Thursday, March 15, 2012
Today in Pictures - Flats at Atlas District
Labels: Clark Builders Group, Clark Realty, Niles Bolton, RD Jones
Washington D.C. real estate development news
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Your Next Place
Labels: Dupont Circle, Your Next Place
Reading about this gem before the open house, the blurb said it was a "magazine quality" rowhome, and boy was that accurate. With its just-perfect details (the moldings, the exquisitely stained floors, those fairy-tale-ish under-staircase closets) and totally unique furnishings, I felt a distinct "through the looking glass" sensation as I toured the place, almost like I'd stepped into the pages of one of those glossy interior design magazines my ex-girlfriend's mother would always pretend to leaf through in an effort to convince everyone she was, in fact, human. (Nobody was fooled.)
1618 Corcoran Street NW
4 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths
$1,799,000
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Lowe Enterprises to Convert Wheaton Office Building to Residential High-Rise
Labels: Bonstra Haresign Architects, Lowe Enterprises, Wheaton
"The building has very good bones," says Mark Rivers, Senior Vice President at Lowe Enterprises, by way of explanation. "The concrete structure can easily support the additional floors. It would just be a waste of time, money, and landfill space to tear it down and rebuild. Also, this building is narrow for an office building - about 60 feet wide. Residential buildings are generally narrower than office buildings, so that was a nice bit of luck."
The sketch plan application promises to "substantially transform the building aesthetic through comprehensive facade changes," listing balconies, vertical bays, and a "strong vertical element" at the northwest corner of the building, to lend it a "distinguishable identity." Developers intend to convert the building from glazed brick and boxy to "a contemporary slender tower clad in composite panels, glass and masonry." The Bonstra Haresign-designed tower will include up to 200 studios and one-bedroom dwellings, as well as 60-plus parking spaces on-site (though zoning doesn't require any).
Developers haven't yet decided if they'll include retail space on the ground floor, though they have plenty of time to decide, as construction is targeted for the beginning of next year. Though another residential tower in the area might seem excessive, developers, following a familiar blueprint, are confident that the expanding housing market in Wheaton will organically lead to an increase in demand for retail. Since county planners adopted the new, updated Wheaton Sector Plan in 2010, which aimed to revitalize the moribund area, development in Wheaton has revved up to high gear, even leading local uberdeveloper Leonard Greenberg to compare the area to Adams Morgan.
Fairgrounds at Nationals Stadium
Monday, March 12, 2012
Sky House Kicks Off in Southwest
Labels: JBG Companies, RD Jones, Southwest, Urban Atlantic, Wiencek + Associates
As the re-remoderization of Southwest Washington D.C. continues, this time without a Soviet flare, Urban Atlantic Development and JBG have started work on the transformation of Sky House I & II, the concrete layers of the old EPA government building on 1150 4th Street, and across the street at 1151 4th Street. With Wiencek & Associates Architects & Planners on board for the exterior and RD Jones + Associates for the interiors, the project will deliver some 530 units to the Southwest Waterfront area in late 2013 or early 2014.
The development team is keen on delivering an environmentally sustainable, LEED certified, twin building project. This project is another step continued revitalization of housing in the Southwest quadrant. With a mix of studio, one & two bedroom units, with the average unit size only 675 s.f. The two buildings will have different ownership structures, but both will have 20% of the units set aside for affordable housing. With the two tallest buildings in Southwest, developers are touting the unique views ("Sky") available from the rooftop deck and pool. The Sky projects complete the area around Waterfront Station - at least until the surface parking lots are addressed - with the office complex having completed in 2009, Safeway having reopened in the spring of 2010, and Waterfront Towers having converted to condos in 2009.
There will be a "groundbreaking" ceremony with Mayor Vincent Gray in attendance today at 9:30am.
Washington D.C. real estate development news
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Your Next Place
5009 Hawthorne Place NW
5 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths
$1,125,000
Saturday, March 10, 2012
An Addition Less Ordinary
Though art aficionados and friendly Francophiles Margaret Rubino and Sal Fiorito wanted more for their standard brick post war Chevy Chase, Md. home, an addition that spoke precisely the same language was not—in parlance of the country they adore—de rigueur.
Defying their standard two-story, 1,200 s.f. Colonial brick issue with a series of small rooms, including an inefficient kitchen also acting as a kind of hallway—a deterrent to their love of food and entertaining, Rubino, Fiorito and architect Steve Lawlor envisioned a kind of colossal glass room with a view, or perhaps two views.
One would extend outward to nature and the couple’s lush gardens, and the other, inherently more poetic, would foster an appreciation of an eclectic, intimate collection of the couple’s cherished art and objects. With all of that, the homeowners did seek some integration of the existing and new structures so that the addition wasn’t isolated “like an appendage,” Rubino said. Much like a disparate, though pleasurable piece of art categorized as mixed media, there needed to be cohesion between the elements.
Accordingly, a faux-Colonial fireplace was replaced with a gleaming marble surround, and openings between the rooms on the ground floor were notably enlarged so the inside of the house felt much more modern in light of the addition, Rubino explained. With Fiorito’s background in glasswork and architectural sculpture, an architectural glass front door he designed for the existing Colonial replaced a tired, traditional entrance, flanked by flush, contemporary porch lighting.
Mapplethorpe, machines and minestrone
“The addition itself is a reaction to the post war house—it’s not like we were trying to extract its DNA—we are playing off the house,” said architect Steve Lawlor. Referencing Leo Marx’s 1964 literary criticism “The Machine in the Garden,” a metaphor for contradictions in society and challenges to our own thinking or interior landscapes, Lawlor indicated the new space was to be a paean to the homeowners' unconventional tastes and ideals.
For globe-trekking interior and garden designer Rubino, owner of D.C.’s—and pre-9/11 NYC's—Rooms and Gardens (featuring early 20th century French antiques, vintage and other kinds of French furnishings, art and garden art), a kitchen/gallery space in which to relax, entertain and quietly showcase decades of cherished art was the goal. Objects that included sculpture — such as polychrome bloody saint’s feet found in Paris, furnishings and photography(Rubino’d been photographed herself by Robert Mapplethorpe) featuring a Jim Sanborn radium clock image — clearly needed a platform, albeit an informal one. For Fiorito, a driving force for many years behind Washington’s emerging and burgeoning art scene, including the pioneering Washington Project for the Arts (WPA), a place to showcase his art collection as well as his love of cooking was high on the agenda.
Siting the new construction at the rear, the original living and dining rooms (the latter subsequently turned into a study) were left in the existing part of the residence, with the living room wall bumped out for a more fluid entry into the new space. The old kitchen became a side entrance, transformed into a mudroom and transitional point to the rest of the house. With the addition conceived of as one large space, a new terrace for al fresco dining can be accessed through ceiling-height glass doors that open to the outdoors.
Defined by sweeping glass and clad in low-maintenance Galvalume (sheet steel) siding and stucco, which worked well with the new space’s massing, the stark contrast to the existing structure’s nondescript brick is apparent. “Hardiplank or wood wouldn’t have looked right, and stone didn’t fit in with the aesthetic they were interested in,” Lawlor said.
Pendant lights and partial nudes
For the interior, the homeowners chose the finishes, and Fiorito built and/or installed them, including marble countertops, ipe flooring and a combination of stained, rift-cut wood and high-gloss lacquered cabinets. White walls act as a clean canvas. “It’s intended to be a relatively minimal palette to showcase the art,” Lawlor said, adding, “…it’s hard for me to tell in this project where the architecture ends and the interior design begins.”
Amiably called “provocative” in everything they do by the architect, the homeowners acquired a life-sized semi-nude (named Tanya) by photographer Chan Chao, featuring the result on a divided pantry door that projects into the space. “A partially-clad woman in the kitchen isn’t for everybody, but it’s exactly them,” Lawlor said, noting because most everything else is built in, the pantry door’s three-dimensional aspect makes it a real focal point.
“I can’t have full frontal nudity in the kitchen,” Rubino quipped, because of their young son. “But she’s actually more compelling the way she is.”
To court the sun and extend the addition’s vistas, fixed floor-to-ceiling light-cut windows, but with operable units at the bottom for ventilation, frame the garden as art.
When the sun goes down, eight Ko No aluminum pendant lights by Tre Ci Luce—six over the marble island and two over the kitchen table—that are lowered and raised manually provide ample task lighting on day-to-day activities. Additional low voltage recessed track lighting is “aim-able,” according to Lawlor, and can be directed toward the table, floor, walls or wherever favorite art and objects would benefit.
“The addition is probably more in the spirit of who the homeowners are than is the original house,” Lawlor said, noting the couple’s art is not just randomly collected, but infused with history and personal memories. “They wanted something different, something big and loft-like—an open space in which they can live with their art and feel comfortable.”
photos courtesy of Maxwell MacKenzie and Margaret Rubino
Friday, March 09, 2012
WPC's Wheaton Residential Project to Break Ground In May
Labels: BF Saul, Preston Partnership, Washington Property Company, Wheaton
Washington Property Company's 245-unit residential building at 10194 Georgia Avenue is on target for a spring groundbreaking, adding to the long list of greenlit revitalization projects in Wheaton. "We're out to bid now [for a general contractor], and hope to start construction in early May," said Daryl South, Vice President of Development for WPC. "Everything's ready to go."
Washington Property company acquired the 1.65-acre parcel, which is just steps from the Wheaton metro station, in 2005.