Framework Plan Re-Envisions Downtown DC

With development occurring throughout the District of Columbia, many local and government agencies called earlier this year to establish a scheme to orchestrate continuity between Washington’s most visited areas and the up-and-coming projects now in the pipeline. The rejoinder has finally arrived. The National Capital Framework Plan (NCFP) - co-authored by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) and the US Commission of Fine Arts (USFA) - outlines several strategies to "enhance Washington's reputation as a walkable, transit-oriented, sustainable city" for residents and tourists alike. The plan focuses on four distinct areas of District development: the Northwest Rectangle, the Federal Triangle (including Pennsylvania Avenue), the Southwest Rectangle and East Potomac Park. In all, the plan highlights 5.5 million square feet of land that it aims to dedicate to 4 new museums, 75 acres of “civic gathering space,” 32 acres of recreational area, 13 acres of parkland, “numerous” memorials, federal office space and mixed-use development.

The Northwest Rectangle (defined by F Street to the north, Constitution Avenue to the south, the Potomac to the west, and 17th Street to the east), first on the docket, requires “a symbolic and physical connection” to be established between the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Memorial. That would include extending E Street NW and establishing it as a one mile “landscaped boulevard” that would connect to the Kennedy Center, the White House and President’s Park - resulting in a new public park on Virginia Avenue NW between 19th and 22nd Streets NW. New residential and shopping areas would be installed on a deck above the Potomac Freeway, which would also allow 25th & 26th Streets NW to be reintegrated in the street grid. The infrastructure modifications don't stop there - the plan also suggests a realignment of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge to free up desirable public space along the shoreline.

Over in the isolated Federal Triangle, the Plan reimagines Pennsylvania Avenue NW as space that will live up to its status as “America’s Main Street.” The Plan critiques federal installations such as the Old Post Office and the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building as not living up to their potential and suggests, politely of course, that the government simply find a new home for these tenants elsewhere in the city (no rush, any time in the next 30 days would be fine). In their stead, the plan calls for the creation of new grand mixed-use development between 9^th and 12^th Streets and a new National Aquarium (already planned to front Constitution Avenue) - in addition to other “cultural and hospitality destinations” for the area, including the Freedom Plaza, a “Federal Walk” history and arts trail and public outlets that would supply the area with some semblance of a nightlife. "Mixed-use" is also the word of the day in the Southwest Rectangle. Described accurately as an “uninviting federal enclave” - albeit one the federal government created with an earlier plan intended to "revitalize" an existing neighborhood - The Plan proposes an extensive rebuild of 10^th Street SW. Smithsonian Castle to a refurbished Overlook (current home of the Maine Avenue Fish Market), transform The new street would run from the Maryland Avenue SW, link the US Capitol to the Jefferson Memorial and serve as a gateway to the emerging Southwest Waterfront. By taking advantage of 18 acres worth of air-rights, the NCFP proposes a new “mix of office, cultural, entertainment, hospitality, and residential” development that would terminate at a newly decked out Overlook. The hope is for new street-level projects on the north side of Maine Avenue SW - across from the waterfront – including (yet another) new museum on the site. The Liberty Loan building (14th & D Streets SW), the Whitten building (1400 Independence Avenue SW) and a portion of the Forrestal complex (1000 Independence Avenue SW) are also identified as possible museum locations. Plans for Maryland Avenue consist of a new park at the intersection of Maryland and Virginia Avenues SW and the reclamation of the original street grid that is currently sliced-and-diced by train tracks and tunnels leading to Union Station.

The NCFP aims to integrate East Potomac Park into the fabric of daily life in the District by making it more than just a golfing and jogging destination. This would be primarily achieved by improving connections between the Park and the city proper through the construction of a canal by Buckeye Drive SW, a new Jefferson Memorial Metro stop, and a new foot bridge at P Street SW “to improve boat, pedestrian and bicycle access.” Additionally, the area surrounding the Memorial would be expanded and improved by eliminating the numerous “infrastructure barriers” dividing the park. Along the shoreline, the waterfront esplanade presently on site would be raised and widened so as to showcase memorial sites (like Hains Point), maritime areas and natural wetlands. The Plan also recommends the inclusion of stops for proposed water taxi service that would connect Nationals Stadium, the Southwest Waterfront, Alexandria, Georgetown and National Harbor. The area which the Plan identifies as the most ripe with potential, however, is the northern side of the park on the Washington Channel, being dubbed Potomac Harbor. Envisioned as the location of “new low-scale, one to two story, development,” Potomac Harbor would host cafes and water-based recreation activities that would serve as a complement to the numerous mixed-use projects occurring directly across the river.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

Team Selected for SW Fire Site

There’s a new bright red fire station in the works for Southwest Washington. Deputy Mayor Neil Albert and DC Fire Chief Dennis Rubin joined Mayor Adrian Fenty today to announce the official selection of E Street Development for the redevelopment of two parcels adjoining Engine Company 13 at 450 6th Street, SW.

The development team – a partnership between Potomac Investment Properties, City Partners and Adams Investment Group – will construct over 500,000 square feet of new office and retail space on two District-owned parcels between 5th and 6th Street, SW. In addition, their mixed-use complex will also house a new, state-of-the-art, 22,000 square foot fire station that, according to the Mayor, “comes at no cost to the District of Columbia.”

“As you look around the station, you can see its great need of heavy maintenance, if not replacement,” said Rubin. “We feel like the time is right and that this is a great opportunity.”

The two Beyer Blinder Belle-designed projects will also be LEED certified and host a bevy of public service uses, including space for Kid Power DC and a café hosted by the DC Central Kitchen. Both Fenty and Deputy Mayor Albert pointed to their inclusion as deciding factors in their choice of E Street over two rival proposals from JLH Partners, Chapman Development and CDC Companies, and Trammell Crow, CSG Urban Partners and Michele Hagans, respectively.

“The E Street Development team stood out because not only of their ability to be visionary, but to provide certainty to the government,” said Fenty.

Michael Gewirz, President of Potomac Investment Properties, followed up on exactly what type of “certainty” his company would be providing to the project. “Some folks have asked what our concerns are given the current economic climate. I can say this: we wouldn’t be standing here if we weren’t capable of doing this project,” said Gewirz. “Right now, we’re just going to work as hard as we can with the Deputy Mayor’s office.”

And they’ll have plenty to work on in the coming months, as the City has yet to decide whether the property will be sold or leased to the E Street team. Albert said the final details concerning the land transfer will hammered out in the next three to four months with a groundbreaking set to occur within the year. In the meantime, Engine Company 13 – the unit tasked with monitoring aerial comings and goings at the White House – will remain open and operational until completion of their new facility.

Though no mention was made of the Mayor’s ongoing scandal concerning (ironically enough) a fire engine donated to the Dominican Republic, city officials were keen on pointing out the extent of the development currently underway in the blocks surrounding 6th Street. The large-scale office development, Constitution Center, is under construction directly across from the fire station’s present location, while its new spot a few hundred yards away will adjoin the District’s new Consolidated Forensics Laboratory.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

Designing the Mall's Next Museum

DCmud has obtained a list of architects now vying to design the newest addition to the Mall, and to the Smithsonian's downtown repertoire - the National Museum of African-American History and Culture (NMAAHC), a 350,000 square foot edifice slated for construction at 15^th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW. According to Museum Director Lonnie Bunch, Washington DC's newest museum will "help all Americans see just how central African American history is for all of us."

At present, there is no shortage of architects willing to take a shot at designing for what is, essentially, one the last "vacant" parcels abutting the National Mall - and also one of the closest to the Washington Monument. Current bidders on the $300 million project include Diller Scofidio and Renfro, Devrouax and Purnell Architects, Moshe Safdie and Associates, The Freelon Group, Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, Foster and Partners and Moody Nolan Inc. There is no word on when a final selection will be made, but construction is currently slated to begin in February (which also happens to be Black History Month) 2012.

Those interested in scoping out the NMAAHC’s exhibits in 2009, however, will have to hit the road; the museum’s inaugural exhibition, Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits, will travel the country until work on its permanent exhibition space is complete. The collection is currently on display in Detroit, with future bookings planned for San Francisco, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chicago and Cincinnati all the way through 2011.

The museum was made possible by legislation signed into law by President George W. Bush in December 2003. The same act charted the museum under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution, and it was that body’s Board of Regents that selected the 5-acre site bounded by Constitution Avenue, Madison Drive and 14^th and 15^th Streets, NW to be home of the first national museum “devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life.” Having already completed a preliminary Environmental Impact analysis, the Smithsonian is currently undertaking what it labels as the “architectural programming phase” of development, during which the space and system requirements integral to a fully functioning public institution, such as the NMAAHC, will be established, and then relayed to the prospective architects for inclusion in their designs.

Washington DC real estate development news

Running a $700-Million Comb through the National Mall

With over 25 million visitors a year, the National Mall is showing some wear and tear; its restoration is the driver of a competition to select a winning design team to renovate three areas of the Mall - Union Square, Washington Monument Grounds at Sylvan Theater, and Constitution Gardens - hosted by the National Park Service's non-profit partner the Trust for the National Mall.

Yesterday, the competition's details and important dates were released - in one month, registration ends, on October 8th, and design portfolios are due five days later, the 13th.

The three stages of the competition will stretch until March 30th, 2012. A public exhibition will take place in April, competition winners will be announced in early May, and fundraising efforts will commence thereafter.

The three stages of the competition are as follows:

Stage I - Design portfolios are submitted for review by a jury. The jury will select 8-10 designers (per location) to move on to Stage II.

Stage II - Designers will be combined into teams, which will be evaluated and interviewed by the jury. The jury will select 4-5 finalists per location to move on to Stage III.

Stage III - Finalists will create a design concept for their assigned location, and be allowed 10 weeks to complete the concept. The jury will select one concept per location as the winner.

The competition is part of the Trust's Campaign to Restore the National Mall, which will become the largest public-private partnership in the history of the National Park Service. Over the next several years, the campaign aims to raise $350 million in private funds, which will be matched by federal funds, bumping up the total to $700 million. Corporate sponsorship is providing the funds necessary to host the design competition.

The Campaign has already been working on several restoration projects on the Mall: the Jefferson Memorial Seawall (completion in the Fall), the Lincoln Memorial landscape and Reflecting Pool (completion in Spring 2012), and the WWI Veterans memorial.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Freelon to Design African American History Museum

The Smithsonian Institute announced today (via their insanely popular Smithsonian Channel Blog) that the Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates and Davis Brody Bond in association with SmithGroup have been selected to design the National Museum of African American History and Culture. To be constructed at 15^th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, the 350,000 square foot museum will stand on the very last vacant parcel of the National Mall.

Since the prospective designs went public last month, the winning team has gone on to beat out a formidable list of competitors that included Diller Scofidio and Renfro and KlingStubbins;" Devrouax and Purnell Architects, Pei Cobb Freed and Partners; Moshe Safdie and Associates and Sulton Campbell Britt & Associates), Foster and Partners and URS and Moody Nolan Inc. and Antoine Predock Architect.

“[We] set up a poll on the Smithsonian Channel Blog asking readers who they think should win and although the Moody Nolan was the clear favorite, another design took home the win,” said Filippa Fenton of Smithsonian Networks. So much for democracy.

According to the Smithsonian, the selected “bronze-tiered design” (aka “the corona”) represents a “melding of cultural symbols, traditions and movements” from “the working landscapes of the American south to the crowns of Nigerian Yoruba artifacts.”

Construction of the $500 million complex is currently scheduled to begin in 2012. For a detailed look at Washington’s soon-to-be newest museum, check out the swanky virtual tour of the design, courtesy of the Smithsonian.

Designs Unveiled for New Smithsonian Museum

The Smithsonian has revealed (via WashingtonPost.com) the first prospective designs for the Mall’s next museum: the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. And from the looks of things, it’s going to be the grandest one yet; proposals for the 350,000 square foot museum within earshot of the Washington Monument range from glass-encased and “table-shaped” to almost pre-historic with natural materials “rising as of out of bedrock and muck.”

Last week’s presentations at the Smithsonian included new renderings and scale models by the development teams previously identified by DCmud: Diller Scofidio and Renfro (now teamed with KlingStubbins); Devrouax and Purnell Architects/Pei Cobb Freed and Partners; Moshe Safdie and Associates (now teamed with Sulton Campbell Britt & Associates), The Freelon Group (now teamed with Adjaye Associates and Davis Brody Bond), Foster and Partners (now teamed with URS) and Moody Nolan Inc (now teamed with Antoine Predock Architect).

Among the new revelations unveiled along with the designs were that the project’s budget, formerly reported at $300 million, which has now almost doubled to $500 million – half of which will be funded through a Congressional appropriation. The Smithsonian is also now projecting a 2015 opening for the museum, following the previously projected 2012 construction start date.

Once completed, the Museum will stand on a five-acre parcel at 15^th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW – one of the very last prime plots abutting the National Mall. A final selection on the Smithsonian’s choice of architect will be announced by a Smithsonian-chosen 11-member panel next month, to be seconded (or not) by a final approval by the Smithsonian Board of Regents. The final design will then enter into lengthy submission processes with both the Commission on Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission.

Both interior and exterior renderings of the proposed designs are available here.

Building Peace on the National Mall

Construction of the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), is well under way at Constitution Avenue and 23^rd Street, NW – the so-called "war and peace corner" of the National Mall. Once a simply a surface parking lot for the neighboring Naval Potomac Annex, the site is due to be reborn as $185 million, LEED- certified testament to the United States' "commitment to building peace around the world."

The new 5-story white glass edifice will serve as the new headquarters for the USIP – a congressionally funded think tank dedicated to resolving international conflicts and increasing “peacebuilding capacity, tools, and intellectual capital worldwide” – in addition to serving a bevy educational purposes for the public at the large. The latter will be served by a 20,000 square foot Public Education Center for visitors that will count a “Peace Lab” and theatre sponsored by the Chevron Corporation among its publicly accessible features. These will be joined by a conference center that is planned to include a 230 seat auditorium, a 45 seat amphitheater and 8 meeting rooms, as well as a public plaza and garden in the Institute’s inner courtyard. The USIP’s three uppermost floors will house office space for the Institute’s 200 or so employees and rotating roster of visiting researchers.

Moshe Safdie and Associates was selected as architects, following a nationwide design competition. Composed of “three distinct sections linked together by atriums covered by large-span undulating roofs,” the new USIP will be clearly visible from the nearby Lincoln Memorial, as well the adjacent Korean War and Vietnam Veterans Memorials (the latter of which has too been singled out by Congress for a significant expansion).

A ceremonial groundbreaking for the new facility took place this past June, with both then President George W. Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in attendance. The project boasted bipartisan support in Congress as well - the body that allowed now disgraced former Alaska Senator and then-Senate Appropriations Chairman, Ted Stevens, to allot $100 million in funds for the development. USIP is currently in the midst of seeking approximately $6 million more in private donations – a quarter of which was met in September by the BP America Foundation.

USIP has been represented throughout the development process by local developer John Stranix, who is also currently spearheading efforts to redevelop the District’s Parkside Additions public housing project. Clark Construction is serving as general contractor on the project (a webcam of their progress at the site is available here). The project is expected to open in the fall of 2010.

Where are Virginia's Green Apartments?

Arlington Virginia, one of the most affluent counties in the U.S, takes a predictably green approach to development. Burnishing its green credentials, Arlington was the first jurisdiction in the country to adopt an incentive system to persuade developers to build sustainable, efficient structures, enacting a green program as early as 1999. Alexandria partnered with Virginia Tech’s Department of Urban Affairs and Planning to design a new collaborative planning process, called Eco-City Alexandria, to foster sustainable building. So far, surprisingly few residential developers have taken up the counties on their offers. Since Arlington's Green Building Incentive Program went into effect in 2000, permitting extra height or density for obtaining LEED certification, just three residential developments in the city of Arlington have earned the USGBC's green ranking, only one of which received additional density. In Alexandria, only one new condo and one apartment achieved a LEED ranking. Arlington's 220 Twentieth in Crystal City is LEED certified, the lowest certification available, while Arlington's Parc Rosslyn, a subsidized housing project built by APAH, earned a Silver designation, one step better. 

Just recently, Lyon Place in Clarendon was awarded LEED status (the leasing office was unable to identify which kind). In Alexandria, Cromley Lofts earned Virginia's first LEED designation with an impressive Gold ranking (the 3rd highest of 4 levels) in 2007, but since then only the Station at Potomac Yards has achieved the USGBC's stamp of approval. The Crescent in Falls Church has also recently earned LEED recognition, and most recently the Macedonian obtained EarthCraft certification. In Washington D.C., by contrast, numerous residences have the distinction, including the Alta, WestEnd25 (Gold), Flats130 (part of LEED-ND, a more nebulous neighborhood designation) at Constitution Square, Capitol Quarter (Silver), Georgia Commons, Gables at Takoma (Silver), Residences at Square 80, and Solea condos (Gold). The USGBC website, though providing an incomplete and inadequate list, puts Arlington's LEED projects at 34 (for all building types), and Washington D.C.'s LEED projects at 141. Developers have long complained that the LEED certification process is rigid and costly, requiring a longer process, more paperwork and greater expense both to build and get certification. Another factor is public demand, which most agree puts very little premium on green construction. But Joan Kelsch, Arlington's Green Building Program Manager, says that shortcomings in the initial program have been addressed, and that a wave of LEED certified buildings is about to hit the market. In 2009, the county tweaked its incentives, raising the incentive for housing developers and lowering incentives on office construction, which were building in green with or without the incentives. "Any large office building getting built is going to be LEED certified, because the market is demanding that now. That's not true of residential buildings." Of residential buildings, Kelsch says "they typically get 6-12 units [in extra density], depending on the size of the building." Kelsch says the lack of LEED certified projects has more to do with timing. "I think the fact that we don't have alot of them finished is not necessarily an indication that the program hasn't been successful, there's just been a lull in construction and there are many in the pipeline. We think its been very successful." Kelsch also notes that 24% of residential units approved between December, 2003 and December, 2008 were intended to be certified as LEED, some of which are under construction or have been built and are seeking certification. Others, like the Tellus, simply haven't been built. But numerous other projects have been designed without green features. Virginia also recognizes the EarthCraft brand of sustainable certification, which several developments have opted for but which Arlington's Green Building Incentive Program does not recognize. According to Kelsch, the county has considered giving bonus density for meeting EarthCraft, which the state now uses to reward subsidized housing projects. Though the trend is for better, greener buildings, neither the county nor the public are yet demanding it. Until one of them does, it seems builders will not always see the advantages of green. Arlington, Virginia real estate development news