Silver Spring Park (aka Moda Vista) Moves Forward

In the works since 2007, Silver Spring Park, formerly known as the Moda Vista Residences, is moving forward in the good graces of Montgomery County Planning Board after the board approved the developer's final Site Plan last week. Fenton Group, LLC's application offered a bet-hedging vision that includes office, retail, apartment, and hotel components. The local Silver-Spring firm, headed by Ulysses Glee, has some twenty years of residential development experience, but this ambitious project will be by far their most significant to date.

The one and a half acre site, a consolidation of seven lots located at the northwest corner of the block bounded by Silver Spring Avenue and Fenton Street, and popularly known as the former location of the Fenton Street Market, will make way for a 59,870 s.f., 60-foot-tall Fairfield Inn & Suites hotel with 110 rooms, a 28,170 s.f. office building, and a 58-unit apartment building. A total of 9,234 s.f. ground floor retail will be split between the hotel and office building, while the hotel and apartment buildings will share underground parking facilities. Developers explained that the retail spaces will likely house boutique-sized businesses.

To satisfy County zoning requirements, seven of the proposed apartments will be moderately priced (or MPDUs for jargon junkies), five will be reserved as workforce housing. The streetscapes fronting Fenton and Silver Spring Avenue will get a full makeover as proposed by the developer. Fenton has also committed to earn LEED Silver certification for each of the new buildings. LEED-lovers and the County Arborist might be upset that three trees exceeding 30 inches in diameter will be lost during the necessary bulldozing during construction, but don't fret, as developers are including 14 newly planted canopy trees and 22 mid-story trees as part of their landscape plan.

But these concessions weren't quite enough to please County planners, as the 20% on-site public-use space obligation still needed fulfilling. Fenton's proposed 8,543 "pocket-park" only satisfies 17% of that requirement; as a result, developers will hand over $152,728 to Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning to fund the design and construction of a new bike station at Gene Lynch Urban Park, adjacent to the nearby Silver Spring Transit Center.

Gordon & Greenberg Architects provided architectural designs for the new buildings, while Burgess & Niple shouldered all of the site planning work. Developers expect another six months to finalize construction plans and secure building permits, with construction completion anticipated to arrive 12 to 18 months after the optimistic Spring 2011 groundbreaking.

Silver Spring, MD Real Estate Development News

History, Secrecy, and Preservation in Downtown DC

Call it delicious irony. The U.S. Secret Service, the organization that has seemingly unchallengeable power to take over sites - land, buildings, streets - that it feels it needs to protect the POTUS, are finding it difficult to take over a single building for office space in downtown Washington DC. The building - the historic Webster School - has remained empty for a decade while the agency has been unable to afford renovation, despite its enormous budget and long term lease of the property.

DC residents boxed out of the botched 2009 presidential inauguration and suffering from an ever widening security perimeter around the President may be forgiven a bit of spite toward the enigmatic agency (not that we aren't happy idling in our car for 30 minutes in advance of a Vice Presidential motorcade, and don't even get us started on the Salahi debacle). But the Service says "financial constraints" prevent it from renovating the skeletal eyesore located across the street from the Old Convention Center site and has no plans in the works for the darkened building.

The school, built in 1882, was used to educate naturalized citizens and by DCPS for many years, but saw its last use in the '90s. The National Treasury Employees Union bought the building for $2m and sought to demolish it (claiming special merit for its needs) to make way for a new headquarters, a move thankfully checked by the Historic Preservation Review Board, which then landmarked the building. GSA subsequently exercised eminent domain on behalf of the Secret Service, which hoped to renovate the school as an adjunct facility to its headquarters next door amid rumors of a pending museum for the site. The Service, with an annual budget this year of $1,500,000,000, says it lacks appropriate funding but needs the space for its 7,000 worldwide employees (it won't give the number of employees in DC). "We have plans to make it usable space for Secret Service employees" says Robert Novy, a spokesperson for the Service, dismissing museum theories.

Legally protected from demolition, the building is also being protected from death by natural causes with a minor structural renovation. But with the hole-plugging came exterior scaffolding and plywood sidewalk canopy that has lasted for several years, annoying neighbors, and the Service says it has no immediate intentions, or even designs, to change that until it receives dedicated construction funds. In the interim, the building has been vacant since the Clinton years, a fact that may be noted by an administration that hopes to stanch charges of fiscal profligacy by cutting its inventory of vacant office space, not to mention ax-wielding Republicans that will begin arriving in town over the coming weeks.

So for the time being the corner of 10th and H will remain dark and fenced off, a less-than-inviting streetscape at night, unless the Secret Service can find a way to make money out of a public nuisance. Perhaps they should ask the Salahis.

Washington DC real estate development news

Designing to Foster Change

By Beth Herman

Sixty years ago, in a world where children were chastised for chewing gum and staying after school was tantamount to the end of the world, the concept of an entity like D.C.’s Children’s Law Center (CLC) would have been as remote an idea as bottled water.

With festering issues of abuse, neglect, education, health care, domestic violence and mental health defining young people in the 21^st century, and successfully navigating a complex and evolving child welfare system can mean the difference between a life of value and one of inconsequence, the Children’s Law Center, at 616 H Street, NW, stepped up to the plate some 14 years ago and has since become a significant arbiter of change in the foster care system.

Up Where We Belong

In 2006, faced with substandard office space, monochromatic colors and deteriorating furniture and facilities in their previous home at 15^th and I Streets (the organization had taken over an old law office 10 years earlier without modification or redesign), the CLC sought the advice of OTJ Architects while anticipating a move. In short, CLC wished to create a space that would both facilitate their mission and provide a source of encouragement and delight for the many adults and children who frequented the Center.

Working with OTJ partner Roger Sola-Sole, project architect Lisa Winkler and her team set about fulfilling the task of designing what the firm called a “child-centric” environment, yet one which corresponded to critical meetings and conferences, all within a highly restrictive $810,650 budget.

“They wanted a happier, lighter space, and they actually share offices,” Winkler said, relative to the 64-member move-in staff when the Center opened in 2007. “They really like to work in pairs,” she added, which they now do in 180 s.f. spaces, with some offices supporting even three employees. Single offices, at 120 s.f., also accommodate staff, with senior level employees in larger spaces and 13 workstations available for investigators should they choose to utilize them, according to Winkler.

With 16,600 s.f. on the third and part of the fourth floors of the building, the architects focused the tight budget on three main areas: the reception area on the third floor, the third floor elevator lobby and the children’s area. CLC had its own ideas about the use of primary colors, with OTJ introducing child-oriented materials into the mix. “The main color for their logo is blue,” Winkler explained, “so we wanted to focus on that blue and also brought in a bright red.” The boldness of the colors necessitated a fairly neutral carpet in a warm palette, so the architects chose a pale gold for the public spaces and a carpet tile that was both gold and blue for the Center’s lunch room/lounge area.

If I Had a Hammer

At the end of a hallway, silhouettes of children on red walls engaged in various activities keep that area playful, with Winkler explaining that in a nod to budgetary constraints, she’d identified the images online and recruited OTJ colleagues, and some Center staff, to paint them one weekend. “We had a paint day,” she recalled. “I went over and outlined them in a Sharpie marker the day before, then the next day some of us went over and painted them in black. It was a real combined effort.”

In an effort to create something structure-wise using children’s objects, Winkler said items such as Legos were bandied about, with the ultimate design decision focusing on marbles. To that end, four or five 8-foot tall divider windows filled with 3 feet of marbles (child height) punctuate the space, with the marbles – 350 pounds in all – resourcefully obtained from a Chinese toy trader’s website. A 17 x 13-foot playroom, where an entire corner is a floor-to-ceiling blackboard and a slide with portholes accommodates both children and adults, abuts a 12 x 12-foot teen center replete with computers and TV.

When You Wish Upon a Star

“In their old offices, it was all grey, but they tried to decorate and keep it fun,” Winkler also explained, adding that employees had name plaques outside their doors where they’d customized them. In the new space, the team affixed magnetic whiteboards to each office door for staff to personalize. A long mural hallway, in which the Center wanted a D.C.-focused design, portrays row houses and stick figure children to reflect the organization’s graphics. The children in the mural hold up blank whiteboard spaces to display the hundreds of thank you letters and artwork the Center receives each year. And in a tradition replicated from the Center’s former offices, the architects posted childhood photos of current Center staff in a space en route from the children’s play area, whereby young visitors can take their chances identifying exactly who’s now who.

On the fourth floor, an adult conference room which Winkler concedes is a bright primary blue, has an electric garage door at one end to open up to a lounge seating area across the hall, accommodating the entire staff when necessary. Winkler said the decision to incorporate a garage door was budget-based, and there also wasn’t space to stack a traditional operable partition.

Receiving a lot of donations in the form of clothing and toys, Winkler said the former office configuration left no space and provided no system to organize these items. Again with economics in mind, she chose an IKEA system and built a 180 s.f. room full of shelving, right off the play area.

“We did a lot with a little bit of money,” Winkler said. “We focused on important areas, but still made the rest of the space warm and inviting.”

Overall, the architects achieved a space that clearly articulates CLC’s mission and vision while providing its youngest visitors, many of whom have come from a world unimaginable to the rest of us, an opportunity to focus on being children.

Jemal Presents Plans for Another 14th Street Residential Project

After receiving support from ANC 1B, Douglas Jemal and his team at Douglas Development hope that the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) are equally kind to their concepts to demolish a forlorn auto shop and build a six-story, 30-unit "apartment house" at 2221 14th Street, NW (see map, left). The development will feature ground floor retail and one level of below grade parking, with spaces for only ten cars and several bicycles.

Courtesy of architects at the relatively new DC firm R2L, the bright and busy concept design draws from a contemporary assortment of glass, metal, brick and terra cotta panels. Sharply angled bay windows protrude from the facade offering apartment dwellers views down both the historic 14th Street and Florida Avenue corridors. Long glass shop windows front the ground floor facade, which will eventually house retail. The environmentally friendly rooftop will feature green landscaping, a lounge deck, and possibly decent views. Architect Sacha Rosen, a principal with R2L, explained that "the massing, form, and rhythm are in the Washington historic tradition, but the details are contemporary." Being located within the Greater U Street Historic District, HPRB will offer feedback shortly, as the project is likely to be included on the Board's next meeting agenda for the 18th of this month.

In early 2009, Jemal, under the guise of "Jemal's Hookers, LLC," was in the process of acquiring raze permits for the vacant auto lot to make room for a new 10,000 s.f. retail development designed by George Myers of GTM Architects. Clearly those plans were scrapped, and this time the metrics are grander. Rosen described the project site as "wonderfully prominent...as one of the historic entrances to the District's core." But given the site's small and irregular shape,

Rosen said his team was presented with the difficult task of designing "a very efficient building that can support an exterior that will do justice to the community's expectations."

Interestingly, a large mural has been proposed for the back wall of the building, facing southwest. The development team has been in contact with G. Byron Peck, a locally based and nationally respected muralist about commissioning the mural's creation and installation. Peck is responsible for the "Black Family Reunion" mural which has been on the wall

of the adjoining property for many years. He also painted the portrait of Duke Ellington located on the wall of Mood Indigo at the corner of 13th and U Streets NW since 1997.

The often painstaking approval process should be finished by February 2011, with design documents complete in late Spring 2011, and developers are optimistically planning for a Summer 2011 groundbreaking.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Carr Properties to Build Glass Box onto Corcoran Art Gallery

The historic Corcoran Gallery of Art is set for a significant addition in the near future, as Carr Properties and architects at SmithGroup have submitted a design concept to the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) for feedback. A recommendation will be returned by the HPRB at its next meeting on November 18th. Their recently submitted application reveals that developers are attempting to move forward with a nine-story office addition to the previously expanded northwest corner of the art gallery that was originally designed by Charles Adams Platt in the 1920s.

Although some Corcoran staff may occupy offices in the new building, it will act and operate separately, generating lease revenues that will assist the Gallery in its effort to grow the collection and the College of Art's endowment. While operating separately, the structure is technically intended to be an addition, as original plans have always called for an expansion of the Gallery in this direction; the addition will be connected to the original 1890s building through a stairwell and partly cantilevered over the Clark Wing.

In August, the Corcoran Gallery granted Carr Properties a long term ground lease of the site on which developers will apparently build, own, and operate the new offices. Unless an extension is requested by Carr, if all the required public approvals are not secured prior to December 15th of next year, the lease will automatically terminate. The property's street address is 1700 New York Avenue, NW, fronting New York Avenue to the south and E Street to the north. Rising several stories above the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the top floors of the addition will offer panoramic views of the White House, the National Mall, the Capitol, and the various surrounding monuments. In addition to office space and a basement for storage, the expansion will also increase parking availability at the gallery, with three levels of garage set to sit below the new building.

The recently submitted designs by SmithGroup go in a much different direction from previously submitted plans. Hartman-Cox had received approval from the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) and the Historic Preservation Review Board as far back as 1988, but never followed through on their plans for a 120,000 s.f. addition. Again in 2008, Hartman-Cox resubmitted similar renderings on behalf of the Corcoran Gallery, but HPRB called the firm's aesthetic of choice "clearly historicist, [and] perhaps more in vogue in the 1980s than at present," advising the architects to reconfigure the building's design so to more "clearly reflect its own identity and purpose." Smith heeded this advice with hopes that their starkly modern and minimalist stylistics will be better received by HPRB; but developers know that regardless of the outcome, a long road of applications and meetings and approval decisions lies ahead.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Bethesda Highrise Sets January Start Date

Bethesda's Monty will be underway by January, say developers of the 17-story apartment building, planning what will be the neighborhood's second tallest building. Florida based developer Bainbridge Companies closed on the Monty site just this June and expect to build by "late January," the only Woodmont Triangle project with construction timelines despite the area's long list of expectant projects.

Though Bainbridge only recently acquired the land, the deal had been in the works for several years and came with the original SK&I designs and the county's approvals, leading Bainbridge to predict that demolition of the current retail stores would commence by the fall. The mid-block apartment building will feature a 20-foot wide pedestrian right of way connecting Fairmont St. with St. Elmo's Avenue with retail fronting both streets as well as the ped path, cutting the long block and giving the building a corner presence. At 174 feet plus mechanicals, The Monty - a name that current team will retain - will be slightly shorter than the 200 foot Clark building.

"It will be very tall for the area, so its going to be like a sculpture" said Senior Associate Federico Olivera-Sala. "It will be shaped in a way that will give it some articulation, it disintegrates as the building goes up, like a box at the bottom, but parts start to disappear as it rises. This is meant to animate the Skyline of Bethesda." The building will feature a gym and terrace on the 15th floor for fitness buffs that prefer a view, and four levels of below-grade parking.

The Monty will bring 200 rental units with 30 moderately priced dwelling units and should begin occupancy by early 2013, the first high-rise mixed-use project to be constructed under the Woodmont Sector Plan. The project owners hope to achieve LEED Silver certification; a minimum of LEED certified is required for projects in the area.

Bethesda, MD real estate development news

Montgomery County Planning Board Gives Wheaton Safeway Go-Ahead

Create a landscaped terrace and art installment, or fork over nearly a million dollars to County Planners: thanks to a Montgomery County Planning Board ruling last Thursday, developers at Patriot Realty will do both. Last spring a "favorable" staff report concerning Patriot's mixed-use "Wheaton Safeway" redevelopment proposal across from the Wheaton Metro questioned whether their efforts to satisfy the "20 percent public amenity requirement" was satisfactory. Apparently not quite, as the Planning Board gave developers the green light to move forward with the plans for the 50,000 s.f. Safeway and 17-story apartment complex, but required that Patriot contribute $961,161 to a public amenity fund in addition to its proposed public terrace. But pay to play seems

de rigueur, as Patriot and local urbanists are just happy the large-scale, transit-oriented project is finally moving forward.

Designed by Baltimore-based architecture firm Hord Coplan Macht, the new building will shoot what appears to be 3 vertical towers skyward, dwarfing all the other buildings in Wheaton. But the towers are simply a visual ploy to avoid the appearance of a mammoth monolith of a building, as each column is connected at the center. But the break up of the massing does succeed in this capacity, as the giant structure does not at first glance appear to be a singular integrated building. Lee Driskill, a Principal with the firm and the lead architect for the project, explains that "the skin" of the building "has been organized to have these three tower elements come to the fore." The result is not a bland block, but a "tall and elegant" building.

The 195-foot building will feature a new Safeway on street level, an underground parking garage for shoppers, a 486-unit apartment complex (60 of which will be offered as "moderately priced dwelling units"), and three levels of residential parking above the store. A cutback in the massing in between each tower offers the luxury of a fifth-floor courtyard atop the parking garage. Here residents will be able to simply enjoy the view or take advantage of the pool, outdoor lounge area, fire pit and/or open lawn. In total, some 70 percent of the roof will be green, which is expected to assist the project in earning LEED Certification (upon completion of course). The approved 59,000 s.f. of ground-floor retail space will house not only the expanded Safeway, but also a Starbucks, SunTrust, and a Bergman’s Drycleaners (everything a Maryland suburbanite knows and loves all in one place).

Although the planned on-site, public-use terrace offered by developers only totals 7,615 s.f. and 9.9% of the net lot area (10.1% too little), Patriot will make amends for their shortcomings with a $961,161 "donation," which will assist in the redevelopment of 13,800 s.f. of off-site public green space. A public art installment also helped woo the Board into approving the proposal, as several bronze figures ranging from 14 inches to 28 inches tall will be arranged throughout the public terrace. Judy Sutton Moore, a Silver Spring artist, will craft the statues that are set to be welded to a stainless steel pole and "float, as it were, above the flowers, grasses, and shrubs in the planters." Planning Board members specified that the public statues must "avoid depicting art as a commercial expression of Safeway-life."

But before the meandering grocery shoppers can enjoy cute puppy statues, the public amenity funds must be released into the escrow account, demolition and building permits must be secured, and 17 stories of concrete and glass must be amassed; with Board approval at last in had, developers will look to keep things moving as construction is set to commence by early Spring of next year.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Officialdom To Inaugurate Convention Center Hotel

The Washington Convention and Sports Authority (WCSA) has announced the official groundbreaking of the convention center Marriott next Wednesday at 11am. Legions of suits and ties, CEOs, Mayors and Mayors-elect will make official what in fact began last month: construction of one of the region's largest hotels to help transform what was supposed to have been a neighborhood-transforming project.

The four-star hotel is expected to be complete by the spring of 2014.

Washington DC real estate development news

Opus Dei Retreat Resurrected in Tenleytown

Tenleytown may soon make space for the Opus Dei religious order, now that it has a fresh HPRB approval in hand. The Yuma Study Center Inc. and its owner, the Heights Foundation, are planning to construct a residential addition to the landmarked Convent of Bon Secours at 4101 Yuma Street in Tenleytown for Opus Dei. The new building would entail a cloister constructed around a central courtyard and, according to a 2008 Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) report, consist of “meeting and classroom spaces, residential space and a chapel for fifteen members of the Opus Dei religious community.”

The Heights Foundation has a long history with the HPRB. Plans to renovate and alter the Bon Secours Convent first came to light in 2003. At the time, HPRB was considering the Convent for a historic site designation—a move that would shield it from being razed by its owner, The Heights Foundation. In 2004, the Convent officially became a historic site, requiring all changes to pass through the HPRB, which has since reviewed designs for the project three times—most recently back in January of this year.


Though the concept received initial approval, the HPRB required revisions to a planned roof deck, porch, alley parking, and walkways before complete approval could be granted. In a hearing, the Board has also raised concerns that the architects' original renderings for the project are vague, perhaps intentionally so.

The architect was equally vague in describing the timeline for the project. According to the architect, Alvin Holm, the timing has been a “source of contention.” He then declined to comment further, citing privacy concerns. The architect is well-known in his home town of Philadelphia, and nationally for his classic architecture, having founded the Philadelphia chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America.

According to HPO staff reviewer, Tim Dennee, The Heights Foundation has not submitted any new plans, schedules, or drawings to his office since January.

If it goes forward, this will be only one of three projects to begin on the same block, with plans for a new library and school addition, all contiguous, nearly ready to begin.

Georgia Avenue's Beacon Center Gets its Wings

Tally another mixed-use development for the Almighty, as religious groups around the District seem to have a leg up in building these days (Bethesda church, Clarendon church). Following a long and contentious Zoning review process, and following several trying meetings with the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) and the National Park Service (NPS) concerning the project's potential effects upon the neighboring Fort Stevens, the Emory United Methodist Church Beacon of Light in Brightwood received Board approval in the early Spring, and are finally ready to move forward with their Beacon Center project.

Granted a raze permit for 6120 Georgia Ave, NW late last week, neighbors can expect demolition and construction to begin shortly.

The $30 million development, designed by PGN Architects, will offer 180,000 s.f. of multipurpose housing and various congregational and community facilities. The Beacon Center will supply transitional spaces (24 units) in an effort to aid the homeless work toward permanent residency. Also in the works are 34 units for seniors citizens, 17 units reserved for veterans, and 16 affordable rentals. A college-sized indoor multi-sport gymnasium (basketball and soccer) and rec center will be available to the surrounding community. The aggressive expansion will also feature a full service banquet facility, office space for the church and for lease, senior citizens services (such as optometrist, podiatrist, etc.) and ground-floor retail. Additionally the current sanctuary (doubling as a community theater) will be renovated and expanded to 500 seats. Patrons will have access to roughly 100 underground parking spaces and several rows of bike spaces.

Sean Pichon, a Partner at PGN Architects, said his firm has been especially challenged by the need to adjust their designs to the steep grade of the property. Other difficulties included maintaining the "view corridors" and balancing the affordability of the project with the goal of an attractive and congruous facade. Working hard to best the obstacles, designers created features like "curved green roofs" over the retail space to create and "continue the imagery of the hillside." To allow for views from Georgia Avenue his team situated the main entrance on the side road, Quackenbos; this maneuver also enabled multiple access points and preserved the historic stairs leading up to the old church.

Not all were satisfied, however, as the NPS and Civil War Preservation Trust wrote strong letters of opposition, contending that "the proposed five-story wall along Old Piney Branch Road would create a significant visual intrusion on the fort." Opponents also voiced concern that "the Beacon Center’s overall size and floor plan [read too big]...would have an adverse impact on Fort Stevens and subsequently the other remaining Circle Forts." But the representatives of the Church, including the Pastor, convinced Zoning Board members that they had made significant and genuine efforts at compromise, with the Board ultimately deciding that the overall positives of the project outweighed what little impact the building might have on its neighbors. Instead of a reduction in height and massing, NPS will have to settle for 359 square feet in the new building, reserved for their use as a welcome center/gift shop to "educate and promote the history of Fort Stevens." Reenactors and Fort Stevens staff can imagine the impending sounds of the Bozzuto-lead demolition and construction as the distant rumblings of the long ago battles.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Of Branding and Behemoths

By Beth Herman

It survived decades of war, recession, a Great Depression, whispered and public liaisons (Studebaker-Packard Corporation, for one), changes in demographics and even a post-WWII employee in its Argentine division named Adolph Eichmann. But for all of its challenges, and to make it a true daily double, Alex, Mercedes-Benz remains the world’s oldest automotive brand still in existence.

In 2004, when the time came to gild the proverbial lily, and with something close to 1,000 automotive facility designs in the firm’s fight book, Chris Lessard, Lori Hall and Hernani Codera of The Lessard Group took Mercedes-Benz’s branding philosophies out for a test drive when they designed a 27,000 s.f. Old Town Alexandria, Va. dealership at 200 S. Pickett Street, one that embraced both the product and the neighborhood. And they did it again this year as the facility experienced a renovation in a mid-Atlantic salute to the brand’s progressive, industrial, high-tech German image.

“Auto manufacturers create branding books so when you go to different dealerships, you can identify with some of the elements in each dealership,” Lessard said, noting that Autohaus is Mercedes-Benz’s image and branding program. But in a storied venue like Old Town, where historical parameters govern building design, applying branding principles such as Mercedes-Benz’s steely facades can be like walking a diplomatic tightrope at best. “As a firm, we do a lot of other things, not just auto dealerships,” Lessard said, emphasizing that zoning and entitlement work often follow suit, though Alexandria is one of the “tougher jurisdictions.”
“We also had to present some renderings to the residents,” said Hall, who is the firm’s director of automotive facility design, because they, too, were concerned with how it was going to look. They wanted to know what their view was going to be.”

The Demise of Mini-Me

The structure, which was built essentially to swallow and to some extent incorporate a small, deteriorating mid-century Oldsmobile dealership on the site, is wood and red brick (think: ubiquitous northern Virginia) with traditional detailing and arched windows. But because the city’s saga’d image has evolved and become less restrictive in the last six years, and in compliance with Mercedes-Benz’s current identity that sanctions exposed steel, a blue arcade, silver panels and blue columns with chrome caps, the architects were able to integrate these elements into the renovation.

According to Lessard, Autohaus examines each dealership and estimates the level of business it’s going to do. “With that, they give a very defined programming requirement that they want to have appropriate service and waiting areas,” he explained, noting they are adding more bays in Alexandria to deal with the dealership’s service component. “It’s very prescriptive,” he said, “especially with Mercedes, where you’re getting the high level of service for the consumer that either buys or services a car there, or while servicing a car, looks at a new car.” To that end, according to project manager Codera, the Old Town facility will also be able to accommodate 580 vehicles, up from 520, when the renovation is complete. “In the 1950s, you had auto sites that didn’t have a lot of cars on them, but that’s not how it works today,” Lessard said. “You have to count every square inch of the site to make sure you can meet the requirements of inventory.”

Message in a Building

In Silver Spring, Md., a roughly 60,000 s.f. two-story Mercedes-Benz dealership at 3301 Briggs Chaney Road, that actually turns a corner, careens toward a March, 2011 delivery date with LEED Gold looming. “At the time we were designing it (first submission was in 2008, though construction issues stalled the process), LEED wasn’t really a factor,” Hall said, referencing the firm’s best practices standards. But with Montgomery County’s current mandate for all new commercial construction to meet LEED certification requirements, and actual construction beginning just this year, energy efficient lighting comprised of both LED and CFL’s is just one component of the glass and steel building which, by its nature, will also utilize natural light.

Trumpeting Mercedes-Benz’s perspective on precision and luxury, and branding elements such as exposed steel, black high gloss tile and “beam outriggers” that reinforce the German industrial machine look all withstanding, the psychology of the Silver Spring facility will involve what the automotive company calls its “triad,” where the service area and lounge, parts accessory boutique and the showroom are all visible from the middle of the building.

“If I’m going to get my car serviced, I’m going to want to sit in this beautiful lounge and enjoy myself, wander through to accessories thinking about whether I want to get a new keychain or new wheels, and while there, I can be looking at all the brand new cars thinking maybe it’s time to upgrade,” Hall explained. In fact, when a new car decision is made, the new car delivery area, painted an effervescent yellow, is sited so that a new owner and family can be somewhat isolated from the throng (think: sort of a private screening), but other customers can also experience the “bragging rights” of the new owner driving away. In the service lounge, according to Codera, customers can actually see their car being serviced through glass that abuts the service bays. “It’s a retail selling process,” Lessard said in summary, “whether you’re servicing or buying a new car – it’s making you feel happy whatever you’re doing and making you want to come back.”

Speaking to any perceived constraints of working within the parameters of branding specifications, Lessard maintained that while the auto manufacturer has certain standards, they are not always precise and do allow for creativity and change over time. “You can be part of that change,” he said, affirming that as an architect, he’s “not necessarily into social engineering.

“I’m really trying to make sure the building is servicing the needs of whoever’s using it, whether it feels good inside, or whether it encourages someone to do something. That’s what this firm is about, so branding actually helps me,” Lessard said. “It makes clear what the program needs to be, and I can improve on the requirements by making the building even better. It really reinforces the message.”

Bottom 2 photos of Mercedes-Benz Annapolis.

GW to Add Science Building and Go Solar

George Washington University has another construction project in the works. Thanks to funding from Square 54 and low construction costs from favorable market conditions, the university has approved replacing an 8-story, 1200-space parking garage with an 8-story, 400,000 s.f. science and engineering complex with buried parking. The university also has separate plans to green its residences by adding what it says will be DC's largest single solar power network.

Although the city has not yet approved the science building, GW expects to start the $275m project within a year. The university’s project team includes Philadelphia-based Ballinger Architects, as well as Hickok Cole Architects, Boston Properties as the project manager and Clark Construction for pre-construction services, all of which are working on Square 54. The LEED-Silver designed building will double the space on the GW campus dedicated to science and engineering.

"The board’s decision to build the Science and Engineering Complex marks an important milestone in the development of George Washington into a world-class research university," said GW President Steven Knapp.

The science building, at the corner of 22nd and H streets, NW (see map, above), will feature two levels of below-ground program space, approximately 350 underground parking spaces and a retail venue on the ground floor along Eye Street.

The building is expected to be completed in late 2014 with occupancy expected in early 2015. Project planning has been underway since 2006. GW is using ground lease payments from Square 54 as part of the financing for the new project, and has been working to redistribute the lost parking as part of the Campus Plan, but has yet to release any details about where the 850 lost spaces will go.

At the same time, GW will implement "the largest source of on-site solar power in the District of Columbia," for "thermal" solar power, that is, not photovoltaic cells. The new solar thermal system will heat water for three residence halls, subtracting "about 70 tons of carbon annually," according to the school. The university intends to generate 10 percent of energy from on-campus renewable sources by 2040, and reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2025, and by 80 percent by 2040 when it reaches "carbon neutrality." The remaining carbon emissions will be "mitigated" through the purchase of local offsets, such as planting trees. "This is just one of the very fist steps we are taking" says Michelle Sherrard of GW, of the solar conversion.

Skyline Innovations, a one-year-old Washington D.C.-based solar energy company, will install the solar thermal units on Building JJ, 1959 E Street and Ivory Tower free of charge and sell the hot water the systems produce to the school for a fee tied to the price of natural gas. According to Aaron Block, Director of Market Development for Skyline, the company assures lower energy costs for the user with no start-up costs by guaranteeing a lower-than-market rate for energy, which it finances by retaining the renewable energy credits. That makes Skyline the number one provider of solar energy in DC (it subcontracts installation). GW won't reveal the amount that it saves with its thermal energy conversion.

The system works by converting sunlight to thermal energy via hot water rather than electricity. An array of rooftop panels collect solar energy and convert it to heat. A series of tanks in the basement loop into the rooftop collectors, a heat exchange allows the heat to be converted from the closed-loop system into the public water.

With all the new construction, the GW Hatchet reports that Foggy Bottom residents are angling for a new Metro entrance as the completion of Square 54 adds more users of the single-entrance Metro station.

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