Camden to Start Southwest DC Project Next Tuesday

Camden Property Trust will kick off its project on South Capitol Street in southwest DC a week from tomorrow, inaugurating what will be one of the few projects to actually begin construction lately in the littlest quadrant, with the building of a 276-unit rental building across the street from Nationals Stadium. The groundbreaking puts the project on track for a late summer 2013 completion, possibly in time for views of the stadium during regular season play. DC-based WDG Architecture, which also conceived the apartments just north of the ballpark, designed the building - officially called Camden South Capitol - that will take up the now vacant site north of O Street. Developers at Camden say the apartment building will fill a need in the saturated residential market of the Capitol Riverfront, which now has scant vacancy. Foundry Lofts on the riverfront will be open for lease by early fall, though no other residential development will open in the interim. WDG's Sean Stadler notes that the building was being designed in a very uncertain rental market - during construction of the ballpark. "It has a very rich feeling for a project that was in a unknown rental market when it was conceived," says Stadler. Given that, retail space was minimized in favor of a street presence for building services. "We tried to break down the facade...creating a street wall along South Capitol, but at the street the whole thing will break down on a human scale." Stadler says the grey brick is an alternating pattern, smooth and textured, light and dark grey. "So from up close the building starts to break down in scale...at the base, certain pieces pop out that give relief so the facade doesn't just hit the street." Stadler is also confident the apartments "will have great air and light with great views up to the Capitol." Mark Coletta of Camden says the residence will offer a rooftop pool and deck, underground parking, and possibly fabulous views into the ballpark across the street. Camden purchased the property in 2007 and has hired Donohoe as the general contractor. 

Washington DC real estate development news

Strong Hearts, Crumbling Brick

By Beth Herman 

For Eva Martinez and daughters, standing tall among the ruins became literal and personal when their environment was allowed to deteriorate to almost unrecognizable conditions in a low-income Mt. Pleasant apartment building. As the previous owner sought to convert the St. Dennis Apartments, at 1636 Kenyon St. NW, to market-rate condominiums by hasty and aggressive buy-outs, neglect and other measures to force tenants out, the intrepid Martinez women stayed the course for two years as sole residents of the building, "…enduring broken doors and windows, demolition crews, unlit hallways and other hazards," according to a National Housing Trust account.

With the support of city council member Jim Graham, and seeking pro-bono counsel from the firm of Arnold and Porter, Martinez and her two daughters, Eva Aurora and Anabel, believed low-income residents had the right to remain in their Mt. Pleasant neighborhood, filing suit against the owner for failure to comply with TOPA, or D.C.’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. According to reports, a settlement was secured with an option to purchase the property at market value, with the National Housing Trust Enterprise Preservation Corporation (NHT/Enterprise) chosen to guide them in obtaining financing to acquire and renovate the property.

For Principal Michael Wiencek and project manager Maybell Laluna of Wiencek & Associates, veterans of housing revitalization and historic and adaptive reuse projects throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, the 1920s-era historic registry St. Dennis Apartments provided an opportunity to preserve history, and perhaps paramount to that, to restore dignity to its former residents, most of whom had left unaware of the means available to claim the 40-unit, five-story building for themselves (unit count was 32 following renovation).

“It had a nice presence and a very attractive front despite very significant issues of structural deterioration at the rear and within the building,” said Wiencek of the firm’s involvement beginning in 2008. Brought in during the continuing economic recession, the project percolated with the architects and planners but was placed on a slow burner, according to Wiencek, with monies filtering in from different sources on varied timetables.

Stabilizing history

Ultimately permitted in mid-2010, due to water penetration and other forms of neglect, the St. Dennis required a “complete gut” of all the interior walls, except for bearing partitions, all the way down to the shell of the building.

“The only things we were required to save were the corridor walls and existing unit entry door frames because they were historical,” Laluna said. Receiving historical tax credits as part of its extensive funding package, an historic consultant was hired to develop the project’s scope and documents which helped navigate D.C.’s copious historic review protocol.

Discovering a litany of problems that mounted almost exponentially during demolition, Wiencek said the rear wall was essentially just crumbling brick. To demolish and rebuild it, however, would have resulted in considerable construction waste and added an additional $600,000 to $700,000 to the project, making it “undoable.” In a bold effort to stabilize it, a patented limestone parging system consisting of limestone, Portland cement and polymers, and involving the scraping of loose mortar and brick material down to a hard material and embedding of a fiberglass mesh for tensile strength, was undertaken. “It’s a hard structural finish that holds all of the existing masonry together,” Wiencek said. Because it’s a 1920s-era structure, masonry walls are 16 inches thick at the ground floor and about 12 at the top, consequently much time was invested with engineers and contractors to ensure the safety and viability of the process.

Targeting sustainable elements, Wiencek said unlike the Wheeler Terrace renovation, geothermal heating and cooling was not an option due to the site’s narrow dimensions and additional budget constraints, though a mechanical system with a higher SEER rating was ultimately used. The owners had to be very creative in the way they put this project together, Wiencek and Laluna recalled, noting low-VOC paint, formaldehyde-free cabinets, Energy Star appliances, a low-albedo roofing system and low-flow fixtures were mandated.

Revealing that prior to the renovation, the St. Dennis apartments were “moldy, filthy and rat-infested,” though people needed to live there because of its prime location, bus lines, and affordable housing aspects, Wiencek talked about the emotional toll of having to call a place like that “home."

“The big idea is that we’re saving this building that would otherwise have gone to relatively high-end condos and displaced a lot of affordable housing tenants,” Wiencek said. “Through a lot of hard work by the owners and contractor, Hamel Builders, we’re getting to build an amazing new building within the historic shell so that the residents can afford to come back and live there. It gives residents a much broader and more positive outlook and really changes people’s lives,” he said, noting construction should be completed this summer.

This story is dedicated to the memory of Eva Martinez.

NCPC Reviews Draft Plan for Homeland Security AU Park Site

Concerns over GSA’s draft Master Plan for the development of the Department of Homeland Security's Nebraska Avenue Complex (NAC), located at Nebraska and Massachusetts Avenues in AU Park, led the National Capital Planning Commission - at its monthly meeting yesterday - to send GSA off with nine action points to address before returning in a few months.

After final approval from NCPC, GSA will begin acting on a finalized Master Plan, and GSA aims to please - in order to meet a Master Plan planning horizon of 2020 - which will require addressing the concerns raised by four of the 12 members of the NCPC, as well as the local ANC.

The plans call for raising the number of seats (employees on site at any one time) from 2,390 to 4,200, and decreasing onsite parking (from 1,239 to 1,150 spaces) without a site-specific Transportation Management Plan in place to assist with predicting the outcome on the surrounding area. DHS’s goal for expanding its operations at the NAC site - temporary headquarters of the DHS since 2003 - is to streamline the dilapidated and out-dated conditions at the aging NAC and save tax dollars by eliminating tens of facilities scattered across the District. With nearly 50 facilities now, DHS hopes to someday have seven or eight, and the NAC campus would be one of the biggest.

NCPC approved the expansion, but tasked GSA to continue to work with the National Park Service to minimize impact on nearby park lands, submit a phasing plan for the project, look at ways to increase the tree canopy, consider lowering the security level (from level 5, the maximum) to soften the public view of the complex, remove non-historically significant buildings, and to move the entry point for employees who commute (by metro, foot or bike) closer to the Tenleytown Metro stop. NCPC asked GSA to continue coordinating with the Department of Transportation and the Office of Planning on this issue.

The NAC is small compared to DHS’s future headquarters - St. Elizabeths' in Anacostia - a 3.4 million s.f. space that will accommodate 14,000 DHS employees and share land with the Coast Guard. The NAC sits on a more modest 1.7 million s.f. (38 acres), and all new construction will be done within the current complex area, leaving the forested portions of the site pristine.

As it stands now, the NAC area is 55% developed (30 buildings for a total of 653,400 s.f), the draft Master Plan proposes to add six new buildings and a four-level (two above ground, two below) parking structure, for a total 1.2 million s.f.
The plan would reduce onsite impervious surfaces by 17% by featuring a green roof on all new structures - the largest one nearly two acres (70,000 s.f.), which will cloak the top of the onsite parking structure in vegetation (also making the view easy on high-rise eyes).

The green roofs, coupled with a yet-to-be-determined combination of porous pavement installations, ponds, gravel beds and underground water detention systems, will not only help the NAC site to achieve an environmentally friendly LEED gold certification, but will help manage and reuse stormwater, reducing runoff. A stormwater management system is currently lacking onsite, something Jim Clark, principal at MTFA Architecture, the consulting firm for the NAC, called out at the meeting as a "grave issue."

The new, greener parking structure will replace the existing one, relocated to the back of the complex from its current location at Ward Circle. Taking the old structure's spot in the highly visible area will be a "signature building" which GSA deems the NAC's "flagship building" - something it hopes will give "the campus a public presence and face on the circle."

The development of the NAC also takes into account the preservation of existing historical structures left over from earlier manifestations of the site as both the Mount Vernon Seminary for Girls (in the early 1900s), until the Roosevelt administration took the property by eminent domain in 1942 to use in the war effort, staffed mostly by women for cryptanalysis. In 2005 the property was transferred from the Department of Navy to the GSA for exclusive use by Homeland Security. GSA is currently readying a nomination of the site to the National Register of Historic Places.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Congress Heights Housing: Turning Nothing into Something

A vacant DC police substation located at 1320 Mississippi Avenue Southeast in the Congress Heights neighborhood south of Anacostia will soon be available for 19 "vulnerable" DC families. The building is being developed by William C. Smith + Co., and its construction arm WCS. The red-brick building originally went up as an apartment complex in 1950 and was remodeled into a Metropolitan Police Department substation in 1973, but was abandoned thereafter and has sat vacant, with boarded-up windows, for nearly 3 decades. Dilapidated conditions required WCS to do an all-out gut of the structure; the interior was taken down to "the bare bones" and given a thorough hazmat remediation and abatement (lead, mold, asbestos). Some demolition was necessary, however the sturdy exterior will remain largely intact upon project completion. A good portion of the building will by ADA compliant, with wheelchair ramp access and a three-story hydraulic elevator.

Located on land owned by the District, the project was realized due to the coordination between: the Dept. of Human Services (DHS); the Dept. of Housing and Community Development (DHCD); and the DC Housing Authority (DCHA). William C. Smith + Co. and DC-based non-profit Community of Hope (COH) submitted a response to a "consolidated" request for proposals that was put into motion in 2008. Moving relatively quickly, all parties met with Ward 8 ANC groups to ease misconceptions that the unit would be a shelter - which the community opposed - and WCS broke ground on construction for the $3.8 million project at the end of last fall. The project is currently on track to be completed in early fall. A project that caters to a "vulnerable" part of the population is not new in the building's surrounding area, which has seen its share of socially minded projects including an attempt by the now defunct Peaceaholics - a non-profit that aimed to reform troubled youths and stop gang violence - to develop a halfway house that did not pan out. 

Yet this project is unique in that it will cater to families, and tenants will be determined by a Vulnerability Assessment Survey (as is procedure under the guidelines of DHS's Permanent Supportive Housing Program) and Community of Hope will provide on-going case management services to the families on site. Having support services on site is a hallmark of COH's approach to combating homelessness; however, it will be the first time on-site services are incorporated into a DHS-owned project. Because the families will be responsible for lease payments there is an expectation of responsibility that Community of Hope believes will be well-received by the neighborhood. In other words: it's not a homeless shelter. Judging by past successes - last year COH placed 113 homeless families in subsidized housing and 111 made good on rent payments, remaining stably housed - executive director of COH, Kelly Sweeney McShane, says that she hopes for similar results here.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

OPX is in the Details

By Beth Herman

With the bling and bang of Chinatown steps from its front door, reimagining a tired, nondescript, mid-1980s limited services hotel property to reflect its robust neighbors, and also honor Asia's serenity and tradition, was not quite your grandmother’s hospitality redesign. Charged by new owner RLJ Development - which had acquired the former Comfort Inn- turned-Red Roof Inn property in June, 2010 - with transforming the property for its brand Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott, OPX project designer Ryan Langlois cited the 21st century fusion that is D.C.'s Chinatown. An evolving venue defined by an international range of shops, eateries and entertainment elements from Tony Cheng's, Vapiano’s, a Thai restaurant or two, Starbuck’s and the MCI Center, to traditional Chinese jelly fish and snake soup at the corner market, Langlois said the design inspiration came from the “sights, the sounds, the smells,” of the explosive, melded Chinatown experience. Fireworks withstanding, the onus was also on the firm to integrate the quiet grace and centuries-old symbolism of Asian culture into the new design, producing what Langlois called an “organic, modern, contemporary” environment. In this vein, a strong tradition of latticework evident in Chinese architecture, intricate wood screens, shades and shutters were used to punctuate the space in various forms, restyled and updated for focal quality. Where Asian symbols and design were referenced, experts were retained to review their authenticity. 

At the starting gate 

“When we designed this originally, we noted Fairfield Inn & Suites is more typically a conservative brand for the limited service sector,” Langlois explained, noting OPX had been involved in a rebranding effort for Marriott Corporate’s nationwide brand when RLJ approached them about the Chinatown property. Accordingly, OPX had taken a conventional design approach. “But RLJ looked at it and realized they really wanted to see more design – more Chinatown – in the project, and challenged us to go back to the drawing board and build on what we had,” he said. Helmed by Principal Ken Terzian, the 198-room, 10-story structure went under a rather large knife in a high-velocity, $7 million, nine-month renovation that began by reconfiguring a 2,700 s.f. lobby. With lessor The Irish Channel restaurant and pub occupying about 50 percent of the space at the outset, the renovation involved an expanded lobby to accommodate Fairfield Inn & Suite’s breakfast program, resulting in a reduction of The Irish Channel’s dining space and reconfiguration of its seating, but retention of its bar. In the lobby’s reception area, a bold 7-by-22-ft. graphic custom mural developed by Langlois and HG Arts greets guests. Abstract and textured, a water scene in the image of a “scaled-up” stream with a dragon atop a stone column, and another dragon that is overlaid, complement overlaying modern graphic twig patterns in turquoise and white. According to the designer, everything is printed on wall covering and “bedazzled,” or covered with thousands of transparent beads one-eighth of an inch in diameter so it all glistens. Wall washes ensure ultimate sparkle, and the mural wraps the corner and keeps on going. Simple water drop light fixtures frame the area, but do not detract from the focal point. “When you first walk in, you see one portion of it, and then when you exit the space, you see things from another side,” Langlois said, speaking to a litany of the property’s “surprises.” Included on the short list are tiled columns with upholstery wraps – or leather-like corsets– that resemble a kind of fabric wainscoting, replete with decorative fasteners that might be seen on Asian clothing. 

Eggs and vistas 

In the redesigned hotel breakfast area, as in the rest of the lobby space, windows are spacious and open to court interest from passersby. Conversely, when having breakfast, guests will be able to look out and see Washington, D.C. start its day, Langlois said. Redolent of Chinese dining halls where ceilings are typically comprised of 12-by-12-ft. squares with applied woodwork, gold trim and bright colors, the breakfast area’s ceiling insets honor the tradition. Four distinct coves are painted gold with surrounding LED lights, along with painted red gloss trim that makes up the decorative motif. Medallions spawn sculptural lighting fixtures that are 60 by 30-inch tapered drum shades, created by Langlois specifically for the project. Using decorative, Asian-style paper from The Paper Source, the designer lined the insides to create opaque objects that channel concentrated light directly down and onto the tables. Overlapping circular patterns inside the drums change color with the use of blue, green, gold, red and orange paper, creating a surprise detail for observant diners. To the side of the dining room, column-based dark brown wooden chopsticks light fixtures bring an Asian organic quality to the space, reminiscent of contemporary twigs-and-wire fixtures. The inside of the chopsticks fixtures is a “juicy saffron color – like the yellow of Buddhist monks’ robes – that’s going to glow against the brown and bronze metal trim,” Langlois said.

In the vestibule, a screen of Dacron-stuffed green interwoven patent leather panels embossed with a dragon scale texture, with polished stainless steel buttons, was inspired by Chinese temple doors. “You always see the red doors with the grid of gold buttons on them; this is our version,” Langlois said of the architects’ efforts to honor but update tradition. The top portion of the screen, with its Chinese square-in-the-circle motif trumpeted throughout the hotel (loosely translated, heaven is represented by a circle and earth by a square), is infilled by an acrylic panel of red flowers and reedy bamboo stems for an organic element. According to Langlois, the lobby business center became an adventure in scale, function and whimsy. Gilded by a specially-designed 16-by-86-inch box kite light fixture which referenced Asian kite festivals, the small space needed something more to distinguish it without overwhelming its dimension and budget. As such, the designer found a large veneer wood panel and had a canvas-wrapped print made of a stock photography image from HG Arts (colors were manipulated to match the carpet) for the panel’s right side. On the left, a series of polished, 3-inch chrome fortune cookies pepper the panel, reflecting the light from H Street. “Even if fortune cookies didn’t start in China, they are ubiquitous in American culture and associated with Chinatown,” Langlois said. Counters for laptops are made of enduring white, grey and blue-veined granite to perform well, but resemble marble. 

Of koi and custom case goods 

For OPX, the challenge to transition from bold, bubbling lobby to sanctuary-like guest corridors and rooms was met with homage to organic and natural shapes, colors and textures. With water connoting restfulness and flowers a mainstay of Asian culture (there’s a whole protocol for giving, receiving, occasioning, etc. according to Langlois), a carpeted floating pond corridor was envisioned with colorful koi pulled off to the side, disappearing beneath corridor walls as they would swim beneath the edges of a pond embankment. Tree trunks are represented by dark brown columns flanking guestroom doors, and a pale yellow wall covering reveals abstract twig patterns in yellows and golds, much like branches. (Langlois did mention a nod to cherry blossoms on a wall. Though not from China, they bespeak the beauty of Asia and what’s Washington without them!) Guestrooms came with their own set of construction caveats the team had to overcome, according to Langlois, dominant among them walls that were precast concrete. “It’s great for sound, but not so great for renovation requisites like new power, Internet and other technology,” Langlois said. Addressing Marriott’s standard package for hotel rooms which includes a freestanding desk, chair, dresser, TV, full length mirror and welcome sconce in a 12 or 12.5-ft. floorplan, the designer noted these rooms, constructed years ago for another hotel and only 11-by-6-ft., were shy of necessary space. To that end, a slimmed down/component integrated custom case goods piece was designed with features like a smaller desk (scaled to laptop size) cantilevered off a chest of drawers, and a dual-purposed built-in bench accommodating luggage and providing extra seating. An open shelf beneath a wall-mounted TV houses a coffeemaker and amenity tray. Tantamount to the economy-of-space room design, an Asian theme was manifested in a headboard pattern with the traditional square-in-circle motif reflected in other parts of the hotel, this time inside a fleur-di-lis, and via the use of red accent color in a nod to Chinese lacquer ware. With the décor package for the guestrooms built upon the Marriott standard in part, carpeting is blue with a green geometric pattern overlay, but the colors flow from the corridors’ aforementioned “floating pond” theme for continuity. “You don’t want to walk in off bright orange carpet,” Langlois said of the objective to create a seamless, restful environment. “This is a unique hotel,” said RLJ Development, LLC’s Carl Mayfield, senior vice president for design and construction, speaking to the company’s catalogue of 141 properties. “It’s transformational. We’ve got a few gems in our portfolio, and this is one of them.” 

Your Next Place...

By Franklin Schneider

I'm sort of bad with directions and it took me awhile to find this place. But when I finally walked up, I was immediately impressed. A beautiful little porch, quaint architectural details, large yard. I couldn't wait to see the interior! But when I tried the front door, it was locked. Another open houser was walking nearby, scrutinizing the yard, and I waved her over. "Aren't they showing this place today?" I asked. "The front door is locked." "That's the garage,” she said. "The house is over there.”

Yes, I get paid for this. But that's how charming this place is – I was ready to put in a seven-figure offer on the garage. And the actual house didn't disappoint either. An excruciatingly classy French country home, it has a large, open living room with french doors that open onto the sprawling back yard, a massive gourmet kitchen, four bedrooms and four bathrooms (I think we can all agree that the less sharing the better), a separate library (also with french doors), a palatial master suite, and a fantastic dining room in which you can sit three times a day and make passive-aggressive remarks to your fellow family members about their hairstyles (“I didn't even know people still liked Jennifer Aniston!”). There's also a huge stone patio and a fully-finished, ridiculously roomy plush basement with recessed lighting. Traditionally this is the part of the house you make into a “rumpus room” for your kids and all their crap, but this basement is waaaay too nice for that. I'd suggest the garage, but that's also too nice. Maybe there's an old septic tank you could have converted. Feel free to ask the agent about it (not really).

3316 Rowland Place NW
Washington, DC 20008
4 Bdrms, 4.5 Baths
$1,495,000

Falkland Chase Apartments, Chasing a Plan for Silver Spring

One of Silver Spring's largest and most ambitious real estate projects is ramping up for development next year. Though the urban planning vision is not yet complete, developers of Falkland Chase hope to submit a site plan to Montgomery County early this summer for a project that would greatly expand the densified downtown section of Silver Spring, adding high rises, 1250 apartments, a supermarket and retail to East-West highway one block from the Silver Spring Metro.

Michael Eastwood of Home Properties says the development team has not yet signed an anchor tenant but intends to serve up a final site plan to the county "by June or July." The county approved the preliminary plan last November, and Home has been working on tweaking the design that will develop the North Parcel, turning 182 garden apartments into 1250 new apartments in 4 new buildings along the Metro track and soon to be Purple Line. The new residential towers will rise up to 14 stories along the tracks and 6-8 stories along East-West highway, denser but "more sensitive to the neighboring community."

With financing for the property still not locked down, Home Properties has been seeking a full service grocer to help tether a financing partner, courting Harris Teeter since 2005, but still without an agreement. "We are trying to chase them down" says Eastwood, who notes that his team also has the capability of going it alone in a pinch. "We're a REIT so we could do it on our own and will be building in phases."

The northern boundary faces the Metro tracks and is the "locally preferred alternative" for the Purple Line. The property features a 40 foot right of way that could serve as a light rail pass-through (the site is only one block from the station so there will be no stop incorporated), as well as a bike path right of way. Design of the project is still preliminary, and while Nelson Byrd Woltz has been selected as the landscape architect for the project, actual design has not yet been achieved.
Home Properties acquired the land in 2003 and began planning for a quick turnaround, submitting to the county in 2006. Plans were "cued up and ready to go" says Eastwood, but market fundamentals sabotaged early plans. Locals then began a campaign to declare the property - inaugurated in 1937 by Eleanor Roosevelt when the New Deal was expanding, as now, the size of government and the area's population - as historic, an ultimately successful bid that changed the scope of the plans. With many of the apartments protected, Home Properties then doubled down on the northern section switched the architect from Grimm + Parker to Shalom Baranes, increasing the number of units while connecting them better to the street. "It really took from fall of 2007 to spring of 2009 to get the two south parcels on the charts for historic preservation, and get the north to come off the locational atlas" said Eastwood. The residential towers originally conceived would have encircled a private courtyard, the new design adds a street through the center, with street-oriented buildings. "Its a more urban design than what we had originally."

Eastwood says the projects will "definitely be" rental units. Retail - about 10,000 s.f. in addition to the supermarket - will front East-West, aided by a new traffic signal.

Silver Spring, Maryland real estate development news

Q & A with Mary Oehrlein

Q & A with Mary Oehrlein Historic Preservation Officer for the Architect of the Capitol By Beth Herman 

On February 28, Mary Oehrlein became the second historic preservation officer in history for the Architect of the Capitol. In her new capacity, she oversees 17 million s.f. of existing buildings within the Capitol jurisdiction in what she calls “a constant state of upgrade,” including the Capitol, Supreme Court, Botanical Gardens and all House and Senate office buildings. Oehrlein joins a legion of 2,600, including skilled tradespeople and artisans, who comprise the behemoth staff. As founder and president of Mary Oehrlein & Associates in 1984, a D.C.-based firm specializing in historic preservation, Oehrlein executed the restoration of many dozens of Washington and regional landmarks including St. Matthews Cathedral and Peterson House (where Lincoln died). The firm oversaw the exterior restoration of the damaged wing of the Pentagon, the stone conservation of the Washington Monument, and preservation of the historic buildings at Jefferson/Clara Barton residences, Terrell Place Offices and Residences, Lansburgh’s, Gallery Row and National Institutes of Sciences. It also renovated the General Post Office - the first post office of the United States - in its transition to the Hotel Monaco. DCMud checked in with Oehrlein about her new role. 

DCMud: The position of historic preservation officer for the AOC wasn’t created until 2006. What precipitated it?

Oehrlein: One of the goals of the AOC is preservation. It’s always been an underlying thought, but until 2006, no one had expressly written about preserving these buildings, along with their landscapes and art, monuments and memorials, paintings, murals and decorative painting, beautiful bronze railings and monumental bronze doors. There’s a great wealth of material, and it wasn’t a stated policy that among the AOC’s missions was to preserve all of this. 

DCMud: Mary Oehrlein & Associates is among D.C.’s preeminent historic preservation architecture firms and has been in existence since 1984. What led to your decision to close up shop and accept the position of historic preservation officer for the Architect of the Capitol? 

Oehrlein: I haven’t entirely closed my firm, but it all happened very fast. I’d been thinking for some time that I’d like to do something different and not continue to run my own office forever. I’d joked with the person who was in this office previously, Bill Allen (long time architectural historian who’d held the newly-mandated position since 2006). I said, “Bill, I really want your job. I can’t think of anything that would be more fun.” He always told me to wait until he retired. DCMud: And when did that occur? 

Oehrlein: He retired last year, and the job was posted. I wasn’t really looking at that point, but submitted my qualifications by December and it all fell into place. I had to decide what to do with my firm. I love what I do, but some days the management aspects were a lot to handle. It’s time consuming to deal with contracts and proposals and personnel issues and office leases – everything that goes along with running an office. I was ready for a change. 

DCMud: How has that change manifested for you? 

Oehrlein: This is just ideal. I am working in the best building in the country, doing pretty much what I love to do, which is preservation. My job is to review projects that are happening here and set policy for preservation of the buildings. I identify what’s significant and what needs to be retained and preserved: It’s everything from policy, management and implementation to specific project review and writing specifications for preservations and maintenance. 

DCMud: Can you provide some specifics about the day-to-day and long range aspects of your job.

Oehrlein: There’s always a lot going on with these buildings – a lot of projects underway. These include a range of tasks from replacing light fixtures to major mechanical overhauls. Replacing all the plumbing piping in the Capitol is a project that’s in the planning stages now. 

DCMud: What are some of the inherent challenges?

Oehrlein: Well, how do we do things without impacting the really decorative finishes, artwork and decorative arts in the building, or the ornamental plaster or marble floors. How are these projects accomplished in the best way possible with a minimal amount of intervention and impact? Those are the big projects, but sometimes it comes down to something as simple as the masonry shop wants to point a building, and they ask about materials and procedures. Issues range from technical to planning. 

DCMud: In your few short months in the position, is there anything you’ve observed that you’d like done differently? Oehrlein: I would like there to be more ongoing maintenance. I’ve always been a proponent of maintaining buildings rather than allowing them to deteriorate, and then having to spend a lot of money to repair and restore them. One of my goals is to increase the focus on basic, good quality cyclical maintenance of all the materials we deal with: historic windows; exterior stone; all the beautiful bronze that’s here; artwork; decorative arts. 

DCMud: Is there a particular project on which you are currently working that might raise some eyebrows?

Oehrlein: I’m working on a major project currently in the predesign phase: a total rehabilitation of the Cannon House Office Building. The last major intervention was in 1966, and it involves all new mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. Forty-five years is a long time for systems to continue to operate, and work is slated to begin in another five years in 2016. 

DCMud: For your first job working for a construction company that was doing restoration work, before preservation architecture was even practiced, you once said you spent months in the stacks at the Library of Congress researching historic preservation materials and procedures. Those were the days that the public had largely unlimited access to the stacks, which it no longer has. As historic preservation officer, presumably you will once again have access. Had you thought about that? 

Oehrlein: (Laughing) I have to say that’s one of the things I thought about when I accepted this position, that wow, I’ll have access to the stacks again. 

DCMud: And what about your own firm? 

Oehrlein: It’s still functioning and probably will be through the end of the year. I’m at the AOC during the day and working nights and weekends to keep up with things privately. We are also clearing out 30 years’ worth of project files, books, records, drawings and photographs from the firm that need to be disposed of, moved, packed and/or stored. Some of the work is going to the D.C. library, and the Washington Historical Society is taking some of the photographs as we always took them before we started our work. 

DCMud: Is there anything we haven’t asked about which readers may be curious? 

Oehrlein: Everybody is asking me if they can have a tour of my new offices. I tell them they can, just as soon as I can find my own way around these buildings without getting lost. I also tell former clients they can continue to call me. The advice line is still open!

Washington DC commercial design news

Erkiletian to Deliver Apartments in Old Town

The Asher, a 206-unit multi-family residential project in Old Town Alexandria, is on track for delivery in spring of 2012, says Bill Denton, Vice President of Development for Erkiletian, the local suburban developer behind Alexandria's Halstead Towers and the Discovery building in downtown Silver Spring.

The project broke ground in November 2010 at 621 North Payne Street, the former site of a Security Storage Warehouse, two blocks from the Braddock Road Metro. The building which the developer hopes will secure LEED-Silver certification will feature terraces and a landscaped plaza, a business and fitness center, a sliver of retail, and 256 underground parking spaces.

Rust Orling Architecture and Hovnanian conceived the project, to which Erkiletian added 60 units and signed on Lessard Group for support.

Buchanan Gardens Groundbreaking Tonight

Developers will launch the redo of Buchanan Gardens tonight at 5pm. The sprawling affordable housing complex built in 1949 will undergo $32m in renovations at the hands of low-income housing provider Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH). The buildings will be gutted and renovated over the course of the next eighteen months.

Financed through loans and grants by the Virginia Housing Development Authority and the Arlington Housing Investment Fund, and with Low Income Housing Tax Credits and grants from private foundations, the housing will be available to those making 60% of AMI or less.

Wiencek+Associates and Hamel Builders will transfigure the 111-unit building into a more modern, greener version of itself, with new energy efficiencies and water saving features. Construction is expected to complete in December of 2012. APAH purchased Buchanan Gardens in December of 2009.

Arlington, Virginia real estate development news