Mirror, Mirror

Q&A with Steve Lawlor of Lawlor Architects

By Beth Herman

After 10 years spent raising a young family in a 2,700 s.f., three-story, circa 1905 row house in Capitol Hill, just off of Lincoln Park, the homeowners desired a change and update. But instead of undertaking a massive renovation which would have required that the family – with its three children – move out for months, they purchased an identical adjacent residence from a favorite neighbor, embarking on a plan to create the indoor/outdoor refuge they’d always wanted. Steve Lawlor of Lawlor Architects was at the helm.

DCMud: What compelled the homeowners to essentially purchase their old home all over again?

Lawlor: They got the second house exactly for that reason—because they were familiar with it. It’s a mirror image of the house that they were living in, but this new house could be the clean slate they wanted. Unfortunately, the former owners were smokers and hadn’t done much maintenance for years. There was a lot of remedial work that had to be done: Water was getting in and had damaged a lot of the structure in the rear…it needed a new life regardless of who moved in there. It was really on its last legs.

DCMud: Describe the client’s wish list.

Lawlor: They wanted to have three bedrooms, including a master suite, and two full baths on the top floor. The original house had three bedrooms and one bath. We also moved the laundry upstairs, but to the second floor where they wanted some creature comforts. Then on the first floor, they wanted a big entertaining area—an open kitchen/dining room space. They liked to cook, liked the outdoors and wanted to animate the space with natural light.

DCMud: Given the period in which it was built, what did the first floor look like before?

Lawlor: You couldn’t see through the house for all the walls. Coming in through the main entrance, some strange diagonal wall pushed you off. Artificial fire places—part of a renovation at one time or another— abounded that were purely decorative; there were no elements to warm the home. We realigned all the openings in the house so that when you walk in (it’s a side entrance), we made a vestibule with coat closet and cubbies in which to put books, shoes, mail and more to organize. After you come in, you’re reoriented to the center of the house. We made a long, visual access that slices through the entire house so that at any point, you can look east or west and see the outdoors. Light penetrates deep into the house and you have that connection to the outside. It helps bring the house to life.

DCMud: What about the materials?

Lawlor: Some of the flooring is reclaimed heart pine. The kitchen is American cherry, and the island’s countertop is reclaimed white oak wood joists from a Wisconsin barn. The kitchen floor is cork, a renewable material, and the room is warmed by hydronic radiant heating which, with all the glass, makes it very comfortable.

DCMud: With outdoor space at such a premium in this neighborhood, in what other ways did you open the space to light and air?

Lawlor: Part of the whole manifest destiny of this house was to try to bring the outdoors into the house. Most row houses have very little outdoor space. This house occupied 80 percent of the lot, as opposed to a more typical 60 percent. With little backyard space, on the lower level (basement) floor we eroded the rear walls, installed new windows, and made brick openings. We designed a staircase that descends from the new kitchen down to the new terrace below, with the terrace accessed through the basement in which we lowered the floor and increased the ceiling height. A polished and stained concrete slab with radiant heat created a hard surface yet a warm surface at the same time. A family room with TV and library/guest room which opens onto the terrace is where they spend a lot of their time. Big French doors—actually we made the home’s old pocket doors into sliding barn doors—are used to isolate the space when guests are there. We really decided to make the downstairs as desirable a destination as the upstairs for this house.

DCMud: Speaking of desirable destinations, is there a part of the District you covet more than others?

Lawlor: I've lived in Capitol Hill for 26 years by design. My office is here. There are other parts of the city that are great, but Capitol Hill is the most modern historic area. All the things people try and put into an urban setting - access; walkability; public transportation - are here in what is essentially a small town in the middle of a big city.

Anacostia's BID a Bit Closer to Reality

Anacostia has been slow to take off commercially (though making progress), and much like the expectations for a thriving commercial neighborhood, its Business Improvement District may be close to becoming a reality too.

The neighborhood itself has struggled to attract private businesses and office workers, in part because it lacks nearby services and retail.  Service and retail providers in turn have had little incentive to open shop in Anacostia until more businesses and consumers are on the street.  That conundrum is reflected in the embryonic BID formation.  While corporations typically sponsor the BIDs that promote doing business in the neighborhood, that lack of commerce has hindered the Anacostia BID's formation.  Though landowners in the area point to much potential - a historic downtown, a Metro stop, the coming St. Elizabeths project - without a corporate base to fund the BID, lack of money has kept Anacostia's promoter-in-chief from becoming a reality.  That may be starting to change.

The group met last month to appoint ten board members, and will now be funded by a portion of property taxes from local landowners, but the group will have to wait until tax collections occur in March before it can hire a staff and rent a permanent space.

But that’s still a big step forward for a group that’s been pending for years. In 2008, Councilmember Barry sponsored legislation that would allow the area to create a Business Improvement District. It passed, but the business and property owners behind the effort had several hurdles to overcome before the organization could become a reality.

BIDs in DC, while classified as nonprofit organizations, can’t solicit foundation grants. And when DC’s Office of Tax and Revenue and the Department of Small and Local Business Development reviewed the Anacostia BID's business plan - as required as part of the enabling legislation - they didn’t think it was sustainable.

“So we took a break, got a pro bono counsel, and hired consultants to file paperwork, petition the IRS, and get approval to establish a BID out of the 501(c)3,” explained Stan Voudrie of Four Points Development, the group’s new board president. “It took a lot of time; we were doing it with volunteers.” But eventually, he added, the IRS approved of the group’s new status and the various city agencies signed off on the BID’s new business plan.

Other than Voudrie, the board is composed of representatives from 1918 LLP, Anacostia Economic Development Corporation, ARCH Development Corporation, EDC LLC, Grubb’s Southeast Pharmacy, Honfleur Gallery, Industrial Bank,
NSC, Inc., and Urban City Ventures.

Voudrie says the group will use the time between now and March to prepare for their next steps. After hiring a director and renting a permanent office space, the first order of business will be to increase basic services in the business district, particularly from a visual perspective. “All of the BIDs”—there are eight others in the city—“have that kind of program,” said Voudrie. That means increasing trash pickup, sweeping streets and sidewalks, and planting flowers.

Second, the organization will focus on marketing and business outreach, acting like a local chamber of commerce. “We'll reach out to retailers that we think would bring a service the community would appreciate,” said Voudrie. “We want to be a single clearinghouse where people can find out about opportunities in the neighborhood.” 

And by the same token, the group will allow local business and property owners to speak with a unified voice, addressing issues that might need attention from the city or other institutions.

What the BID won’t be doing, according to Voudrie, is independently establishing a vision for what the neighborhood should look like. “We’ll probably do surveys of people who live and work here to find out their interests, but we won’t tell people what we think they need,” he said.

So all that talk about Anacostia becoming the city’s next arts district might not be on the BID agenda, at least for now, but such ideas might soon be more likely to become reality.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified DC BIDs as not being nonprofit organizations; they are, but are not 501(c)3s. Additionally, the new board has 10 members, not five.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Construction Work Begins on Cathedral Commons

Initial construction work has begun on the Giant Supermarket site at 3336 Wisconsin Avenue, a 4-acre site that will be redeveloped into a mixed-use community known as Cathedral Commons.  The $130 million project has been more than a decade in the making, and will create a new, larger Giant as well as 137 apartment units, 8 townhouses, and a concourse with 125,000 s.f. of street front retail space.

Giant had been fighting a devoted neighbor- hood opposition group for years, but scored some decisive legal victories in 2011 and obtained financial partner Bozzuto Group to give the project the final kick needed to start development.  While no formal announcement was issued by the team, partners in the project have been saying for weeks that construction would be imminent, and construction crews began erecting fences Monday afternoon.  

The supermarket, one of the last major groceries to begin (a much needed) renovation, closed in March.  Renderings and descriptions for the new Giant show a wide-aisled suburban-style supermarket resembling its Bethesda counterpart more than the reimagined urban supermarket being promised by developers of the CityMarket at O.  The project was designed by JCA Architects of Reston, which is also responsible for the design work at Union Market.

Update:  A spokesperson for the project notes that Bozzuto is not only the financial partner but also the developer and joint venture partner with Giant, and that no formal date has been announced regarding an official groundbreaking.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

ANC Supports RiverFront on the Anacostia Project at Zoning Hearing

Late last week, a zoning commission meeting brought the RiverFront on the Anacostia project one small step closer to fruition.

The 1.1-million-square-foot mixed-use project, which was designed by SK&I architects and is situated on the Anacostia River just south of Nationals Park, had a hearing in front of the DC Zoning Commission Thursday night. While commissioners were noncommittal, requiring supplemental information from Florida Rock Properties (FRP) and Mid-Atlantic Realty Partners (MRP), the developers, the coup was a letter of support from the local ANC commission covering the site.


The zoning commission originally approved plans for the 5.5 acre site back in 2008, but the developers proposed last year to change the project’s first phase from office space to 300-350 residential units, given the current dismal situation for office space in the neighborhood. A February 2012 hearing didn’t go well—the commissioners all but told the developers to start all over with the designs—but John Begert with MRP Realty said this one seemed a little better, though he didn’t draw any conclusions. “We feel like our presentation went pretty positively, and that’s kind of all you know,” he said.

The commissioners tasked the developers with sending in additional information, including clarifications on the project’s roof plan and how an alley running through the development will be designed. The developers will submit the information within two weeks, but the commission may not make a decision until later this year or even early 2013.

Still, support from the ANC was good news.  "After presenting at multiple monthly ANC meetings and working with the ANC and my SMD’s Citizens’ Development Advisory Committee, the development team presented a final plan this month that we were happy to support,” wrote ANC 6D commissioner David Garber, whose district includes the site, in a letter dated September 20. “The elements of this most recent plan that we hope you will join us in specifically supporting are its engaging architecture, creative and usable public space, ground floor and roof-top retail, and the promised play installation designed specifically for children that is noted in the plan but will be laid out as part of a future phase of the PUD.”


The project’s first phase is a nine-story building that will feature almost 19,000 square feet of retail space and a small amount of affordable housing; 8 percent of its residential units will be priced at 80 percent of the area median income. The project will also include an expansive public section: picture wide green lawns, wetlands-type areas that act as bio-filtration mechanisms for stormwater management, and tree covered spaces, as well as a marina that could accommodate up to 50 boats.

The project, a former concrete plant, is set at the foot of the South Capitol Street Bridge, and has been in the works off and on since 1998.  The developers have more plans for the property, but subsequent phases are several years down the road.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Today in Pictures - 800 N. Glebe

In 2006, Chevy Chase based JBG demolished the Bob Peck Chevrolet dealership, a uniquely futuristic building at 800 N. Glebe Rd. in Arlington that inspired some adoration in the architectural world.  But rather than break completely with the past for its flagship Ballston office project, JBG hired Cooper Carry to design a 10-story office building that would incorporate a faithful reproduction of the one-story dealership, including the blue diamond canopy that became the symbol for the dealership, and what JBG calls "a bold exclamation point on the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor."  The office building, completed this summer, features a glass curtainwall with three "sails" and has been designed for LEED Gold certification.

Arlington,  VA real estate development news

Your Next Place

Look how cute this little building is, nestled cozily between two much-larger buildings, and yet with an undeniable appeal all its own.  (Insert your own "size doesn't matter" joke here.  It sounds too autobiographical if I do it.)

This beautiful unit is one of 22 in this boutique building, which means it's just big enough that there's probably at least one other person in the building you can have an ill-advised romance of convenience with, but not so small that you won't be able to avoid them after it crashes and burns.  It's a corner unit too, so it's a bit bigger and brighter than the other units, a fact you should bring up constantly when you run into other building occupants.  ("You look depressed, is it because your apartment is slightly smaller than mine?")  The main area is open and gets a ton of light; it features glowing hardwood floors and recessed lighting.  The kitchen comes with the granite countertops/stainless steel appliances one-two punch, and there are a ton of built-ins for your collectible plate collection.  The master bedroom is spacious and wide, and boasts a world-class walk-in closet.  It got me thinking, "wait, why doesn't my bedroom have a walk-in closet?"  And then I realized, my bedroom IS a walk-in closet.  Explains all the built-ins, and why my twin mattress takes up 90% of the floor space.

This building also comes with concierge service, extra storage, rental parking, and even a gym.  Imagine how much guiltier you'll feel about not working out when there's a gym right downstairs!  It's located in Penn Quarter, so it's close to Chinatown, downtown, NoMa, and other neighborhoods people go to, look around, and say, "wait, is this it?  Really?"  (I kid, I kid; aside from that horrible intersection where they have the huge tvs, I actually really like Chinatown.)  Also, it's equidistant from two metro stations, turning each morning into an agonized internal debate over where exactly you want to go to get the back of your neck breathed on by total strangers.

675 E Street NW #500
1 Bedrooms, 1.5 Baths
$509,000

Washington DC real estate news

Georgia Ave. Housing Overhaul Moving Forward

A city plan to overhaul a DC affordable housing neighborhood on Georgia Avenue, called Park Morton, is moving forward and the city will unveil its first apartment building on Friday.

Workers put finishing touches on The Avenue on Thursday

"The Avenue at Park Morton" is an 83-unit mixed-use apartment building located at 3506 Georgia Avenue NW.  City officials will gather to celebrate its grand opening  Friday from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Completion of the building is a mile-marker for "The Park Morton New Communities Initiative", which has realized only a small part of its potential.  The $170 million initiative was established under then DC mayor Anthony Williams to replace an aging public housing complex on Georgia Avenue.  The initiative is a collaboration between the District's Housing Authority (DCHA), which owns and manages the complex, and the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development.

Image courtesy Wiencek + Associates

The old Park Morton housing has 17 apartment buildings.  In a report on the overhaul initiative and the old Park Morton housing, the city notes "the site consists of suburban-style apartment buildings and incorporates design elements that tend to foster criminal activity."

In 2008, then-Mayor Adrian Fenty sent out a Request For Proposals for developing in the project in 2008, promising that no former residents of the complex would be displaced; the building broke ground in 2010.  The overall plan calls for 317 market-rate housing units, 206 affordable housing units, a 10,000 square foot park, and a new community center with green designs throughout.

The entire Park Morton redevelopment is being carried out by the Park Morton Development Partners (PMDP), a joint venture between Landex Corporation and the Warrenton Group. Wienecek + Associates designed the project.  Hamel Builders is the general contractor.

Image courtesy Wiencek + Associates

The building, which has 81,044 square feet of residential space and 2,388 square feet of ground floor retail, includes a mix of one and two-bedroom apartment units.  Residential space features lounge, a fitness center, meeting rooms, and underground parking.  It also will include ground-floor retail. While overall the plan calls for some market-rate housing, the Avenue is 100 percent affordable under the city's affordable housing laws.

The development was funded by a mix of city agencies and departments, as well as Freddie Mac, Prudential, Hudson Housing, and Capital One.

1-BR Unit Rendering, courtesy Wiencek + Associates

Georgetown Plant Sale: Top Arts Official Urges Open Discussion

Sometime this week, the distinctive 1940s art deco heating plant on the Rock Creek Canal in Georgetown got a listing on the federal government's real estate site, the Washington Post reported Tuesday on its Capital Business blog.  It is slated to be sold in an online auction sometime in November.

West Heating Plant. Photo courtesy GSA web

That historic steam plant - the West Heating Plant - has become the symbol of a government sell-off of thousands of unused government properties, called "federal excess properties", launched in 2010 by the Obama Administration.  In 2011, the 1940s plant at 1051 29th St. NW was added to the list, and in June the GSA briefed Congress on its nationwide efforts at the site.

How much revenue could it bring? Possibly millions. GSA can't comment on the value of "pending disposals," but developers see the site as one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in Georgetown.

But some say the sale process is taking place largely behind closed doors, including a top DC arts official. Thomas Luebke, FAIA, is Secretary of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA), the federal body charged by Congress with protecting properties of historic value in the District.  On September 5th, he wrote a letter to the GSA urging a more open discussion on the West Heating Plant's fate. DCMud obtained a copy of the letter on Wednesday.

Copy of Letter from CFA to GSA, obtained by DCMud

Luebke urges the GSA to hold an open discussion with a wide range of stakeholders about the future of the property.  In his letter, he cites Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, which requires federal agencies to determine the possible negative impacts of an action such as a sale, and what can be done to eliminate or mitigate those.  That process, Luebke writes, normally involves open discussion.

"At this time I have not heard of any plans to proceed with this process [of open, public discussion] and hope that the GSA is committed to pursuing what would be expected for a property of this significance," Luebke writes. "While the sale of the property in the immediate term may yield a high sales price as a redevelopment project [...] it is most valuable in the long term precisely for its particular physical, spatial, and historic characteristics."

The building, the letter highlights, was designed in the Moderne style by local architect William Dewey Foster and is an example of federal government's investment in public infrastructure immediately following World War II.

Luebke, in the letter, urges the GSA to consider a use that would maintain the building's structural authenticity as a "massive masonry box-essentially open on the inside except for metal catwalks and platforms holding equipment."  That structure, he writes, lends itself to myriad cultural uses, with the Tate modern museum in London being an example.

GSA says they're doing the required review.  "GSA is currently engaged in that process," Dan Cruz, deputy press secretary for the GSA told DCMud.

Letter from CFA to GSA on Sale of West Heating Plant

Friends of Georgetown Waterfront Park and Ward 2 DC City Councilmember Jack Evans want to see part of the property turned into a park.  "Councilmember Evans, as well as the Georgetown community, continues to support a mixed use development with park land," Andrew Huff, director of communications for Evans, told DCMud on Wednesday.

On Thursday, City Councilmember Jack Evans will be meeting with the DC Office of Planning, the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, and "leadership from the Georgetown neighborhood" to "continue the discussion" Huff wrote to DCMud.  "It is not a public meeting."

Furioso's "1525 Fourteen" on 14th St. Close to Breaking Ground

An office building in the midst of 14th Street's many condos will soon bring the busy entertainment corridor a little closer to true mixed use development.  That is, when Furioso Development breaks ground on "1525 Fourteen", a mixed-use building slated to break ground this fall.  That moment is nigh, according to Giorgio Furioso. He puts the time until groundbreaking at eight weeks.

"We are moments away from breaking ground," Furioso told DCMud, "and we are doing some preliminary stuff to cross all our Ts and Is."  Developer Giorgio Furioso sees the future 42,000 s.f. building - in the planning stage for nearly a decade - as an anchor of 24/7 neighborhood vitality, bringing some daytime activity to a night-time destination.

Some office tenants for the building are ready to move in, Furioso said, but there are no decisions about a tenant for the 3,600 square feet of street-level retail.  That announcement could come in the next few months, Furioso told DCMud.

Original 2004-approved scheme

"We could have gone with one large tenant but we chose not to do that so that it is a collection of different people," he said.  Furioso said he believes this mix of different smaller tenants will contribute to neighborhood vitality. "The building's whole attitude is small, green and neighborhood," Furioso said, "so you are trying to represent in that collection of tenants people the neighborhood would appreciate."

The project has already gained the necessary approvals and financing. The Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) approved the in-fill project in 2010.  It was originally planned as a seven-story, cubist-inspired residential building in 2004, but Furioso changed direction.

The design for the six-story LEED gold building, which includes a green roof, geothermal heating, and solar panels, is by architecture firm Eric Colbert and Associates.  Two underground floors include 28-small-car parking spaces, accessible by car elevator only, and a charging station for hybrid cars.  The building also includes a bicycle room complete with showers.

The Mohawk artists lofts, the condo building Church Place, renovation of the historic Roosevelt, and Solo Piazza residential building on 13th Street are all past projects of Furioso.  Furioso, who is stately in favor of a quality-over-quantity development model, only builds one development at a time.
"I think you can grow by being better rather than being bigger - sort of the Lorax idea," Fuioso, who was born in Italy and holds an MFA, told DCMud. "Sometimes the idea of success is measured by how many projects you do - whether you're the architect, the developer, the builder - rather than saying 'this project contributes to this neighborhood the way other projects don't.'  It's a different approach to working and living."

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Your Next Place

Oh wow.  You never see a place like this in the District.  Most houses here are sort of like most of the people here - basic, slightly uptight, old-fashioned.  This house, though, is like that girl you see at the party who's way too stylish and edgy to live here, and who you just know is going to move to New York in six months, so you better act fast, and by "act fast," I mean "stalk her on Facebook," because she's totally out of your league.

This house isn't out of your league though - well, as long as you've got $2.5 million on hand.  (Okay, so it's out of your league.)  This Tracy Place classic is open and bright and has a vague "California in the Seventies" vibe.  (Though I should mention here that I wasn't alive in the Seventies, and I've never been to California.)  The formal dining room and living room are dramatic and have windows galore, as well as recessed lighting and gleaming hardwood floors.  And this house has maybe the greatest kitchen I've ever seen, a high-ceilinged gourmet masterpiece with stained-glass-fronted cupboards, a huge island, and top of the line stainless steel appliances.  There are also two - yes, two - full-size sinks, so you can let twice as many dishes pile up and fester before sweeping them into garbage bags and buying all new ones.

Upstairs are five bedrooms, all with full en-suite bathrooms.  This is huge.  I like to think of having your own bathrooom as a kind of dividing line in life; if you do have your own, you're not allowed to complain ever, about anything in your life.  If you have to share, go ahead and whine as much as you want, I'll at least pretend to feel bad since you have to smell other people's odors on a regular basis.  Each room is bright and large and opens onto a huge shared deck.  Underneath that deck is a huge first floor patio; yes, that's two levels of leisure space looking out onto a superlative garden that features a sloping landscaped terrace surrounded by greenery.  Very private.  It's like your own mini-Garden of Eden, by which I mean you can eat apples and have sex out there, but don't get caught by Dad or you're in big trouble.

2324 Tracy Place NW
5 Bedrooms, 5.5 Baths
$2,395,000