained, which creates a disposal problem. To that end, she often uses metal halide, around since the early 1960s, in her commercial designs. Though it has slow start-up properties, “it’s a very bright, powerful, clear light, and low-wattage."

Tasks-R-Us

With task lighting the new black, or rather green, and consequently in a huge bow to sustainable office practices, Seward said that instead of just covering the ceiling with light, businesses are using more and concentrated light such as a 3-watt LED task light. “You can see how that would take precedence over a 24- or 36-watt fluorescent in the ceiling,” he affirmed. Citing a trend popular in Europe for about eight years, high-powered fluorescent floor lamps with motion sensors act like torchieres, Seward explained, and are portable so if you change your space, you just pick up the lighting and take it with you.

At the University of Maryland in Baltimore, Illuminations, Inc. is involved in a 70-office project where floor lamps with bases in the shape of a platter, with powerful fluorescent lamps in the base, use the ceiling off of which to bounce light. A diffuser also impacts the light, so that task lighting is as available as the aforementioned ceiling light.

“Everybody seems to be concerned about doing the right thing,” Seward said, comparing the explosive growth of the lighting industry only to that of computers. “The industry is changing dramatically, and as business owners and lighting design specialists, we are constantly researching what’s next.”

All hail the Pearl Street Station.

Rosslyn's New Metro

Construction on Rosslyn's Metro upgrade will begin this month, adding a new entrance to handle Rosslyn's growing pull on the region, already crowded Metro station, and increasingly taller and denser neighborhood. The Metro station is already Virginia's busiest, with numbers likely to rise in proportion to Rosslyn's ongoing office and residential projects.

An official start date is not yet known, but Arlington officials expect work to commence by late October for a project that will replace the single slow-motion elevator with 3 high-speed elevators, a stairwell, and new entrance mezzanine at platform level. Arlington officials say they see the project as a boon to Rosslyn's development, increasing the capacity on the currently strained infrastructure with a redundancy that will not only handle rising traffic flows (now 36,000 daily), but eliminate the need for transfer buses and rerouting when the single elevator is shut down.
Designed entirely by WMATA and built by Clark Construction, the elevator bank will sit on North Moore Street just to the north of the existing elevator - on land owned by WMATA and by JBG, which intends to build its stalled Central Place project. JBG has granted an easement to Arlington for construction of the shafts. Arlington has authorized $35m in funding for the Metro addition, which it will build and manage until completion, at which point it will turn over the property to WMATA. The completed elevators will empty near the bottom of the existing escalators, creating a small new walkway - same ruddy octagonal tiles - to enter into the platform.

Construction is expected to be complete by early 2013, and will contribute to an intensive downtown construction schedule, coinciding with the start of construction at Monday Property's 1812 N. Moore St, work on which is expected to start immediately.
Arlington Virginia real estate development news

The Architect Also Rises

By Beth Herman

For intrepid Bethesda, Md.-based architect Mark McInturff of McInturff Architects, the brass ring opportunity to create what the press, and later the awards gods, would consider a monument to an equally intrepid theatre company wasn't found in a box of Cracker Jacks. Nor was it left under his pillow, or handed to him on a platter of warm Toll House cookies. For McInturff, who specializes in residential architecture, the opportunity to design a three-story, 35,000 s.f., 265-seat theatre replete with offices, production shops, a rehearsal hall, classroom space and two cafes in the Washington D.C.’s vibrant Penn Quarter wasn't a cakewalk, but it did come as a life-altering experience. "We were up against some big firms,” McInturff recalled about his somewhat unanticipated quest to build a new home for Washington’s audacious Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, “and some theatre firms – people who’ve done a lot of that kind of work – people with a big name for it: New York firms – and us.” By chance, according to McInturff, in the early stages of development, a member of Woolly Mammoth’s search committee had heard about the architect’s award-winning home designs and had said, “Maybe he can do a theatre,” McInturff quipped, still a bit incredulous that he eventually won the job. When push came to shove and the committee was in the home stretch of a painstaking selection process, McInturff said, “I told them, ‘The bad news is I haven’t done this before, and the good news is I haven’t done this before. So it’s going to be tailored to you and not to the last client I did a theatre for.’” Too Many Cooks Located at 641 D Street NW, and part of a large, mixed-use development for the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation, wherein an arts component is government mandated, the theatre is a space within a building, or actually in the basement of the building, called the Jefferson at Penn Quarter - now the Lafayette condos. According to McInturff, at one point he and his team were, in fact, battling the developer in terms of the amount of parking space the latter needed for 421 condominiums and an array of shops, vs. using it for theatre space. “It really was about taking a piece of a building which was of almost no other use and making it work as a pretty significant cultural institution,” the architect stated. Sited 100 feet into the block and under a courtyard, and though largely subterranean in nature, McInturff said there were three floors in all that needed to factor into the design, noting “…it was very hard to decipher their relationships. They didn’t stack up – the way they went together.” He also recalled attending a play at the theatre’s former home in an industrial building off 14th

Street, where the space felt very constricted and the lobby separated the dressing rooms from the theatre itself. “It was not a conventional relationship (of rooms),” he reflected, explaining that patrons could be purchasing tickets and the actors, occasionally even nude depending on Woolly Mammoth’s de rigeur programming, would have to cross through to the stage. “The whole thing of seeing an actor in a public way - and then going back and watching them in the show – I thought that was really kind of interesting to take what is normally backstage and bring it forward,” McInturff said, compiling his list of possible components for the new space.

Raw Ingredients 

Inspired by Woolly Mammoth artistic director Howard Shalwitz and his peers, whom McInturff calls “brilliant, dedicated, tenacious and respectful of everyone’s creative process,” and at his own expense at the outset of the project, the architect elected to take a small contingent from his firm, including architects Julia Heine and Stephen Lawlor, on a kind of fact-finding expedition to London’s theatre district. Emblematic of the Woolly Mammoth’s proclivity for risk-taking, McInturff said he was not afraid to take his own risks and reveal how little he knew about the soul of a theatre, and how much he wanted to learn. Prevailing upon Shalwitz and a group from Woolly Mammoth to accompany his firm, McInturff asked the D.C. theatre contingent to show them “things that they really loved.” Accordingly, each afternoon was spent touring green rooms and back-of-the-house elements of a specific theatre, with a return to that theatre at night to observe the production itself from several different vantage points. “At intermission we’d switch seats,” McInturff explained, “so you could be in the mezzanine – you could be anywhere – and by the time you left at the end of the night, you understood the space entirely.” He also said that among the key ingredients produced by this kind of investigation was the intimacy ratio: audience to actors, which would inform his D.C. design. “The next day we did it again, and the next day we did it again,” he said of the firm’s multi-theatre experience. “It was very exciting. I was simply a sponge.”

Layers and Layers

Assimilating the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation structure’s raw, coarse basement-type elements (exposed concrete; block walls; unrefined joints, to name just a few), along with the building’s aforementioned directionless tiers and the findings of the London junket, into McInturff Architects’ ultimate design, the results were what Shalwitz eventually termed the “transparent theatrical laboratory.” Loosely based on open-concept restaurant design where everything is visible, the theatre’s offices, classrooms, rehearsal spaces and more are exposed to the public, some behind glass panels, communicating that while its thespians are widely celebrated, the Woolly Mammoth machine is far greater than actors on a stage. “All most people see when they go to a theatre is a small lobby, they see the show, and then they go home,” McInturff explained. “When you come to the Woolly, you understand that this is the result of tremendous amounts of effort by a lot of people working in the background, whether it’s the people in the office, or the box office, or in set design, or in rehearsal, or in classrooms – all leading up to what you are going to do, which is to see the event itself.” And the feeling of “the theatre within the theatre,” McInturff said, in respect to the courtyard model seen in London and reproduced in D.C., where the audience surrounds the stage on three sides, is manifested in a warm, wooden space within a concrete shell – like furniture dropped into a black box, he explained. The design is such that the audience connects and experiences real participation. “This really was one of the great projects of my life,” McInturff reflected, speaking to Woolly Mammoth’s commitment and creativity and his own personal journey, and comparing the theatre’s design and execution to building another signature residence. “It felt like doing a big house – a family house,” he observed. “It was the same kind of emotional involvement I have with my residential clients. I would just call it a different kind of house.”

Washington DC architecture and design news

Strand Theater Redevelopment Moves Forward with Zoning Approval

Yesterday developers and architects presented their plans for the redevelopment of the historic Strand Theater and won unanimous approval from the BZA. The Board also granted several zoning variances, permitting developers to expand a historic landmark and a contributing historic structure, as well as an increase in the FAR and a reduction in the required parking. The Strand Theater and the adjacent contemporaneous building located from 5127-5131 Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, NE in Deanwood are being packaged together in a redevelopment plan that sees both structures stabilized, renovated, and facades restored to their original grandeur. The ground floor of the renovated buildings will feature new retail options, while the second floor will house small incubator office space for "small and local disadvantaged businesses out of the Ward 7 corridor." In 2008, the District originally awarded the property's development to Washington Metropolitan Community Development Corporation (WCDC) and Banneker Ventures, but WCDC cut their ties with Banneker shortly after their initial proposal, and have since partnered with the Warrenton Group. Serving as fee developer, Warrenton's Principle Warren Williams attended the hearing in support of the project, providing the Board with a brief summary of the proposed redevelopment.

Architectural duties have been assumed by local firm R. McGhee & Associates, and their design plans, in cooperation with guidelines set by the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB), will assist in restoring the historically significant architectural features of the Strand (such as the lengthy front awning and detailed cornice work) and its accompanying sister-building. An in-fill brick addition serving as the "building core" is also in the works, intended as a contemporary interpretation of what the Strand might look like if built with modern materials. The interiors will be extensively gutted and renovated to accommodate the ground floor retail space (likely featuring a restaurant or two) and “affordable” office space set to occupy the building upon completion. Principal Ronnie McGhee, who was recently appointed to the DC Board of Architecture and Interior Designers by Mayor Adrian Fenty, presented the architectural specifics to the BZA, and assured the Board that their plans had official approval from the HPRB and ANC7C. McGhee also promised that the iconic, the lighted Strand Theater sign, would be restored to the roof of the renovated building, bringing a welcome glow back to the area's skyline at night.

In 2008 Mayor Fenty bragged that: "There will be more energy back on this corner for the neighbors who live in the Ward 7 community, east of the river in general and for the entire city." Unfortunately, that energy has remained bottled up in storage these past two years, as the property continues to sit vacant and derelict. The Holy Christian Missionary Baptist church across the street, calling the structures as the currently stand an "eye sore," is also excited about the re-ignited redevelopment plans. Reverend Steve Young testified before the Board in support of the project and offered up use of the church's parking lot to alleviate parking concerns, saying: "whatever is needed to accommodate the project we're willing to comply." Developers also cited several convenient bus-lines that may service future retail patrons as justification for a reduction in required parking. By way of community benefits, developers additionally promised that a dug-out basement level will provide space to be used as a community meeting center, and that newly planted trees will improve the streetscape in compliance with the Great Streets Initiative. It was also noted that the area is currently "starved of retail options." The Board agreed that this was a impressive and commendable project that offers a big first step in revitalization of the surrounding area, as well as thoughtful preservation of a historic landmark. While there is still no timeline for expected groundbreaking and subsequent construction, this Zoning approval activity is a positive sign that developers are moving forward with their plans. In the next step forward, developers and architects will seek the blessing of the National Park Service.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

County to Develop Arlington Mill Residences as Low Income Housing

As promised at the Arlington Mill Steering Committee meeting in September, during which details for the five-story, Davis Carter Scott-designed Community Center were presented to the public, Arlington County has selected Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) as the official developer of the residential portion of the Arlington Mill project. Groundbreaking on the Community Center is expected in early spring of next year, while construction on the 122-unit Arlington Mill Residences is expected to begin in June of 2012.

The low-rise apartment building, designed by local firm Kishimoto Gordon Dalaya Architecture (KGD) will offer six efficiency units, 18 one-bedroom units, 73 two-bedroom units, and 25 three-bedroom units. The entire building will be marketed as affordable housing, the majority of the apartments offered at 60% AMI, with a smaller portion (roughly a tenth) priced at 40% AMI. Developers boast that the design both complies with Columbia Pike Form Based Code and "will be constructed utilizing green building design and will be Earthcraft certified." Earthcraft offers a sustainability designation less rigorous than LEED certification. An open field for public use will provide ample green space for residents, and hoping to further encourage green transportation and exercise, developers designed the site with a direct link to the neighboring Four Mile Run park and bicycle trails.

Developers have projected the total cost at $30 million. To lighten the financial burden, APAH will seek financing from the Virginia Housing Development Authority (VHDA) through permanent mortgage financing and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Paradigm Companies will serve as general contractor and property manager, Studio39 is slated to shoulder landscaping design duties, and VIKA will assist the team as civil engineers. Paradigm and APAH worked together with Arlington officials to complete the Parc Rosslyn affordable housing project in 2008.
Arlington, VA Real Estate Development News

Arlington Boulevard Development Ready to Break Ground with New Owners

In January of 2008, the Arlington County Board approved plans to redevelop two "decaying old" strip malls at 2201 N. Pershing Drive into a mixed-use development consisting of 188 residential units over 35,000 s.f. of ground floor retail space. The project plans were originally developed by Abbey Road Property Group and anticipated to break ground in late 2009. But like so many development plans approved in 2008 just before the market rolled southward, the property has idled for the last two years. That may change. Equity Residential acquired the property and the accompanying development plans earlier this spring, and now the project looks set to move forward. In September, developers held a preliminary meeting with the Lyon Park Citizens Association, during which the attending public was informed of impending construction. Currently in the process of securing final building permits, and looking to award a general contracting bid next week, the development team expects to break ground on the project by December of this year.

Designed by SK&I, the traditional composite of brick, stone masonry, glass, and Hardie paneling (brick-like "cementitious" fiberboard product) will be set back several feet atop the glassy ground floor retail facade. The project consists of two buildings, each utilizing the same materials and rising four and five stories, designed to be LEED certified. Of the 188 units, 18 will be designated as affordable dwelling units. Structured parking behind each building will service retail shoppers, while a one level below-grade garage will provide parking for residents. Each building will hug its own small, central, landscaped courtyard, outfitted with benches, trees, shrubbery, and a small water fountain.

The Washington Smart Growth Alliance lists "reusing older shopping centers as a key smart growth strategy," making this development an apparent choice for its "Recognized Smart Growth Project" designation despite not being adjacent to a metro station (Clarendon Metro is about 7 blocks or three quarters of a mile). But adjacency to major bus routes makes the project a better example of urban in-fill. The influx of new restaurants and shops set to occupy the future retail spaces will make for an more walkable living experience for residents given the lack of immediate options. To further encourage public transit and green transportation alternatives, and garner more green points, over 85 bicycle spaces are being included in the design.

Pedestrians in Arlington may find it difficult to recognize any semblance of a recession on the street, but residential developments that were once popping up like spring tulips have been largely absent since the financial collapse. But clearly, Equity senses a barometric change. By investing in what is currently a relatively isolated block across from Ft. Myer, Equity Residential seems to be banking on a widening of the dense but narrow Ballston to Rosslyn corridor. While many projects remain on ice, signs of a thaw are significant. With such major local projects now on the docket such as 1812 N. Moore's speculative build out, Rosslyn Commons, and Skanska's Rosslyn office project, indicators of increased construction are apparent. Or perhaps Equity is enjoying the greater DC market, having signed leases with 182 new tenants within its first 90 days at its recently acquired 425 Mass Ave apartment, and is hoping for the same kind of success across the river.

Arlington, VA Real Estate Development News

President Carter Digs Ivy City

President Jimmy Carter is in town today, but far from his old residence, as he starts his latest project in the District's Ivy City neighborhood. With few developers choosing Ivy City for their next big apartment project, the District of Columbia took matters into its own hands in 2008 and awarded 4 non-profit developers the right to redevelop, with District help, a smattering of vacant properties in northeast DC. Mi Casa, Inc., Manna, Inc., MissionFirst, are all taking part, but none as visibly as DC Habitat for Humanity with its former president in the roster.

While Mi Casa began their project earlier this year, Habitat is renovating 8 duplexes along Providence Street, beginning today, with the hopes of building several dozen more over the next few years to serve families at less than 30% of the AMI. Habitat has sold 7 of the 12 homes - 6 new and 6 renovated - and future owners will begin working alongside the professional contractors to complete the requirement of "300 sweat equity hours" for each owner. Less ambitious homebuyers can enlist "friends and family" for 150 of those hours, so those with friends moving to Ivy City might want to avoid phone calls from those friends in the near future.

The District is subsidizing the various projects through DHCD’s Ivy City Special Demonstration Project, the District is subsidizing the acquisition price for each property, in a bid to help stabilize a neighborhood isolated from development money and new construction.

The octogenarian president is in town only for the day, moving on to Annapolis tomorrow to throw his own sweat equity into his next project.

Washington, DC Real Estate and Development News

Take This Design and Call Me in the Morning

By Beth Herman

It is reported that what compelled preeminent psychiatrist Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross to write the revolutionary On Death and Dying in 1969 were her observations of the deplorable treatment of end-of-life patients in hospitals. Prior to her own death in 2004, Dr. Kubler-Ross devoted more than 40 years to transforming people and ideas about illness and dying, cultivating hospice care centers and even founding her own holistic healing center for the terminally ill and their families in California.

For interiors principal Barbara Huelat and architectural principal Joseph Parimucha of Huelat Parimucha Healing Design in Alexandria, Va., the road to improving patient care may have emanated from a different place, but the results, even here in Washington, D.C., are still the same: to meet and exceed the physical, mental and emotional needs of patients suffering from illness and trauma, and their families, in a deeply humane environment.

"Both Joe and I were with large firms that focused on health care design prior to 1991, when we started our own firm,” Huelat said, “but the emphasis tended to be on the project deliverables, the marketing, certainly the bottom line, and we felt the patient component was really missing. We were told that we were being ‘too California’ for the client.”

First, Do No Harm

With hundreds of medical and government projects in their passbook, including emergency rooms, acute care, oncology, pediatrics and even four Veteran’s Administration hospitals on deck, Huelat Parimucha’s concepts for patient-centered design are impacting the patient experience in environments where, for so many years, the emphasis was strictly on physician pedigree, medicine, hospital policy and the administration of such. Basing their design on Planetree principles, named for Hippocrates’ famous Sycamore tree under which he taught healing and medicine, Planetree is a nonprofit partnership of healthcare facilities whose mission is described as one that provides information and education on how to achieve patient-centered care. In fact, Huelat Parimucha has become a Planetree-certified design firm, which Huelat explains differs from LEED certification, which is transaction-based rather than firm- or hospital-based (hospitals must endure a rigorous, multi-year education and results recording process to become Planetree- certified).

No Stone Unturned

For Huelat, who concedes she was disillusioned immediately following design school, discovering at that time “that design was pretty much for the wealthy and it just felt empty,” veering from a traditional course as she quickly did was probably a self-fulfilling prophecy. “I started seeing the implications of what I did,” she said, recalling a major renovation in the 1970s, among her very first projects when health care design was invariably limited to cafeterias, lobbies and public spaces, of an actual hospital endoscopy unit. “I was interviewing department users,” she said, “and I started asking about the functions, what the endoscopy process was, and what the patients saw and felt – the smells and the whole wretchedness of that experience. I just couldn’t go in with regular finishes and materials; I wanted to focus on how you help the patient relax during this very uncomfortable process.”

About 10 years later, on staff at Ellerbe Becket, a joint venture with a Japanese architectural firm to renovate the National Cancer Institute in Tokyo cast Huelat in yet another role. Because Japanese firms didn’t have interior designers in their culture (architects did everything), Huelat was renamed “patient representative,” and set about profiling seven comprehensive U.S.-based cancer centers for Ellerbe Becket’s work in Asia.

“I looked at everything from the patient’s perspective,” she said. “If we were talking about a person who was an inpatient, dying of cancer, and they still had visiting hours from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., and the mother who’s dying also can’t have her 10-year-old daughter there, it just seemed inhumane. I brought up all of these things that had never been talked about before, and we even had other researchers to help us collect data, but I realized things like this were not in the research.” After this project, Huelat reflected, she could never look at a hospital environment the same way.

The Poetry of the Earth is Never Dead

- John Keats

With the use of hospital emergency rooms on the rise for uninsured patients, and due to private physicians’ enormous caseloads booking weeks or months in advance, the ER One project at Washington Hospital Center – D.C.’s largest trauma center – was a pivotal undertaking for Huelat Parimucha. Tantamount to designing a durable and tractable environment to withstand 21^st century catastrophes such as human fallout from emerging terrorist attacks, the firm’s goal was to create a sense of calm, respite, hope and healing in traditionally frenetic terrain, both for patients and staff.

For Parimucha, who as a member of the Air Force had spent 10 years working for the Surgeon General’s office as an architect on military installations and health care facilities, the inclusion or close replication of nature - or organic design - was a key component in health care design and especially in ER One. Incorporating “fractal design” into their plans, or what Huelat calls “nature’s geometry” - recreating the way snowflakes look and fall in a kaleidoscope pattern or the veins in a leaf resemble a tree, the firm sought to replicate these forms in floor patterns, walkways, furnishings and more in ER One. “You can see fractal design on shorelines, on beaches and in erosion,” Huelat explained. “There are no left turns at the beach; it’s very gradual curves,” as opposed to abrupt and jarring lines and colors. A former hospice volunteer, Huelat said her patients inevitably wanted to be outdoors, or if that was not possible, to have visual access. “What is it about nature?” she asked. “We’ve been living that way (since the beginning of evolution). Only the last 100 years or so have we spent more time indoors than out. We’re now in a really foreign building environment – our whole life is in buildings and we rarely get outside,” she added, noting the application of nature to health care environments greatly impacts patient well-being by reducing stress, encouraging rest and thereby promoting healing.

The VA, which traditionally adhered to standards “and just reproducing those standards,” according to Huelat, as opposed to more holistic, patient-centered care, is now implementing Planetree design at many of their facilities. With four contracts to create community-oriented living centers for young vets from the Gulf War, Huelat Parimucha’s subjects are patients their 20s and 30s with traumatic brain injuries, paralysis or multiple-amputees. “They are not in their 80s and 90s,” Huelat said, “so these are not nursing homes.” Rather they will consist of smaller households in a neighborhood concept, each with 10-15 single occupant bedrooms, combined with a kitchen, living and dining room. Nearby in more public spaces will be a post office, barbershop, activities center, computer center and more. Design of each living center will involve organic components, as do all of the firm’s projects.

“It’s a very exciting, revolutionary approach to healing,” Huelat said. “Our culture, including the aging baby boom generation now in the midst of moving into increased health care needs, is becoming a very demanding audience. In the next 20 years, we’re going to see a very dramatic change in health care delivery, more focused on the patient experience than just the medical treatment itself.”

JBG Moving Forward With Rosslyn Commons

The JBG Companies is set to stack two more high rise buildings into the crowded Rosslyn setting very shortly. Approved by the Arlington County Board in the summer of 2008, the plans call for 25 four-story townhouses and two high rise apartment buildings offering 454 units and 12,635 s.f. of retail, construction of which is expected shortly. The new development will replace eight existing brick garden-style apartment buildings (totaling 84 units) between Clarendon Blvd. and 16th Road North with the town houses and two L-shaped towers (12 and 13 stories respectively) designed by Bethesda-based firm Architects Collaborative. Fifty-four of the apartment units will be marketed as affordable housing. Both apartment buildings are expected to be LEED Certified.

The boldly designed buildings will be a striking composition of “tan-brown, reddish brown and pink-brown brick with gray-blue to gray-green metal frames.” Rising a dizzying 128 feet, the townhomes (a more manageable 50 ft) will help step the development gracefully down into the surrounding garden-style apartment complexes. The super-block will be split by a landscaped pedestrian plaza, creating a foot-traffic thoroughfare halving Clarendon Blvd. and 16th Road North. The internal courtyard will be advantageous for tenants looking to spill cafe and restaurant operations into the public space, creating a bustling central plaza where residents, commerce, and leisure will come together.

While no time table has been made public, Paradigm and Clark Construction are expected to offer general contracting bids by October 7th with the expectation that construction would begin shortly after. Rosslyn Gateway, Central Place, and Potomac Yards are just a few of the other JBG projects planned for Arlington in the near future.

Update: Since publishing the story, JBG reached out to DCMud with additional details on the project. Balfour Beatty Construction, Clark Construction, Facchina Construction, and SE Foster Construction have all submitted bids on the project. The exact number of units is as follows: 474 total units and 55 affordable units. The red and grey building is designated as Tower One and the combo of dark and light gray is Tower Two. Both residential towers will include a rooftop pool and pool deck, rooftop club room, and rooftop fitness center. Tower Two, which is "a more modern design...with neutral colors, clean lines, boutique lobby, European-styled kitchens (flat panel kitchen cabinets with modern door pulls, white Corian or quartz countertops, dark/light cabinets (with dark or light hardwood floors), alternating by floor" could be marketed as for-sale condominiums depending on the state of the market when delivery nears. JBG confirmed that they in talks to bring a cafe with outdoor seating into the retail space. The project is expected to earn LEED Silver. Construction will begin by the end of the year, and the buildings will be delivered by late 2012, with the two towers delivered first and the townhomes following closely behind.

Arlington, VA Real Estate Development News

Rosslyn's Artisphere Opens

While the "opening of the Artisphere" might sound science fictional, Rosslynites know by now that it puts Rosslyn on the map of arts destinations. The 53,000-square-foot "showcase for the arts," opening October 10th, will include an exhibition gallery, a Black Box theater for the Washington Shakespeare Company, ballroom, Wi-Fi cafe, four performance venues, and three art galeries, all converted from the building the once housed the Newseum.

Arlington chose The Lukmire Partnership and Clark Construction to renovate the interior, while keeping most of the exterior, in a design that is intended to achieve LEED certification for interior space, designation pending. Arlington officials set the October 10th date more than a year ago, and managed to stick the landing with regular events beginning immediately after the official pomp. "Artisphere" was the winning entry in a public contest that included "Planet 9," "Artopolis," "the Orb," "the Artseum," and DCMud's own rejected entries of "Rossdome" and "SphARTlington." Humph.

Officials promise a veritably transcendental arts forum with non-stop programming that will redefine art in the community. "Its an entirely unique model in the region and country in terms of diversity and amount of programming. I do think we are creating a new model for regional appeal and global programming," said Norma Kaplan, Division Chief for Arlington Cultural Affairs, which operates the Artisphere. "An important component is bringing in artists from around the world that will open up the door to new kinds of work and new connections." Kaplan promises "20 to 25 events" per week. Jim Byers, Marketing Director for Arlington Cultural Affairs, adds that between the impromptu, regular, and occasional big name performances, the building will be a consistent place of inspiration. "The usual experience is a big name that may draw you to a cultural center sporadically. While some of the programs will indeed be big names, our idea is to constantly engage the public and have them hang out there regularly at the wi-fi cafe or go to the art store, a much more holistic experience than seeing a few big stars per year."

The building is owned by Monday Properties with a 20-year lease to Arlington. Monday is also the owner of the land at nearby 1812 N. Moore Street in Rosslyn, where it recently announced it would begin construction on what will be Rosslyn's tallest building when complete.

Arlington Virginia real estate development news

Groundwork Gets Underway at Convention Center Marriott

Construction crews could begin preliminary groundwork as early as next week for the Convention Center's newest addition, the 1,175-room, 15-story Marriott Marquis, a project headed by Quadrangle Development and Capstone Development. The Washington Convention & Sports Authority (WCSA) announced earlier today that it will provide limited early access in order for developers to orchestrate initial site remediation work including: "removal of underground storage tanks, demolition of the Erhlich Building, erecting fences, placing signage around the site and readying the area for construction."

A more ceremonial and celebratory start to construction will soon follow, says Gregory A. O’Dell, Washington Convention and Sports Authority President. "The Authority and the District are finalizing the documentation and preparing to close on the bonds as we anticipate a groundbreaking within the next 30-45 days," he explains. Once construction begins, a build-out of 42 months is anticipated, placing the delivery date in the spring of 2014. While this is not the official groundbreaking, convention center authority spokeswoman Chinyere Hubbard confirms that this is indeed the beginning of construction and an indication of nothing but green lights going forward. There are "no further legal obstacles", says Hubbard, who notes that the WCCA board will officially approve the financing bonds tomorrow.

The soon to be active construction site is bounded by Massachusetts Avenue and L Streets, NW. Because of District height limitations, the massive hotel is burying much it's square footage beneath the earth, so the first order of business for contractors is to dig a giant hole and start building back up to ground level. Progress above ground might not be visible for almost a year after construction starts. Upon completion, the building will feature over 100,000 s.f. of meeting and ballroom space, 25,000 sf of retail, and 385 parking spaces. The plan also calls for a below grade tunnel (vehicle and pedestrian) connecting the hotel and Convention Center. The hotel will become only the third Marquis in the country. Developers and District officials hope the already impressive Convention Center will be a world-wide attraction now that an accompanying state-of-the-art, large-scale hotel is on the way.

Last year, Mayor Adrian Fenty signed the New Convention Center Hotel Amendments Act of 2009 that authorized Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and the issuance of bonds, to fund up to $206m in construction and operational costs. Private developers will pick up the remaining portion of the estimated $550 million total cost. With JBG's spat over the project and ensuing lawsuit now ended, today's announcement means the project is officially moving forward.

Washington DC real estate development news