Two Competitions to Redesign Portions of the National Mall: One For Creativity's Sake, One for Keeps

Over 1,500 professional and aspiring architects and designers, from around the world, have submitted designs to the two ongoing competitions offering the artistically minded an opportunity to make a mark on the National Mall. One competition is officially connected to the National Park Service, and has just selected 15 professional design teams, after three days of consideration by an eight-person jury, to move on to Stage II of the National Mall Design Competition to redesign three areas of the Mall: Union Square at the foot of the Capitol, Constitution Gardens near the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument Grounds at Sylvan Theater. For each of the three redesign areas, six design teams were selected, with a few teams selected as finalists in two areas: the Diller Scofidio Renfro & Hood Design team is a finalist for both Union Square and the Washington Monument Grounds portion; the Rogers Marvel Architects & Peter Walker and Partners team is a finalist for both Union Square and Constitution Gardens; and the OLIN & Weiss/Manfredi team is a finalist for both the Washington Monument Grounds portion and Constitution Gardens. Second stage designs are due December 1st, and those who will be moving on to the final round will be announced on December 15th. The design competition was officially launched in early September and brought in over 1,200 participants, said spokeswoman Lauren Condoluci. The Trust for the National Mall, with part of its purpose being to help realize the NPS Mall Plan through its "Campaign to Restore the National Mall," is responsible for the corporate-sponsored design competition, as The Trust is the "official non-profit partner of the National Park Service," created in November of 2007 by Chip Akridge, founder of the eponymous commercial real estate company Akridge. Meanwhile, another National Mall design competition was launched prior to the NPS competition, in the summer of 2010: the National Ideas Competition for the redesign of the Washington Monument Grounds, sponsored in part by George Washington University. Chair of the National Ideas Competition steering committee, James Clark, principal at MTFA Architecture, said that the winning participants will benefit from exposure, as they will have risen to the top of over 500 competition participants. "We realize none of the schemes will ever get built," said Clark. "But we hope they have an impact on the potential of the grounds." 

He also said that the competition's worth is in creative participation on a broad spectrum; participants ranged from individual designers and amateurs aged 12 and up, and professional design firms. The competition is now in its final phase: the solicitation of the public's vote to determine two winners from the six finalists, including firms from the Netherlands, South Korea, and D.C. local Hunt Laudi Studio. Julian Hunt, co-founder of husband-wife firm Hunt Laudi, said he entered a A Great Inclined Plane (shown at left) to "extend the mall and make it into a sort of viewing platform," inspired in part by the failure of the space to serve the Obama Inauguration crowd well. Hunt also felt the complexity of the design submission would be appreciated by a first-round jury that consisted of renowned, avant-garde architects. Winners of the National Ideas Competition will be presented to the public next spring. Likewise, the NPS' National Mall Design Competition will put on a public exhibition next April, and winners will be announced in early May. Unlike the creative visions produced through the National Ideas Competition, however, fundraising efforts for the NPS/The Trust for the National Mall undertaking will commence after the winners are announced. 

Washington D.C. commercial real estate news

NoMa's Largest Mixed Use Building Caps Off

All the dust being kicked up in NoMa is finally paying off, with the topping off of Constitution Square, in what will be NoMa's largest mixed-use project, a 7-acre mixed use anchor, one block from the New York Avenue metro, that will deliver by late next year. Having reached its maximum height of 13 stories (in the residential portion), the project is still about a year away from delivering the first of its capacity, which will eventually include a 206-room Hilton hotel, 440 apartments, 340,000 s.f. of office space, and a Harris Teeter to boot - NoMa's first grocery store and first residential building.

The two-phase project kicked off in April of 2008, with the groundbreaking of the first phase. The two million square feet of development is the brainchild of Bethesda-based StonebridgeCarras and Walton Street Capital. The residential and retail portion, designed by SK&I Architects, will be the first to deliver, likely in early 2010, and will be LEED certified. SK&I is also designing the common areas of the apartments and the core and shell of the Hilton. The office space, designed by HOK Architecture, will add the office space in phases one and two, and though it is still a year off it has already scored some major tenants, including the Department of Justice. The office portion aims for a Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for green design.

According to Guclu Durusoy, Project Manager of SK&I, the facade will include extensive floor to ceiling glass to lighten the massing of the building. The residences will include a fitness center, outdoor pool deck, and three courtyards. Bethesda-based Clark Construction, which is performing construction, will hold an event on September 4th to celebrate the construction milestone.

This will be the first mixed-use project to come online, according to Liz Price, Director of the NoMa BID, who cites the neighborhood as "truly walkable" given the incoming density and existing public transportation infrastructure. The 35-block area is expected to see 20m square feet of development over the next ten years.

Harris Teeter To Open First DC Store

Harris Teeter, the North Carolina-based grocer whose very name seems to augur up-and-coming real estate development the way Whole Foods once did, will open their first Washington DC store Wednesday morning in Adams Morgan. The chain will open in the Citadel building at the intersection of 17th Street and Kalorama, between Meridian Hill Park and the Adams Morgan strip, in what has hitherto been a relatively residential section of the District.

The 37,000 s.f. building, owned by DC-based Douglas Development, was an old roller rink built in 1947, and had been vacant prior to the occupancy by HT. The Honorable Adrian Fenty will be on hand at the 10:00am ceremony to honor the city's newest taxpayer; the first of three Harris Teeters to eventually stock the District's shelves. Jenkins Row, JPI's new 247-unit condominium at 1390 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, has long been marketing the bourgeoise market, which was slated to occupy the first floor of the building in mid 2007, but has yet to open its doors. And just two weeks ago, the Mayor was at the mike at Constitution Square to announce that a lease for a 50,000 square foot version would open in NoMa in early 2011.

But meeting deadlines may not be HT's forte; the Adams Morgan store was originally scheduled to open in the fall of 2006, but issues such as delivery through the narrow and one-way streets that surround the building held the project at bay for some time. Jennifer Panetta, Director of Communications for HT, would only say that the delay stemmed from the company "trying to be a good neighbor," saying that specific requests took "alot of development."

But the grocer will make up for lost hours, shoppers will be able to obtain their Angus Reserve or choose from the "extensive selection of seafood" from 7am to 11pm. Which, coincidentally, beats Whole Foods.

NoMa Bulks Up on Student Housing

NoMa's population just increased ten-fold. On Wednesday, 317 students moved into The Washington Center's student dorms - no, wait - "residential and academic facility" at 1005 Third Street, NE. Sure, it may be a large group of temporary students, but when your entire neighborhood consists of less than enough people to fill a Metro bus, you tend to count these things.

The residential center, in NoMa's sparser eastern section, is provided by a non-profit that places an international array of students into DC-area internships. The students are NoMa’s first residents in more than a century, according to the Business Improvement District, adding to the 40 or so residents that currently live in townhouses within the BID. The project, designed by Davis Carter Scott, broke ground just last spring.

The population figures may be a bit misleading, as the gerrymandered BID boundaries narrowly miss several large multi-family housing projects such as Senate Square. NoMa BID reps hasten to add that "9300 people live within half a mile of NoMa," and office buildings are going up everywhere, so don't get the wrong idea, the place is hopping. But soon technical geographic distinctions won't matter; Constitution Square - one of NoMa's largest projects - will begin renting its 440 apartments late this summer, and the Loree Grand will also soon open its doors to 212 new residents across the street from The Washington Center.

The $38m project was developed by Paradigm Development Company, and will be sufficient to provide for approximately 80% of the interns drafted by the TWC each year, who are currently housed in apartment buildings throughout the area. In addition to the college-style design elements like shared kitchens, shared rooms, high speed internet and the nostalgia-inspiring common areas, the building will also offer classrooms, offices, a large auditorium space, a computer lab, a fitness and a lounge area.

Washington DC real estate development news

NoMa Celebrates First Hotel

Not so long ago, there wasn't much reason to go to NoMa, and no place to stay if you did. Now, at least the latter problem has been solved. Representatives of Marriott International, the Finvarb Companies and the DC government came together today to cut the ribbon on the NoMa district's first hotel - an 8-story, 218-room Courtyard by Marriott with 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail and a direct connection to the Gallaudet University Metro. Elizabeth Price, President of the NoMa BID, told DCmud why the new development is an important stepping stone into the continued redevelopment of Northeast neighborhood.

"This...will really start to change us from an office dominated neighborhood to more mixed-use. It's a place that will attract visitors and tourists, but also support the office space." said Price. "It’s very attractive [to them] because it’s affordably priced, it’s one stop from Union Station and it’s close to the Metro. It has a lot of appeal for many different types of users.”

In addition, in-house amenities like a swank bistro, business center and swimming pool, guests at the $53 million first hotel will also have the privilege of flaunting their eco-awareness from atop the Courtyard’s green roof that will consist of “100 percent grass when fully grown” and offer a world-class view of the Capitol (or the sexy Florida Avenue/New York Avenue interchange, depending on one's orientation). But green initiatives aside, all the parties involved were prideful of another first that the hotel represents, as the District’s first Hispanic-owned Marriott.

Ray Bennett, Senior Vice President of Lodging and Development for Marriott International, touted the project as the latest fruit of his company’s “Diversity Ownership Initiative,” which has more than 300 new, minority-owned locations in the pipeline. Included in that figure are another five locations that the hotelier is pursuing with Bobby Finvarb and his development partners on the NoMA project: Harmon, Wilmot, Brown and Bagwell, LLP and Welburn Development, both of which are local, African-American owned businesses.

According to the NoMa BID, the new hotel, at 1325 2^nd Street, NE, will also soon be getting a new neighbor, as work labors along right next door on developer StonebridgeCarras’ large-scale Constitution Square project.

“[That project] continues to grow and that’s where we’ll have our first Harris Teeter, along with residential, hotel and office space,” said Price. She also provided a status update on Akridge’s Burham Place development behind Union Station, saying that the project and is still “several years away” and that the stimulus-funded restoration of the DC landmark it shares space with would likely have to conclude before work could begin.

In the meantime, for those keeping tabs on development in the area, that’s one down and many more to go. But, for a more up close and personal look, check out NoMA for yourself when the BID’s Summer Screen Festival starts up on June 10^th.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

Bethesda's Trillium Site Sold, Residential Project Planned

StonebridgeCarras and Walton Street Capital have paid $29,250,000 to purchase the Trillium site in Bethesda. The Wisconsin Avenue site had hosted a hotel, demolished in 2007 to make way a the high-end condo project by Houston-based Patrinely Group, but the ill-timed development never broke ground.

Davis Carter Scott had designed 3 residential towers for the project with southward facing glass sheer walls, but Stonebridge says it will create "a new plan" for the site that will have to go through the Montgomery County approval process again, and will feature a retail component below the residential spaces that will now be rental apartments. StonebridgeCarras says it will have plans ready to submit this summer for the 1.6 acre site. The building will occupy the southern end of the block (see map) northern part of the block is owned by NIH.

Stonebridge founding principal Doug Firstenberg says the team is starting from scratch to build "over 300 rental units" above 50,000 s.f. of retail, but has not selected an architect for the project. "We expect entitlements to be about 2 years, we hope to break ground early 2013, and deliver by 2015" says Firstenberg. "Its a really great opportunity to do a mixed use site, you've got a gateway site, less than a half a mile from the red line Metro station, with the medical center adding several thousand new jobs. This could really anchor the redevelopment of Woodmont Triangle."

This is the third joint venture between affiliates of StonebridgeCarras and Walton Street, which included Constitution Square in Washington DC and 8000 Jones Branch Drive in Tyson’s Corner. The previous developer began sales of the condominiums, which ranged from $500,000 to $3,000,000, but never achieved enough sales to satisfy investor requirements to start construction.

Bethesda, Maryland real estate development news

NoMa's First Residential Projects

Union Station's finally getting new neighbors as NoMa's very first new residential developments approach completion. The Loree Grand, the first phase of the planned Union Place development, brings 212 new rental units to 250 K St., NE. The building, which began construction in July 2007, is on track to be ready for occupants by March or April. Next door Paradigm Development is hard at work on The Washington Center student housing also slated for April delivery. The new NoMa residents will have gobs of transportation options including the metro, Marc and Amtrak lines, buses, the new bikestation and, if the street cars ever get worked out, a short ride to the H Street/Atlas District. The two new residential elements will be joined by Constitution Square, which is also expected to be finished in 2010. It's looking to be a good year for NoMa. Loree Grand developer, the Cohen Companies, purchased the land for just over $1 million and has spent $45 million on construction costs with ADC Builders and GTM Architects, the general contractor and architect, respectively. The bulk of the 212 units are variations on 1-bedroom apartments with the remaining 30 units built to 2-bedroom configurations. The Loree Grand will also offer 30 affordable apartments, likely to go to artists, arts administrators, and arts educators thanks to a partnership with the Cultural Development Corporation. Though not certified officially green, the building features a green roof with self-sustaining plant life, but makes up for it with 173 parking spaces in two below-grade levels and an additional 39 spaces on an adjoining surface parking lot. The Loree sits on the corner of 3rd and K Streets with 10 stories at 90ft on the corner stepping down to 7 stories at 60ft on the north end. The design features three shades of brick with precast concrete trim-work and detailing. The the first two floors reflect traditional Washington row house designs, with unit entrances fronting K Street and 3rd Street that will also be accessible from the interior. The building includes amenities such as a 2,000-s.f. private fitness center and 1,500-s.f. "party room". On the ground floor at 3rd and K sits approximately 3,700 s.f. of retail space, which Eric Siegel, Executive VP at the Cohen Companies, says he hopes to fill with a food/wine/coffee shop along the lines of Tryst in Adams Morgan. When(ever) the second phase of Union Place finishes, residents will also have access to a child care facility. According to Michelle Pilon, a Sr. Project Manager at the Cohen Companies, Phase II of Union Place is "currently on hold," but will ultimately feature 500 apartment units and 8,400 s.f. of commercial tenant space. 

Siegel indicated the group was working on drawings now for Phase II, but it sounds like neighbors at the Loree Grand won't have to worry about construction noise for a while. Facing the Loree is 1001 3rd St. NE, soon to be home to students of The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars. The 140,000 s.f. project should deliver this April with 95 rental units and 14,000 s.f. for a state of the art auditorium, classroom space and one level of underground parking with 35 spaces for the swarms of interns who hit DC every year. The Washington Center purchased the property in January of last year for $8.2 million from Greenebaum and Rose. The sale also included designs for the six-story building by architects at Davis Carter Scott, whose plans needed only a few interior alterations to accommodate the student housing. According to Steve Griffin of Paradigm, the housing should be home to 1,200 students rotated throughout the year. Most units are two bedrooms, two baths at about 1,000 s.f. each; not too shabby for interns. In 2003 Greenebaum and Rose bought the land which was once home to the Capitol Cab Company. 

The Davis Carter Scott plans, which were sold in 2009 along with the property, originally called for a $20 million, six story, 92,800-s.f. residential building. In May of 2008 Greenebaum and Rose partner, Sam Rose, told DCMud, “For now, it’s a piece of land with a permit. We’re not starting until the world looks prettier." It would seem that $8.2 million looked a lot prettier than a questionable condo project. The two projects are huge improvements over the former cab company and what was at one time a major drug intersection. The Loree Grand is named after Loree Murray, a former area resident who founded Near Northeast Citizens Against Crime and Drugs to organize neighbors against the rampant cocaine trade and violence in the 1980s. The group aided the police in fighting against one of the biggest cocaine drug rings in DC that at one time operated at 2nd and K St NE, future home of urbanites and interns. Liz Price, President of the NoMa BID, said, "all this residential is a new area for us. We're really excited to build residential density in this neighborhood."

Washington DC commercial property news

Archstone Pushes Back NoMa Start Date

It's easy to get excited by the mere promise of progress these days; excitement, however, is still no substitute for financing. In March, Archstone announced they would be breaking ground in April on its residential project at 1st and M Streets, NE in NoMa, a project that will fill out First Street as one of the latest empty parcels on that strip, along with Constitution Square which is just completing across the street. But as June slips away, the parking lot remains, sans construction. Senior Vice President Rob Seldin of Archstone now aims to break ground in July, financing depending.

Seldin said he hopes to have a "firm loan closing and start date" in the next few weeks. Archstone's 469 rental residential units will replace a surface parking as the first of two phases; the total project will bring 1.5 million s.f.: 500,000 of which will be in the Davis Carter Scott- designed residential building (with a nugget of ground floor retail at the corner of M and First). A parking garage will provide 421 spots on three levels below grade. The new building will increase residential space in NoMa by over 50 percent. Phase 2 is also planned as a residential building. Forrester Construction is the general contractor for the project.

Washington, DC real estate development news

Uline Arena to Get the Douglas Touch

The has-been Uline Arena is once more, thanks to Douglas Development. The old skating rink, located at the corner of 2nd & M Streets, NE, adjacent to the Amtrak lines, seems to have been used for just about everything, but as we reported last year, developer Douglas Jemal of Douglas Development purchased the property back in 2004 with the intention of making it a thoroughly modern mixed-used facility, including condos and office space. Now the Washington Business Journal reports that Jemal has teamed up with the Wilkes Company to develop the area. Wilkes owns the land on the north side of M, and the two will apparently work in concert to develop the properties. Wilkes is the midst of redeveloping a sizable chunk of Mt. Vernon Triangle, with Madrigal Lofts, The Sonata (now complete), and Mount Carmel all on its resume.

Jemal, love him or hate him, has been the force and inspiration behind much of DC's development, including Cleveland Park and Penn Quarter, and most notably the new Convention Center. Counting cranes in the area may soon become hard to do, with the new Marriott scheduled for construction soon, the recent groundbreaking of Union Place at 1st and K, MRP's $350m Washington Gateway project at the intersection of New York and Florida, Constitution Square on 1st Street, the New Yorker going in soon one block south of the Uline Arena, and of course the massive would-be development of the Florida Avenue market and Burnham Place, Akridge's long-term plan to build above the tracks north of Union Station.

Editors Building Downtown Turning to Hospitality

The "Editors Building," located one block from the White House at 1729 H St., NW in the Golden Triangle, has been owned and occupied by Kiplinger Washington Editors Inc. from the time it was completed in 1950. But after six decades, the family-owned finance publisher is selling its 10-story, 77,000 s.f. neo-classical building to a hotel developer.

The buyer currently under contract, OTO Development Company LLC, has put down a firm deposit, giving Dek Potts, a senior managing director with Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. (HFF), "reasonable confidence" that the sale is a sure thing.

Settlement is scheduled for October in order to allow Kiplinger time to relocate. HFF has been marketing the property since the summer of 2010. OTO Development LLC is a South Carolina-based hospitality development company with properties nationwide, and in April delivered its first project in D.C., the Hilton Garden Inn at Constitution Square in NoMa.

Located in the downtown core, the new Golden-Triangle property being acquired is C-4 zoned, allowing office, retail, housing, and mixed-use development (up to 110' and 8.5 F.A.R.) by way of right.

Designed by Washington architect Leon Chatelain Jr. in 1948, construction of the building in the subsequent two years was completed under the guidance of John McShain, celebrated general contractor-builder, who has been dubbed "The man who built Washington." McShain and his company worked on over 100 buildings in the thirty-odd years spanning the 1930s to '60s, including the National Airport, the Kennedy Center, the Jefferson Memorial, the Pentagon, the Library of Congress annex, and, the same year as the Editors Building, a revamp of the White House.
The Editors Building is not designated as a historic/landmark structure, allowing the buyer one less fee-trip in the path to redevelopment. A façade of limestone surrounds a red-granite-and-bronze entrance with matching red-granite window accents. Inside, the continuation of neo-classical elements includes an all-marble lobby with 12-to-16' ceilings.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

DCMud's 2009 Year in Review

DCMud looks back on 2009 by presenting the real estate year in review. In what might go down as "The year nothing got built," officials and builders at least found time set up the pins for 2010. And while 2009 is a year most real estate professionals would like to pretend never happened, it did.  Here's the best and the worst: 

Howard Theater Plans Approved (Jan 1) - The District approved plans to turn historic but dilapidated Howard Theater into an arts venue. Ellis Development expected work to begin by summer, but financing obstacles have left the building unmolested. 

Hilton Gets OK'd (Jan 2) - Lowe Enterprises received approval by the HPRB to renovate the "Hinkley" Hilton hotel and add a large residential tower on the site of its outdoor pool.  Renovation work got underway in the spring, closing the pool, but the condo tower appears far off. 

Work Begins on East-West Apartment Project (Jan 6) Post Properties began work on their 364 apartments in Hyattsville, MD. 

DC's Southwest Fish Market Loses Shacks (Jan 8) Several fish shacks on the waterfront were ordered razed as part of the plans for PN Hoffman to build its massive mixed-use waterfront community nearby, but the project remains a long way off. 

Ft. Totten Promises Development (Jan 14) Mayor Fenty joined Lowe Enterprises to announce the sale of 9 acres at Ft. Totten that will house nearly 900 new apartments, but work is not anticipated in the near future. 

Eckington Convent Gets Moving (Jan 15) In a literal push for affordable housing, Northstar Development tugged a historic convent to a new site to make way for a large, low-income housing project. Neighbors were less than thrilled about yet more affordable housing in the area. 

Montgomery County Votes to Endorse Purple Line (Jan 21) Amid copious argument, county planners said yes to adding a light rail line to the bike trail, enabling construction of the Purple Line from Bethesda to New Carrollton. 

Developers Propose Razing Meads Row (Jan 21) Owners of historic rowhouses on the 1300 block of H Street proposed knocking down the old beauty queens to replace them with a parking lot. Neighbors did not love the idea.

McMillan Sand Filtration Plans Get First Details (Jan 24) Developers chosen to build the crumbling McMillan site showed the public initial designs and ideas they hope will turn the vacant patch into a thriving town center.

Bethesda Post Office To Turn into Mixed-Use Project (Jan 27) The Post Office at 7001 Arlington Road received approval to turn it into a mixed-use development with 105 residences, thanks to Arlington-based Keating Development and KGD Architects, work has not yet begun. 

Eisenhower Ave Towers Approved (Jan 25) Lane Development's 22-story, 4-building complex on Eisenhower Avenue received initial design approval. The county voted June 13th in favor of the project. Much work remains before towers stand alongside the beltway. 

Alexandria Goes Green (Jan 26) - A working group adopted a LEED-certified plan for all buildings in Alexandria requiring special approval. The recommended standards are not binding. 

Auctioning Babe's (Jan 30) - Having kicked out rent-paying tenant Babe's Billiards, Clemens Construction was unable to get support for its years of effort to build a condo, and having paid $7.4m for the site, the wait couldn't last forever. The property was foreclosed, and Douglas Development added the real estate to its portfolio, intending retail, but the space remains vacant. 

Poplar Point Development Abandoned (Jan 31) - The District government and Clark Realty decided developing the 110-acre parcel of prime waterfront space wasn't such a good idea after all, calling the whole thing off.

Institute of Peace Gets Underway on the Mall (Feb 2) The five-story building, now nearly complete, took the place of a parking lot near the Lincoln Memorial. The building was designed by Moshe Safie and Associates, in the hopes of fostering world peace. Meanwhile, world strife continued. 

Kettler Produces Another Crystal City Project (Feb 3) Kettler began the third phase of its 10-building, 8-phase Metropolitan Park Development with a 411-unit apartment building designed by Dorsky Hodgson Parrish Yue. 

Fitz Condos in Rockville Auctions Remaining Units (Feb 10) Condo developer Elad ended nearly 5 years of marketing on the Fitz condos and sent the remaining 40 units of the 221-unit building to auction. In October, Elad did the same for the Colonnade, its Gaithersburg condo project. 

Metro station at Potomac Yards (Feb 11) Alexandria formally established a working group to explore the technical and practical viability of a metro station at the Yards, in preparation for further real estate development that does not choke area roads. 

Del Ray Apartments Roll Out (Feb 13) Work began turning vacant storefronts into 141 apartment units in the Del Ray section of Alexandria. 

Mixed-Use in College Park (Feb 24) The Mark Vogel Companies got the go-ahead for the Varsity, a 258-unit mixed-use apartment building in College Park. 

JBG Gets OK for Whitman Walker condos (Feb 25) After getting bashed by grumpy neighbors, the ANC, and HPRB for designs that seemed to please no one, JBG Companies and architect Shalom Baranes tweaked the designs to get the green light to build condos on the site of the Whitman Walker clinic on 14th Street.

JBG Plans 4-Star Hotel for U Street (March 2) JBG began plans to build a 250-bed luxury hotel in place of the Rite Aid, on a strip once known for its destruction in the '68 riots. 

Riverfront's Canal Park Steps Forward (March 25) Canal Park, a 3-block park through southeast's Capitol Riverfront, moved closer to reality when OLIN was named as the landscape architect for the project.

DCMud Chosen as Best Real Estate Blog (March 26) CityPaper selects this real estate journal in its annual "Best of DC."  Thank you, and thank you to our readers for all your feedback. 

Smithsonian Designs New Museum (March 30) The Smithsonian unveiled designs for its museum of African American History at 15th and Constitution on the National Mall. The Institute also said its costs had nearly doubled, to $500m. The following month, the Smithsonian announced that the Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates and Davis Brody Bond in association with SmithGroup were chosen to carry out the design. 

Frank Ghery Selected to Design Eisenhower Memorial (April 3) The memorial to the General and President will be built on Independence Avenue, between 4th and 5th Streets. 

District Selects Team to Redevelop SW Site (April 6) DC Selects Potomac Investment Properties, City Partners and Adams Investment Group to build half a million square feet of office and retail, and replace the fire station. 

Towers on the Way for New York Avenue (April 7) Bozzuto said it would soon begin building a 13-story residential building at 460 New York Avenue, and possibly makeover the abandoned warehouse too.

Donohoe Unveils Big Plans for Bethesda (April 16) The developer will build 81,000 s.f. of office, 457 residential units, and retail, on two sites in the Woodmont Triangle of Bethesda. 

Social Safeway Says Goodbye (April 20) The preeminent Georgetown grocer announced it would shut its doors and rebuild from ground up, but will it still be "social"? 

JPI unveils southeast DC apartments (April 22) JPI completed the 421-unit 909 at Capitol Yards, as well as the Axiom and Jefferson, a threesome of large apartment buildings near the new ballpark, bringing life to the "Capitol Riverfront" neighborhood. 

Arlington's First Platinum Residences (April 28) Erkiletion Development won approval from Arlington for a LEED Gold, 16-story apartment building in Courthouse, a 254-unit apartment designed by the Lessard Group. (see picture at right)

JBG wins approval for Bethesda Row centerpiece (May 5) The Planning Board said yes to Woodmont East, a 250-unit residence and separate office building built around the bike trail. 

High-rise Planned for Downtown Bethesda (May 23) The Clarrett Group announced plans to build an office building on the site of the McDonalds and its parking lot. 

Noma Gets its First Hotel (June 3) The Finvarb Companies and Marriott joined for a new hotel, one of many new Marriotts in the DC area, but the first place to sleep in Noma. 

Floridian Goes South (June 9) Sales at Kady Development's condo project, a bit of South Beach on Florida Ave., were stopped by the bank. 

Room and Board Picks 14th St. for DC (June 10) The retailer added to the growing 14th Street retail corridor. The store should open in the 2nd half of 2010. 

Founders Square Begins Demolition Work in Ballston (June 17) Work begins on the WMATA site that Shooshan will turn into two office towers and a sizable residential building. 

W Comes to DC (June 24) After a few changes in ownership, the Starwood Capital Group purchased the fading Hotel Washington, making it hip once again. 

Eastern Market Reopens (June 25) After a fire gutted the beloved market, the city had a new one built, with improvements to boot. 

JBG Gets Approval for Massive Twinbrook Project (June 29) The developer plans for Twinbrook Station, a 2.2 million square foot complex at the Twinbrook Metro. 

Florida Avenue Gets Jazzed (July 7) Banneker Ventures promised it was partnering with Bank of America to get going on the Florida Avenue project it won from WMATA more than a year ago, but which had not gotten underway; work has not yet begun. 

DC Passes Bill for Convention Center Hotel (July 14) Quadrangle Development is to build the 1100 room Marriott, but JBG protests the selection process, and the site remains a parking lot. 

DC Seeks to Finish Off West End (July 15) The District sought a developer for 3 low-density parcels, anomalies in the now-dense neighborhood. 

Curtain Call for Takoma Theater (Aug 1) Owners of the Takoma Theater promised to bring down the house, literally, to make way for an office building, then a theater, but the community is calling for an encore. 

Penn Quarter Gets Luxury Apartment Building (Aug 4) Hanover Co. opened its first DC-area project at Judiciary Square (see picture at right), while building another in Falls Church. 

District Cancels Lincoln Theater Development (Aug 6) Quietly, the District government withdrew its plans to redevelop the back lot, a scheme that would have helped fund the struggling theater.

Arbor Place Returns (Aug 7) Scrapping plans to build as many as 3500 market-rate residential units on outer New York Avenue, Abdo shifts in favor of less than half as many subsidized homes. 

DC Mandates Subsidized Housing (Aug 11) After the Executive Branch slowed the process, the Council finally got its way and forced builders to provide the city with cheap housing for the poor. 

Columbia Pike Lurches Ahead (Aug 20) After seceding from Virginia (bureaucratically), the Pike gets 325 new residences underway at Penrose Square. 

Southwest Towers Foreclosed (Aug 21) Fairfield Residential loses its grasp on The View, a refurbished apartment building in southwest DC, in another foreclosure statistic for the real estate market. 

Montgomery County Gets Taller (Aug 21) JBG caps its 24-story residential tower on Rockville Pike, making it the new tallest residence in Montgomery County. 

St. Elizabeths Team Chosen (Aug 28) The GSA selected Clark, WDG, and HOK to build out the new landlocked Coast Guard Headquarters, in what will be one of the largest construction sites in the District of Columbia. Less than a month later, the Feds broke ground on the site.

NoMa Caps Largest Mixed-Use Building (Sept 1) Soon residents will outnumber construction workers in Noma, as StonebridgeCarras and SK&I Architects finish 440 apartments and a hotel, possibly in early 2010. (see picture at left)

A Giant Delay (Oct 1) Street-Works vision for a large mixed-use replacement for the forlorn low-rise Giant on Wisconsin seemed to please no one, but developer Bozzuto plows ahead and discussions move forward. 

Park Morton Team Moves Forward? (Oct 7) Washington DC officials picked the team to build the capacious Georgia Avenue project - now with the Central Union Mission site included. Probably. Someday.

Clarendon's Affordable Housing Breaks Ground (Oct 15) The Views at Clarendon starts work on 116 mixed-income units after a long zoning dispute, going up to the Supreme Court, gets resolved. 

Northwest One Team Selected (Oct 27) The massive project that could transform the area close to the Capitol Building is set in motion, but the Mayor's choice of real estate developer raises eyebrows on the Council. 

Silver Spring Designs Downtown Library (Oct 29) The county releases its plans for the urban repository; the new building will straddle the new Purple Line, someday, when further details are worked out. 

Capitol Hill's Big Dig (Nov 15) CSX says it needs to tear up Virginia Avenue to rebuild the train tracks, just when residents of southeast DC thought construction in the neighborhood was nearly complete.

Bethesda's Parking Quagmire (Dec 2) Montgomery County wants PN Hoffman and Stonebridge to build 1100 parking spaces below Bethesda Row, but the $80,000-per-space sticker gives some locals road rage. (rendering at right)

Street Cars are Here (Dec 16) At long last, H Street's public transport arrives from Europe, but DC officials say that getting them running in Northeast is another matter.

Industry Insight: Architect Phil Esocoff

Responsible for the design of Capitol Hill's Senate Square, the ballpark area's Onyx, the Whitman, and the Historic Greyhound Station at 1100 New York Avenue, NW, Phil Esocoff, Principal of Esocoff and Associates, is as creative in person as his buildings are in presentation. With an office full of architects quietly scheming and tracing the next building, about which everyone will have something to say, Phil Esocoff agreed to talk about urban design, bricks, and which buildings he would invite to dinner. 

When did you become interested in architecture? 

Esocoff: When I was in 5th grade there was a photograph of the Guggenheim in my weekly reader and I made my parents take me to see the building, that’s when I decided I wanted to be an architect. 

What do you think urban architecture should achieve? 

Esocoff: I think the term would be genus loci, the idea of it being rooted in the place and time and the culture of the place. It’s what makes the world interesting. If you’re traveling to a place, you don’t want to find the place you left, you want to find something new. And it’s great to have architecture grow out of that. It could be climate, craft, and traditions. Certainly in history architecture has been based on the materials that have been available, whether its wood and you have wooden architecture or stone and stone architecture. So when you go back and think of history you find that brick came from local clay and depending on what materials you have for fuel, that changes the color or outcome of the brick. So unbeknownst to a lot of people today, our regional architecture has always been very much affected by what was available at the time. Whether it’s a sod house on the plains or log cabin somewhere. It’s like we don’t realize milk doesn’t come from a bottle, it comes from a cow. 

So how would you describe your style? 

Esocoff: It’s not a style, it’s probably more like an aesthetic that comes from looking for some discovery of what the purpose of the building is, what’s the technology used to build, and what’s going to make it last a long time. I like buildings that will get better over time like good wines. There is a quote that says, “Finishing ends construction, then weathering constructs the finishes.” And so it's that softening that limestone or brick gets as it collects residue. 

Are there buildings in DC that come to mind when you think of structures getting better over time? Esocoff: Federal Triangle looks better now than it probably did when it was brand new. That concept is also something I have in mind for my Canterbury project.

What’s been your favorite project that you’ve designed?

Esocoff: I would say that my longtime favorite is the one I did at 2401 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW before I started this firm. There are flags on top and little brackets that hold the canopies that are donkeys and elephants. You couldn't do that anywhere else. It is so perfect for where it is. 

What is your favorite building in DC? 

Esocoff: (Laughs) thats a hard question. For interior, it's hard to beat the Library of Congress. My favorite building is 518 C Street, NE. It's a small office building that Amy (Weinstein, also his wife) did in Stanton Park. 

What are some of the projects that you have coming up? 

Esocoff: We have several and they are all exciting, really the ones nearing completion are the Dumont at 4th and Mass, that’s 401 and 425 Mass Avenue and there is also the Onyx by the ballpark. Still being designed is Marina View in Southwest. That’s exciting because we are renovating I.M. Pei buildings from 1962, and in some cases following original design drawings that were somewhat badly engineered, so we are trying to bring it a little closer to what the original design intent was, but also use double glazing for energy reasons. The exciting part is we've hired the original landscape architecture firm to come back and redo the garden between the two buildings and update it in light of contemporary understandings of good urban designs. There is an author – Oscar Newman who wrote Defensible Space. And he said there should be a clear definition of ownership and responsibility for space. Public space especially, helps give some quality to the urban realm, so people aren’t in this kind of ambiguous relationship with it. So in this case, we're opening up a place that will be open to the public during the day with established east-west routes through the site that are clearly inviting to the public. They will be able to go east-west through this superblock that was established so they can get through to the Metro. We are trying to re-establish the pedestrian circulation that used to flow through here. So while the street isn’t being re-opened, people can traverse the site on attractive circulation paths. 

Do you tend to prefer historical projects like that one, or ground-up design? 

Esocoff: Almost all of my projects are ground up, we haven’t done too many actual renovations. We did one at the Chilean Embassy on Mass Ave, where we put things back in order that had been changed. You wouldn’t call it a real restoration but we mitigated some renovations of the past so that if in the future they want to do a full blown renovation, they can. We tried to do a respectful renovation The Pei buildings are really going to set a standard for contemporary design and how you renovate a building from the 1960s, that's not even 50 years old. That project went through an informal process with the HPRB to almost set a standard for how buildings in that area of the city are renovated - what would be the philosophical approach to dealing with the buildings and the spaces there in a way that kept the baby but threw out the bath water. One of the things with the 60's is they threw out baby and bath water, so if you want to learn from history, you have to take a more circumspect view of what our

predecessors did and not just throw it out wholesale which is what they did in a way. They erased the street grid as though the street grid that had worked for 200 years was somehow a mistake. There was no mistake in the layout of the street grid. There was no need to have done that. It was a misguided idea of super block planning and wholesale destruction of historic fabric that we wouldn’t do today. In a way, if we went in there and started tearing down old buildings, we wouldn’t have learned anything from what they did, because some of these buildings have character – they are historic artifacts for good or ill and if somehow they can be retained and adaptively reused in a respectful way for what qualities they do have, that’s actually better than just doing the same thing they did.

What is your view of the architect's role in the PUD process? 

Esocoff: Well we look at the zoning and look at the description of the site. We look at what the surrounding context is, in other words - what would be the best front door for the project - is it on a boulevard, what should the address be. Whats the best way to present the building? It's funny that we've slipped into this idea that planning is a restriction on peoples' rights to plan economically. Somehow people have forgotten that planning can add value to land by setting up rules that people can use then to plan accordingly. It is the opposite of Tyson's Corner where everyone could do what they wanted, but the net value there is probably less than if you took the same square footage starting in the center of Farragut Square and worked your way out. If you applied DC's plan to Tyson's Corner, you might have more real estate value. So what do we do? We look at the context and we look at very basic things like where the front door is, where the parking entrance should be and where the loading dock will be. Those things have to be dealt with very early on. That stuff sounds very prosaic but its really the foundation of it. It no more prosaic than saying, "Here are the boundaries of the site, plan within them". So you look at that and then I guess what we developed was kind of a philosophical attitude about what good urban architecture is in the context of the District's plan. The District is interesting as a plan because it has very wide streets and its streets are so wide that in other cities you could almost put a park in the middle of the street. So it is really incumbent upon the people building here to build to the property line for a good portion of the facade and define public space by project initiative. In some ways its very much a description of the underlying premise for our political system or our political culture – people are free to do what they want, but if they live up to certain civic responsibilities, we are all the better for it. You will then get a sense of an urban space that is a linear park that runs for miles. If you think about some of the streets in the city, they are about 150 to 160 feet wide. Essentially, you have space that is wider than a football field that runs for miles and it’s ironic that citizens or lots of people in district will sometime object to buildings because they say they will use up too much space. 

We have a lot of undefined, two dimensional areas. I would say that one of our problems is that if you really look at all of our spaces, they aren't developed nearly as well and don't have the texture and usability as any number of spaces in Paris, for example. It is also unfortunate that not everyone thinks you should have to take care of your part of the public realm just as a voluntary exercise. In the BIDs, it's different, but you'll see sometimes the area between the curb and sidewalk that is barren or full of broken glass and dirt and no one feels that they have to take care of that. The BIDs have done a lot though. I would also say that it's unfortunate that more thought isn't given to the facades of buildings. Each developer should think of how their project affects the view from the building across the street. Not just in a brochure, but in terms of selling office space and looking across at non-public elevation. I can't help but think that a lot of real estate value is incinerated. If you're stuck with an office on an alley looking at bland facades and boring window patterns, and that space could be courts from the center of the block that are quiet and attractive and secondary exposures, and not just the back of a building. (Laughs) It's almost like each developer should pay the developer on the other side. You don’t get to see your own, you see the one across the street and you don’t get money for that office space.

How do height restrictions affect your work? 

Esocoff: I like to think of heights in the District as a schedule of heights and based on what I said about defining public space, they have to do with what the original planners thought the right height would be for the width of the streets to create a boulevard. The analogy I think of is the big room upstairs in the Renwick Gallery where pictures are hung three or four pictures high. And out streets are small galleries and you look up into windows and see different slices of lights. The windows are like picture frames. Its like you are in this public room and the walls are the facades, and if everyone builds a certain amount, it will be a nice picture gallery. I think the restrictions are a good thing. It means you’ve got this kind of nice coherence. because unlike other cities, in DC its a little bit like you took a waffle iron and poured in a batter called "highest and best use" and slammed the lid down and it squeezed out. Washington from the air seems to have this grid and diagonal boulevard system that looks like a waffle pattern. It's very satisfying that now, 200 years later, you cant stand on Dupont Circle and look down clearly defined streets. The Constitution allows people to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but in buildings, you don’t see a lot of that. To fully express the underlying value of society, each building should be self expressive. You've been given this freedom to go up to a certain elevation and the fact that some buildings sit there mutely is kind of disappointing. People do a lot of excruciatingly boring things and say if that if they could have gone higher, it would have been more exciting and I don't believe that. I like buildings like Gaudi's buidings – no one looks at them and says, "too bad they aren’t sky scrapers." But people go down streets in DC and think its a problem that there is a height limit. To paraphrase Shakespeare, "the problem, dear Brutus, is not in our height limit, but in ourselves." What I like is that you can take time to lovingly design each inch of the façade. Its not like there are six stories out of view; people get to see it all. People get to see what your doing. People see every square inch and that’s fun to work on. If a city is an expression of our culture, you have to be able to say what you think about that. 

What are some of the other architecture firms that you admire? 

Esocoff: My favorite architect from the District is Amy Weinstein, although I guess the disclaimer is, she's my wife (laughs). She is now starting up again as the Weinstein Studio within Esocoff and Associates, and she has a project on Capitol Hill, the Eastern Market Metro Plaza, its an urban design scheme that she is going to make sing. We are also collaborating in a way on the Wardman West for JBG in Woodley Park, just west of Wardman Park Tower. I think it will set a new standard for DC buildings. Some of the architects I like are Mark McInturff, Bob Kearney, and certainly Shalom's (Shalom Baranes) work is consistently excellent as is Bonstra Haresign's. They do tight brickwork that I really like. I could go on and on about brick, but what I like about their work, is the nice sculptural clarity. I don’t think our predecessors wanted us to keep doing the same thing. Just being different for the sake of being different and not building on the past is not much of an accomplishment. 

Who are some past architects that have inspired you? 

Esocoff: There are a lot – I think Louis Kahn, he used a lot of brick too, he taught at Penn when I was there. There was always this underlying meaning in what he was doing. 

It seems like you have a thing for brick.

Esocoff: Well its Kahn and it's something you can work with – what else can you make buildings out of? There is stone like we did for 1100 New York Ave (NW). But I guess it's because a lot of projects I have worked on have been in neighborhoods and in budget levels where brick seemed like the right material. There is a lot of expressive value in it. I think you have a role in the world, you're not alone and its nice there there is material that you can use to provide some meaningful work for other people. I think we have some great craftsman in the world and if we also have great drawings, I believe that they will always rise to the task and build a new design. That is based on my experience in my last thirty years in DC. We believe they will do a great job, and they always do. All these people have a heart and soul and want to do something meaningful. 

How would you change the development process for the better? 

Esocoff: I think there needs to be more of a sense of self respect. I think a lot of people don’t take this seriously. I think every site I work on is the most important in the world, and each developer should think that too, because the communities that developments are in think that. There needs to be better public discussion among community groups and government. That has taken a dramatic turn thanks to Mayor Williams. Since his administration there has been a renaissance in the Office of Planning, but I think there still needs to be more public discussion about what makes DC special. There isn’t a lot of discussion of what architecture goes with that plan. When I look at buildings I think about having a party and each building coming to it. You look at the building and think, "would you want that building to come to dinner?" If it looks uptight, you say, "no", or if it looks like it chews with its mouth open, that's probably my building (laughs), but if it looks like it has a story to tell, then you want to learn more about it.

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