The Geography Lesson

By Beth Herman

The result of a strong, symbiotic design-build effort between Square 134 Architects and Ellisdale Construction & Development, The Harrison, 5201 Wisconsin Avenue, was in many ways a significant architectural challenge.

With 48 units, a tin and brick façade, slate, glass or marble interior spaces and 9-foot ceiling heights, the 40,000 s.f. $10 million development in Friendship Heights straddles the zoning line between commercial and residential, and triumphed over considerable zoning challenges, Square 134 Architects Principal Ron Schneck said. “On Connecticut and Wisconsin Avenues, you have these very large commercial structures right along the street, and then very quickly you have residential next to that.”

At the time of the feasibility study, and many others like it, the architect said it was difficult to find affordable, developable spare space within the city. Built on a “very complicated” infill site that, in order to comply with zoning requirements, is technically considered an addition to the Bank of America, Schneck said in order to be an addition a "meaningful connection" must be established. In this case, the lowest level of the parking garage aligned with Bank of America, with shared parking a result. Additionally, the goal was to have the building respond to the aforementioned large scale commercial nature of Wisconsin Avenue, but also step down to the residential aspect, which is right there, the architect explained.

Addressing yet another facet of the architectural challenge, The Harrison was conceived to have the utmost flexibility. According to Schcneck, when a building of this nature is conceived, typically the demising partition is the bearing line, making it fairly easy from a construction standpoint. But The Harrison was created so that the building’s skin was its bearing, providing for maximum flexibility in arranging units. With no vertical spacing, the structure is more open with horizontal banding, easily accommodating several design iterations that included roving windows and reimagining about two-thirds of the original concept. “Elements could be modified to meet the unit mix,” Schneck said, noting The Harrison’s one-and two-bedroom market-rate units range from 500 to 1,200 s.f.

With a landscaped courtyard that includes fire and water features, plus individual front terraces, in-unit task lighting and porcelain tile, at market rate The Harrison was 80 percent sold by completion. "We really had to try and crack the zoning issues," Schneck said. "It came out of the ground at a time when nothing like it was under construction."

Full Raze Petition Rebuked by HPO for New Jersey Ave Houses

The Third Street Church of God will now plump for a full demolition of three historic rowhouses on New Jersey Avenue, a turnaround from their original plans to only partially raze the structures. The Church got a preliminary okay from DC's Historic Preservation Office (HPO), then got support from the Historic Preservation Review Board in June, both for a partial (not full) demolition of its property at 1232-1236 New Jersey Avenue, NW. After HPRB approved the partial raze request, the Church immediately asserted it would fight for a full raze, as the Church seemed to have felt pressured into partial preservation.

Making good on that promise, the Church is seeking to fully demolish the property by petitioning the Mayor's Agent with the plea of economic burden, a move that the HPO has just opposed.

The three rowhouses next to the Church on New Jersey Avenue date back to 1866, but have become severely decrepit in the last few decades of life. Still, HPRB determined that the front façades and brick party walls of the rowhouses maintained their integrity and could be braced and retained, resulting in the call for partial preservation this summer.

The most recent HPO report opposing the Church's full raze petition says "The conditions at 1234 and 1236 can largely be blamed on 20 years of deferred maintenance...the Board has always stood against approving razes of buildings brought to a state of dilapidation by lack of maintenance, as approval would not only result in the loss of historic fabric and character in the particular, but would reward and encourage such neglect in general."

If the Mayor's Agent does approve the Church's petition for a full raze, then the cleared site would be incorporated into the Church parking lot, in order to offset the 15 spaces (in the 32 space lot) that will be lost due to the addition on its property at 1208 3rd St.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

Wow. This incredible Grand Colonial sits on a massive quarter-acre lot in Barnaby Woods, looming hugely over the neighborhood like something huge that looms over things. (Khloe Kardashian?) The white brick looks incandescent in the afternoon light, and the huge tree-shaded corner lot is exquisitely landscaped and slopes gracefully to the street; you won't find many houses like this in the District, short of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

This classy house also features five bedrooms, four full baths, and more hardwood flooring than ten bowling alleys. Also, three fireplaces, in case two fireplaces is simply inadequate for your combustion requirements. Man, this house was just huge. They could film a remake of “The Shining” here, though it would be a shame to ruin the floors with all that fake blood. The master suite upstairs also features a beautiful veranda, from which you can survey the entire neighborhood, as they no doubt jealously eye your huge landscaped corner lot and veranda. There's a screened-in porch that's ideal for lounging, and a formal dining room for, well, formal dining.

There's also a two-car garage, which comes in handy. Growing up, my house had a two-car garage but we only had one car, so quite often my father would sit on an overturned bucket in that empty space, staring off into the night and wondering where he'd gone wrong. At other times, we used it for jetski storage.

6520 Barnaby St.

Washington DC 20015
$995,000

"College Main Street" for Catholic University Breaks Ground

The Bozzuto Group and Abdo Development broke ground today on the joint $200-million development "Monroe Street Market," an undertaking that will create a 9-acre, mixed-use village surrounding a new "college main street" to serve Catholic University of America (CUA) in Brookland.

By offering the South Campus land for development, CUA "did the opposite of what many universities do, and put the land [five city blocks] back into the city's tax base" said Jim Abdo, who was exuberant that the project is moving from "vision and concept to actual reality" and is now embarking on three years of construction; the first phase, by Bozzuto Construction, includes 562 residential units, aiming to deliver in mid 2013.

In May of 2008, Abdo beat out tens of competitors including EYA, Monument Realty and Trammell Crow for the right to purchase the South Campus from CUA, and subsequently turn the land - a collection of empty lots and old dormitories - into university-serving amenities and housing.

The $200-million project is receiving "no public subsidy of any kind," Abdo confirmed in his speech, which was followed by Tom Bozzuto, who expressed gratitude to "the vision of Pritzker [to invest in the project]... when virtually no other investors in 2008/2009 would [offer financing]." Fully entitled before the fall of 2008, developers relied on confidence from "alliances and great partnerships" to escape being sidelined completely by the great recession.

In the summer of 2010, Bozzuto and Chicago-based Pritzker Realty Group (which controls the non-hotel real estate holdings of the Hyatt hotel founders, the Pritzker family) announced a $75-million joint investment fund in multifamily housing, and then revealed that a significant portion of that fund was being invested in Abdo's plans to develop Catholic University's South Campus.

Bozzuto added, "In September of 2008, when the world was crashing around us...the bankers at Bank of America stood ground with us." Bank of America was also in attendance at the ceremony today.

Architects at Torti Gallas (responsible for land-use planning and a portion of design), Maurice Walters, and KTGY have combined the collegiate Gothic look of the century-old CUA with the Brookland neighborhood's arts and crafts style.

Of the location, lay-out and design, CUA President John Garvey said, "[The development] will increase the safety of the neighborhood and improve the aesthetics of the area."

Monroe Street, from Michigan Avenue to the Monroe Street Bridge, will be turned into a main drag and will be "the backbone" of the development. At the Michigan Avenue end will be a 1,000-s.f. public square with central fountain and a 70' clock tower.

The entire development includes over 900,000 s.f. of gross floor area and will be constructed in phases. In all, there will be 718 residential units (8-percent, or 63,000 s.f., will be affordable at 80-percent of AMI) both apartments and condos, 45 single-family townhomes (three of the 21-unit string on Kearny Street will be affordable at 80-percent of AMI), 83,000 s.f. of retail space, 15,000 s.f. of artist space (27 studios), a 3,000-s.f. community arts center and 850 below-grade parking spaces.

An "Arts Walk," along 8th Street between Michigan Ave and Monroe St, will be a pedestrian- only corridor flanked by two 5-story buildings that will provide 27 ground-floor artist studios (at below-market rent) and 13,500-s.f. of retail at the southern ends along Monroe Street. The top four floors of the buildings will contain 152 residential units.

Along 8th Street, south of Monroe Street, are numerous industrial and arts uses, including Brookland Artspace Lofts, and Dance Place. The site is adjacent to the Red Line Brookland/CUA Metro stop, making it a "transit-oriented development."

The Monroe Street Market development will also improve the intersections of Michigan Avenue at Monroe Street and 7th Street, as well as complete the Metropolitan Branch Trail along the Metro Track, and add "aesthetic improvements" to the Monroe Street Bridge.

The Zoning Commission approved the development's plan in December of 2009, after Abdo was selected as the developer in 2008, six years after Catholic University set down in its 2002 Campus Plan that the South Campus area should be "phased out as a student housing area, and reserved for cooperative ventures between the University and other appropriate organizations.”


Washington D.C. real estate development news

New Apartment and Safeway for Downtown Wheaton Gets Going Today

Fall brings more change to downtown Wheaton, as today marks the start of construction of The Exchange at Wheaton, 486 apartments in a 17-story building and 60,000-s.f. anchor-tenant Safeway on Georgia Avenue. Groundbreaking, by Foulger-Pratt, will occur at 10 am today on Patriot Realty's "Wheaton Safeway" redevelopment that will create a transit-oriented development directly across from the Wheaton Metro. Designed by Baltimore-based architecture firm Hord Coplan Macht, the new building has the appearance of three individual towers of concrete and glass connected at the center. 

Safeway shoppers will use an underground parking garage, and apartment residents have three levels of parking above the store. A cutback in the massing in between each tower allows for a fifth-floor courtyard above the residential parking garage. The new Safeway will open for business in 2013, and will be followed by several other retailers at the location: a Starbucks, SunTrust, and a Bergman’s Drycleaners. Developers originally intended to break ground early this spring, which puts the project only modestly behind schedule, not a bad achievement, all things considered. 

Maryland real estate development news

What Came First, the Kitchen or the Egg

By Beth Herman

It was something like the old Kohler commercial where the homeowners walk into a voguish architectural firm, instructing the equally-voguish principal to build a house around a faucet.

For interior designer and decidedly more approachable Principal Beth Leas of Interior Revivals, LLC, a seminal grey brick cement terrazzo kitchen floor in a Great Falls, Virginia residence was considered a key style component of the home, and in many ways even defined the mid-1990s residence. Originally built and owned by an area architect, the kitchen nevertheless presented a two-pronged design challenge for Leas.

At first glance, the vast 1,800 s.f. space had a decidedly poor layout, with appliances spaced so far apart they did not accommodate the lifestyle of the busy young family living there now. Tantamount to that, the aesthetics of the existing floor did not impress the homeowner, who'd felt strongly about replacing it.

“To me, a house should have a certain look, and you should never destroy that look,” Leas said. While she maintained a home's personality is established through furniture, the contemporary and natural feel of this house was largely articulated through its organic kitchen floor.

Additionally, with the refrigerator and sink separated by about 14 feet, Leas counted this among other user-unfriendly elements. Because the homeowners, with three little boys, were from extended Italian families and loved to cook for parties and family gatherings, proximity and efficiency were determining elements in reimagining the space.

Better utilizing an empty counter in the center of the room, Leas created an island with cooktop, along with a peninsula and lower bar seating area for the children for snacks and homework, but which separated them from the potentially hot cooktop temperatures. In an effort to efficiently harness space and incorporate aesthetics, a favorite lighted wood and glass china cabinet was relocated to the cooking area, with its elegant display always in sight.

Framing a new granite composition sink that reflected the home’s natural elements, an existing and enormous window connected the space to a sunroom on the other side that angled down. “You didn’t look directly into the room, but you were looking through its angled glass roof,” Leas explained, adding she wanted to mitigate the openness and sightline. To that end, the designer introduced a stained glass element that let in the light, “but made you feel as though you were no longer standing in front of a big hole.”

Addressing the controversial kitchen floor, Leas conceded neither she nor her tile professional had seen anything like it (though she later saw it outside of a building, she said). A decision to retain it was predicated on power washing its three-inch cement grout component, which had become grainy-looking over time and needed brightening. To complement the floor’s grey tones, Leas painted existing Craftsman maple kitchen cabinets a muted grey and installed quartz countertops redolent of the terrazzo floor, tying the space together.

Lighting was achieved through an integration of recessed lights and hand blown Italian glass pendants. “Everything else was kept very simple,” Leas said, noting she introduced bright, sophisticated, artisan-like Oggetti Luce fixtures in a variety of colors. Subway tiles on the walls with granite and abalone shell trim reinforced the kitchen’s natural visage, and black appliances replaced existing stainless steel which the designer said conflicted with the cabinets’ grey palette.

“At the end of the renovation, the client said it felt like the kitchen was supposed to have been that way from the beginning,” Leas affirmed, “which is the way design is supposed to be.”

14th Street Project Altered, Moves Forward, After ANC Review

14th Street's newest residences have made it through community input, now a bit smaller, and with a new look. "The Irwin," a 6-story, mixed use building designed by Torti Gallas and Partners, will take the place of a 1960s-era warehouse at 1326-1328 14th Street, now with a new slightly shrunken design and new facade since it was first conceptualized six months ago, as a result of ANC, HPO and neighborhood input.

But in replacing the "hole in the urban fabric" on 14th, the Torti Gallas design team said that it has not been frustrated with the process. Conversely, they claim to have enjoyed working with the HPO (what architect doesn't want a committee to change their design?), the immediate neighbors, and the ANC 2F Community Development Committee in shaping the direction of the project.

The next step by owner/developer Irwin Edlavitch and architect Torti Gallas will be to take the revised design to the Historic Preservation Review Board for approval in December, and to the Board of Zoning Adjustment next spring with the request for a variance from parking and loading requirements and to allow multiple roof structures of varying height.



The initial design concept from June is seen below. The design was for 61 residential units, ground floor retail, 5.3 floor-to-area-ratio (FAR), 75' tall (size permitted by the Art Overlay zoning regulations).  The HPO requested a one story reduction, an increase in the "attic reading" at the top story, and that the "frame" of the building be brought to the property line. This design was taken to the ANC at the end of August, which requested that the design be presented to immediate neighbors and that the building "relate more to the historic context of 14th Street and be made to look more residential".

In light of the new directive, the building was given a new skin and distinct bays. The new version was submitted to the Board of Zoning Adjustment and presented to the ANC in September, which asked the design team to eliminate the "frame" and replace the terra-cotta rainscreen with masonry materials.


The end result of the participatory process is the current design, which will go before the HPRB in December, after a presentation to the full ANC. As described by Sarah Alexander, Associate with Torti Gallas, "This design incorporates a more traditional skin of red brick masonry with still keeping the playful 'artistic' moves [including the] entry canopy and rooftop stair towers." There will be an entry lobby visible from the street that will have an "art gallery feel."


With approximately half the ground floor space taken up by a lobby, garage entry and loading space, there will be around 4,000 s.f. left for use by a retailer. The project includes 53 residential units, 20 parking spaces (all covered or below grade), a small fitness room and roof terrace.

On the other side of the restaurant at Thai Tanic, located next to The Irwin, C.A.S. Riegler is in the process of creating a 5-unit boutique condo, at 1324 14th Street.

Next door, 1320 and 1318 are currently under construction, to be turned into The Pig, a "nose and tail, farm to table" creation by Eatwell DC, which should be open for business next spring, and more apartments by Tikvah Inc.

Washington D.C. real estate and retail development news

Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

When I first saw this place, I was sure it was the house from the Eighties sitcom "Who's the Boss?" I don't know quite why I mention this; maybe just because I spent twenty minutes googling it (it's not – that house is in upstate NY) and I don't want that time to be totally wasted. Also, anyone and anything that's ever been on television is automatically fifty percent more attractive. Just ask Doug Hutchison from “Lost.”

Not that this house needs a TV bump. A beautiful Colonial-style home right on Rock Creek Park, it has plenty of natural appeal. I feel like when a house is described as a “Colonial,” it gives the impression of a sort of staid, uptight aesthetic, but this house is anything but staid. Beautifully updated, the interior is totally unique and even a bit flashy (just check out the dining room). The house also boasts a two-story atrium, a chef's kitchen, a large stone patio out back, and a stunning master suite that features a white marble fireplace. Situated just this side of the Maryland/D.C. Line, it's just minutes to Silver Spring and Bethesda, if you have business in Maryland or are just a masochist.

Also, it's right on Rock Creek Park, which you can't put a price on. (Actually, you can: just scroll down a bit.) But seriously, this is huge; live here and your backyard is one of the East Coast's finest public green spaces. If you have kids or a dog or just want to dispose of a lot of discarded household appliances at night, park access will increase your quality of life by a thousand percent. And numbers don't lie (even made up ones).

8132 West Beach Drive NW
4 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths
$995,000

Southwest Wharf Developers Move onto Design Phase

With Zoning Commission approval of the First Stage zoning application secured last week, PN Hoffman and Madison Marquette - joint developers of the $2-billion Wharf in Southwest - now turn to the completion of the Second Stage PUD, in order for submittal early next year.

The Hoffman-Madison team has been gaining momentum in filling its 3.2 million s.f. development along the northern shore of the Washington Channel and aims to begin construction on the first phase (of three) in the first quarter of 2013.

The first phase of construction, expected to take four years, will build out 40 percent of the entire development with parcels 2 thru 5 (seen to the right).

Site designs, in order from north to south, will include: two apartment towers above a 100,000-s.f. multi-purpose theater (parcel 2); a four-star, 268-room hotel by Carr Hospitality and InterContinental Hotels Group, which purchased the site in early October, and office space with signed tenant the Graduate School USA (parcel 3); an apartment and condominium building (parcel 4), and two JBG Companies-operated hotels, a limited service and an extended stay (parcel 5). All of the parcels will include ground floor retail, with the combined total approximately 300,000 s.f.

The first phase also includes the restructuring of portions of 7th and 9th Streets at Maine Avenue, a new Capital Yacht Club, two new piers - "City Pier" off of 9th and "Transit Pier" - and a major infrastructure overhaul of Water Street, the grand scheme being to turn Water Street (running parallel to the shore) into a promenade with 60' of width shared between pedestrians, streetcars, bikes, and outdoor diners.

The Wharf is being developed in partnership with the District, which agreed to provide $200 million in public financing in 2008. Madison Marquette joined PN Hoffman as a partner in the spring of 2010, after the partnership with Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse faltered. PN Hoffman and Struever were selected by the now-defunct Anacostia Waterfront Corporation as the joint Master Developer for the Southwest Waterfront in 2006.

Update: 11/7 Added in residential plan for parcel 4, corrected second pier name to "Transit Pier," and changed "Office of Zoning" to "Zoning Commission"

Washington D.C. real estate development news

American Institute of Architects Opens New DC Center Tomorrow

How stressful is it for the architect chosen to design a new center for architects? According to the winning team at Hickok Cole, not that stressful. Hundreds of architects will have their chance to judge the design tonight as the DC chapter of the American Institute of Architects unveils the District Architecture Center. The new Penn Quarter showroom, an 11,000 s.f. retail space for architects and public education of architecture, will offer free admission to the public beginning tomorrow to "learn more about the importance and impact of architecture design and the profession," and will kick off the week with a series of public lectures throughout the week.

Hickok Cole won the design competition from 16 submissions to design the architecture headquarters, beginning a full renovation this May that is still wrapping up in advance of tonight's private unveiling. The remake transforms the two-story retail space on 7th Street - once the Obama souvenir shop - into offices, classrooms, and instructional space that serves to educate AIA members while pulling in foot traffic to engage and instruct with videos and links to DC's better examples of architectural design. The AIA wants you to appreciate the sense of transparency:

[the space has] two distinct volumes: a wood room that signifies solidity, and a glass room that suggests openness. Together, the two rooms produce a sense of warmth and openness. The use of glass walls and a glass ‘bridge’ for the center classroom in the heart of the building extends the feeling of openness and makes the building appear more spacious, while connecting it to the lower level. Natural daylight flows through the street storefront into the glass volume, and down to the lower level.

With interior walls composed almost entirely of glass, most of ground floor is visible from the street, back to the rear board room, filled in between with polished concrete and walnut floors and a two-story glass box that serves as offices (below) and a meeting room above. A floating glass bridge serves to connect the two meeting spaces while illuminating the subterranean office space. Exposed I-beams lend a design motif to the center, with railing stanchions and desks imitating the shape and color of the original beams. "We tried to create as much transparency as possible," said Tom Corrado, an architect with Hickok Cole that was responsible for executing the design vision.

The $1.9m makeover (about $400,000 over budget, alas) was contrived to achieve a LEED Gold ranking within the 1917 Oddfellows Building, and precedes, just barely, the 125th anniversary of the AIA that will be celebrated in Washington D.C. next year, drawing architects from around the country for the convention.

While conspiracy minded architects might note that Hickok Cole was not only the winning bidder, but also on the AIA DC board and judged the competition (and a major donor to the center), Michael Hickok assures DCMud that the competition was blind and - really, truly - judged as anonymous bids.

Hickok shrugged off the pressure from being judged on his work by the many architects that will use the space, saying the design was routine. "You do what you do. We didn't give this more attention" than other projects. Hundreds of architects are likely to be on hand tonight to judge for themselves if the inspiration was worthy of DC's public face of architecture. For those that can't make it to the center, check out the DC architecture app for your phone.

The Buzz in Southwest

Early this year, Duane Deason was just beginning the Office of Zoning's review process

for his Eric Colbert & Associates-designed residential building on a nearly 20,000-s.f piece of Anacostia riverfront property at 95 V Street in Southwest's Buzzard Point. Now, with Zoning approval secured in early August, seven years after the land investment was made by Deason, he is finally able to focus on the pursuit of "a variety of options including sale or joint venture." The 8-story, 110,760-s.f. building known as "Marina Place" will offer 97 units, with 9 set aside at less than market rate. On the ground floor, on the corner of V and 1st Street, will be 1,788 s.f. of retail space. Below grade will be two levels of parking split up into 108 spaces. In January, Deason said, "The views are phenomenal because its on a point, almost every unit in the building will have an outstanding view of the water." 

Deason bought his plot of Buzzard Point with the inkling that waterfront property was bound to deliver a substantial return on investment eventually, but it's been slow going for development projects slated for Buzzard Point, with any kind of concrete news much anticipated. Of interest to the area is the South Capitol Street Bridge project, to replace the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, which is "finally proceeding forward," said Deason. The new bridge is part of the planned South Capitol Street revitalization effort to turn the thoroughfare into "a grand, urban boulevard... [with] elliptical traffic circle that will serve as open space for future monuments and memorials." The project, part of the larger Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, includes bringing the Anacostia Riverwalk around the Southwest bend. A DDOT project manager for the South Capitol Street Bridge said, "The Final Environmental Impact Statement was approved this summer which provided a preferred alternative conceptual design. We are currently advancing the plans to proceed with the Land Acquisition phase of the project. Construction is currently unfunded." Although DDOT confirmed that the project is going forward, exactly when is vague, and depends greatly on funding. Deason added that one improvement to the Anacostia waterfront area will involve the large Pepco substation located just north of his Marina Place residential building, "The generators are officially decommissioned in March of 2012 which will allow the removal of the large generators and petroleum storage tanks."

A healthy chunk of Buzzard Point currently waiting on development is privately owned by commanding D.C. developer Akridge: the 9-acre "100 V Street." The site is a game changer for the area, and of particular interest, to not just Buzzard Point but the entire District, as speculation continues that a new stadium for D.C. United on a portion of Akridge's three-block property between T and V Street is being hashed out; a deal that would keep the soccer team, now frustrated with its home at RFK stadium, in D.C. Akridge would not comment except to say that murmurs of a deal are "still just speculation." Steven Goff's Washington Post column "Soccer Insider," has an ongoing poll soliciting reader opinion on D.C. United's future, with the last option being: the team will "remain at RFK until the final brick crumbles, pipe bursts, raccoon visits." Goff also grilled D.C. United's president Kevin Payne recently on the search for land and the pursuit of local investors. For the time being, the sole project underway in Buzzard Point is Camden Property Trust's 276-unit apartment building "Camden South Capitol," to the west of the Nationals' Stadium on the corner of O and South Capitol Street. 

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

Yeesh. I've described many places as having “lots of light,” but as soon as I walked into this place, I realized that I'd been lying all those other times. (To claim your refund for those posts, simply write a letter that includes your name, address, and the dates you read the erroneous posts, then tear it into pieces and throw the pieces in the trash.)

Now THIS place has light. Massive floor to ceiling windows that really flood the unit with natural light. People say candlelight is the most flattering light, but it's not really; it's just dark, so people can't see your smoker's teeth and laugh lines. Natural light, though, is clarifying AND flattering. I looked ten years younger in this place. I took out my phone and tried to quickly take a new profile pic for Facebook, but the agent went bananas when I started oiling my torso. I tried to explain to him that the oil dripping everywhere was good for the hand-stained hardwood floors, but he wouldn't listen.

But there's more to the place than just windows, and at 1100 square feet, there's a lot to love. Two very fine, large bedrooms (each with its own full bath), a separate dining area, high ceilings, and a private balcony with a breathtaking view. It seems breathtakingly high up and you're really able to look down on the entire city - literally, not the way I do it, by just walking around curling my lip at people. There are also remote control shades for the incredibly huge tall windows, and the unit comes with a parking space and storage unit. Just a block from the U Street metro, in prime territory for shopping, nightlife, and four pound, three-thousand calorie slices of pizza for $1.99. America!

2020 12th Street NW #709
2 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms

$639,900

Artist Loft Project Near U Street Under the Knife Again

Last week, the Historic Preservation Review Board denied approval for a proposed residential and retail project featuring live-work artist lofts at 1932 9th Street NW and requested a significant "modification to the massing" of the 4-story building; a reduction-in-density request that threatens the project's viability.

Regardless, owner/developer Paul So remains committed to the project, and will continue to work with HPRB through project architect Greg Kearley of Inscape Studio to come up with a suitable design that will be deemed compatible with its surroundings in the Historic U Street District locale.

As one Board member pointed out, however, the inability of the project to blend in comes from both its size, given its location on a double-wide (36') lot in the midst of singles, and its style, which is distinctly modern.
The project was first denied by the HPRB in 2009, and subsequently shelved for economic reasons. The current, revised design, in addition to being one story shorter and with compressed floor heights, includes several other changes in appearance from two years ago: recessed balconies, the addition of a cornice, a modified storefront, a change in color of cladding tiles, a pulled back roof deck on 9-1/2 Street (the back, alley side of the lot) the relocation of a stairway, and submerged mechanical functions.

Though Kearley said "the changes [made] were very specific to the concerns raised by the Board in December of 2009," the Board still felt that the height, two stories higher than immediate neighbors, was not appropriate, and that the design was not quite right.

One option available to the developer in order to save his investment, which is currently being considered, is to "get a zoning variance on the occupancy ratio as to extend the back end of the building on top of the originally proposed parking spaces [to] potentially gain back more marketable square footage lost from the height restriction."

So purchased the property in July of 2008 for $1.4 million, and in 2009 a few doubts were raised over the project's economic feasibility, considering a large component of the building would be artist lofts asking low rents. While there will be artist live-work lofts clustered toward 9-1/2 Street, there will also be market-rate apartments included in the project, and ground-floor retail.

Washington D.C. real estate development news