Grosvenor, Skanska Close on Ballpark Site, Hope for Construction Next Summer

The Capitol Riverfront neighborhood got another shot in the arm today as developers announced a new project adjacent to the Nationals ballpark.  Developers Skanska USA and Grosvenor Americas closed yesterday on their purchase of the long block on 1st Street, SE, between M and N Streets, just north of the ballpark, and hope to begin construction by next summer.

The site, known as Square 701, will hold four buildings with more than 650,000 s.f. in total:

-An 11-story, 224,000 s.f. office building (built by Skanska, designed by Gensler, see rendering below),

-A 170-room hotel (by Grosvenor),

-Two residential buildings with a total of 285 units and connected by a "trellised glass bridge" (by Grosvenor, designed by Hickok Cole).

In all, the site will offer up to 55,000 s.f. of retail space.  The land had been owned by Potomac-based Willco Companies since 1948, and was cleared of buildings several years ago; in a simultaneous transaction Grosvenor purchased nearly the entire block from Willco and Skanska purchased the northernmost portion of the site from Grosvenor.  The site is adjacent to the hole Monument Realty excavated in 2007 and has left sitting ever since.  Rob Ward of Skanska says that while Grosvenor and Skanska are not technical or financial partners on the project, they will be working in tandem to unify the site.

Ward tells DCMud that while Willco had its own plans for the site, both Skanska and Grosvenor are developing new building designs, which have been wending their way through DC's zoning process throughout the summer.  Ward expects that under the most optimistic circumstances work could be underway on either the residential or office component as early as next summer; to date the developers have been in discussion with the ANC and zoning officials but "don't have enough design to pull permits yet."  Ward says the project is "basically by-right zoning" and "consistent with what the city has in mind for the site."

The new building is being designed to earn a LEED Gold platinum rating.  McCaffery Interests will be representing Grosvenor on construction elements of the project, which include the alley (Cushing Place) between this site and Monument's land.  The alley is expected to be reopened, though Ward notes that he has no news on Monument's projections for work to resume.  Below is a site plan - north is up.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

10 Questions with ... Eric Colbert

10 Questions is a new weekly feature in which we interview some of the leading District figures in real estate, architecture, development, and planning. This week's subject ... architect Eric Colbert.

As much as any architect working today, Eric Colbert is responsible for the look and feel of contemporary D.C.  Once called "the architectural god of 14th Street," Colbert and his firm, Eric Colbert & Associates, is known for his subtle but artful aesthetic, and his projects are everywhere.  Whether you know it or not, when you think about District architecture, you're thinking about Eric Colbert.

1.  What’s a typical day for you?

Wake up at 5:45 and am on the Potomac River by 6:20 am in my kayak doing a workout near Brookmont.  In the office by 9:00 am.  Most of our projects are local and I often make a site visit to one of our construction sites during the day.  As the owner of the company, it is my responsibility to distribute work to the employees and insure that our resources are being used efficiently.  At least 3-4 times a week potential clients come to me with possible projects that they want me to analyze.

I normally work through lunch.  Leave office around 7:30 pm.  I have no TV and usually read a couple of hours in the evening.

2.  What or who is your biggest influence?

When I started my company, for many years I shared offices with the developer, Sandy Wilkes.  He taught me a lot about how to organize and run an office, and remains a close friend and client.  Gary Squire is another long-time client that has taken a strong interest in my company and has been an effective mentor.

3.  What neighborhood do you live in?

I have lived in numerous DC neighborhoods, including Adams Morgan, Eckington, Penn Quarter.  I currently reside in Chevy Chase, DC.

4.  What is your biggest DC pet peeve?

Phobia about building height.

5.  What is the #1 most played song on your iPod.

I play a lot of songs from Cold Play’s “Mylo Xyloto” album and Leonard Cohen’s “Old Ideas” album.

6.  Favorite DC haunt?

9:30 Club.

7.  What’s your favorite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon?

Be outdoors, kayaking, hiking, etc.  I just returned from a 2 week, 227 mile kayak trip through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River.

8.  If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I travel quite a bit and always enjoy returning to Washington, DC.  There is no place else that I would rather live.

9.  If you couldn’t be an architect, what would you be?

If I couldn’t be an architect, I would probably want another type of job in the construction or design industry.  I love all aspects of creating a building, furniture, or any built form.

10.  Name one thing most people don’t know about you.

I am addicted to crime novels.

CAS Riegler Development on 9th to Break Ground Early Next Year

After years of tiptoeing towards growth, Shaw’s 9th Street plan is taking a big step in that direction in 2013, and one more real estate development is now officially in the pipeline.

Adam Stifel, one of the founding principals of development company CAS Riegler, says the group, in partnership with Douglas Development and CityInterests, is close to construction on a residential project at the corner of 9th and N streets designed by PGN Architects. The partners say they hope to choose a general contractor by the end of October and plan to break ground early next year.  "We’re all set and it’s pretty much entitled,” said Stifel, explaining that the project has received approvals from the local ANC, the DC Board of Zoning Adjustment, and the Historic Preservation Review Board. “Now we’re working on getting it priced out from general contractors.” Stifel would not name the four or five companies bidding on the construction project.

The development site includes a lot at the corner of 9th and N streets that’s currently being used by garden center Old City Green, as well as an existing historic building at 1264 9th Street and a building located on Blagden Alley inside the block which formerly served as Fight Club DC, a privately-owned skateboarding/art/music space that closed in 2010. The corner lot is owned by Douglas Development, while CAS Riegler and CityInterests own the property around it.

Earlier estimates had placed groundbreaking in late 2012, but waiting until early 2013 to begin construction means that Frank Asher, owner of Old City Green, doesn’t have to vacate the property until after the lucrative Christmas tree season. Asher has spoken out more broadly about independently-owned businesses being forced to leave an area once it begins to develop.

The project's design has come a long way since its initial renderings, which featured a "Portland-esque" (as Stifel put it) aesthetic that was big on wood and steel. After multiple changes following meetings with retailers, neighborhood stakeholders and historic preservation officials, the design is now a little more conventional, giving a nod to the nearby row houses with its varying facade and incorporating--but not mimicking--the historic façade at 1264 9th Street.  The building will back up to Blagden Alley, but Stifel says the connection along the alley will be too small to incorporate any alley amenity or streetscape.

The development will include roughly 70 apartment units; most will be one-bedrooms, with some two-bedroom units scattered throughout and a few larger units located on the building’s penthouse level and its corners. The project will also include a level of underground parking and about 8,000 square feet of ground floor retail. "I think we'll end up with a restaurant taking most of it," said Stifel. "I think it's a really good corner space that's meant to be a restaurant or café."

Stifel, who himself lives in one of the company's Shaw buildings, says he thinks the area has a huge amount of promise. “Shaw has a lot to offer, and a lot of beautiful building stock,” he said.  “As a guy who lives and breathes this stuff, I have a lot of confidence in this market.” He said that he envisions the development will have an urban feel similar to The Hudson, PN Hoffman’s boxy, high-ceilinged apartment building located across from the P Street Whole Foods in Logan Circle.

Washington, D.C., real estate development news

Tribute to Paul Hughes

In Memory of Paul Hughes 
1943-2012

Environmental Activist and Visionary

Founder and President, DeConstruction Services, LLC

and ReBuild Warehouse

by Beth Herman

At 7 p.m. on the bone-chilling evening of December 23, 2010, when Washington had long since gone for the holidays, and though he had a persistent cough, fever and raging bronchitis, Paul Hughes gave me an hour of his time. It was a phone interview and try as I might to postpone it to another day, when some semblance of his strained, raspy voice would have returned, Hughes was intent upon keeping the appointment. Though I pictured the then 67-year-old environmental activist huddled over eucalyptus-infused steam, swaddled in a polar fleece wrap on the sofa of a dimly lit room, in reality I learned he was sitting upright at his desk, multitasking, computer humming, lights blazing, as though it was just another day (or night) at the office.

True to his deep sense of humanity and character, something revealed to me not so much by his robust bio and hard-won list of achievements but rather by the unrelenting credit and opportunity he gave to everyone else, Hughes was a quiet revolutionary. Cuirassed in earth-friendly prose and practices, he soldiered on, in fact early on, long before concepts like “renewable” and “sustainable” became as commonplace and easy to swallow as butter and toast.

Though legions of green crusaders roamed the planet, a fierce dedication to recycling, repurposing and renewing people’s lives—maybe even more so than the old lumber he pulled out of deconstructed homes through his Fairfax, Virginia-based DeConstruction Services, LLC—was what distinguished Paul Hughes.

In addition to harvesting old materials and making them available at supremely reduced rates to the public through his 501(c)(3) organization ReBuild Warehouse, the former nonprofit grant and environmental services consultant gave dozens of nonviolent ex-offenders a chance to turn their lives around. With valuable training and full-time employment offered through his businesses, Hughes invested in human dignity as much as anything else.

“It’s going 180 degrees against the trend,” he’d said in that 2010 interview: http://www.dcmud.blogspot.com/2011/01/recycling-lumber-and-lives.html . “Most contractors are trying to get away from employing a lot of people…so they can offload liability costs, worker’s comp and matching social security. They contract everything out to subcontractors and let them worry about where to get laborers—often just day laborers to whom fewer laws apply, and who have little hope of pulling themselves up.”

His life

Born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, and marrying his University of Toledo sweetheart, Linda, Paul Hughes “…had his fingers in so many pies—he just had so many different interests,” according to his wife. Following their 1967 marriage, Hughes was instrumental in setting up Hospice of Northern Virginia in a former school building—the region’s first hospice. With an eye to environmental issues, he also vehemently resisted the Lorton incinerator project, though sadly lost the battle.

When ReBuild Warehouse, established in Springfield, Virginia 2008, suddenly lost its lease three years later, in typical fashion and wasting no time, Hughes diligently acquired a smaller space as an interim measure to continue to serve and educate the community. Staff (largely volunteer), hours and convenience were cut back, but he kept moving forward.

Hughes’ good friend Hank Blakely called him “a force of nature.” A lay minister at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax in which Hughes was also active, Blakely is also on the board of directors of the Reston Citizen’s Association, vice president of Sustainability Reston and also of parent company the Fairfax Coalition for Smarter Growth—an organization started by  the visionary Hughes.

In his spare time, Hughes spent weekends canvassing flea markets and farmer’s markets, handing out brochures about the environment. “He was so far ahead of everyone else in his environmental thinking—particularly in the beginning— it could be frustrating when people couldn’t comprehend his vision and sense of urgency,” Linda Hughes said.

According to Blakely, Hughes was the "Johnny Appleseed of nonprofit organizations in Northern Virginia. He put his heart and his money where his voice was on these issues. He absolutely backed the things that he believed in,” he said about his friend, who was also Northern Virginia Green Party chairperson.

Toward the end of our phone interview on that pre-holiday evening, I recall making a note to myself to meet Paul Hughes, but like many of us I simply put it off, content to keep myself updated through ReBuild Warehouse’s e-newsletters about their many challenges and achievements. He died on September 15 from cardiac arrest following a bicycle ride with his wife.

With all he had accomplished, Linda said there were many more things he wanted to do. He could still see ahead. The economy was changing and things were opening up again.

Said Blakely, “It never struck us that Paul would go away. It just felt like he would always be here.”

Your Next Place

This 1920 modified Dutch Colonial sports a superlative front porch that's bigger than each of my first three apartments.  A big front porch is a must if you have adolescent children; it provides a place for them to go to get away from you, but keeps them close enough that you can still peek out the window during commercial breaks to make sure they aren't doing hard drugs or groping on the porch swing.  (I should know, I was caught attempting both on the porch during my teen years.)

Though it's over a century old, this house is extremely roomy, with sprawling, open rooms and an open-ish floor plan.  It's actually sort of eerie how accurately the original builders' aesthetic anticipated our contemporary tastes, sort of like if you found an old black and white photo of your grandparents and they had tattoo sleeves and lip piercings.  (Pause to imagine what your grandchildren are going to think when they look at your Facebook.)  With over 4200 square feet of space over four levels, you are guaranteed to never feel small and insignificant while between these four walls, except when your mother yet again casually mentions in an email how similar your childhood circumstances were to Barack Obama's.  The formal living room and dining room are huge and bright, and the massive kitchen was made for hosting dinner parties.  There are beautiful and authentic aged hardwood floors throughout; new hardwood is nice, but you really can't beat well-maintained old hardwood.

There's a beautifully rough-around-the-edges attic, with exposed rafters and unfinished wood floors, that would make a picture-perfect artist's garret, if you're into Les Miz reenactments. Way down below is a huge semi-finished concrete-floored basement that's perfect for storage, or using as a dungeon, if you're a pervert.  (I mean that in a good way, I don't trust anyone who's not a little perverted.)  Out back is a two-car garage, for your two cars, or your one sloppily diagonally parked car because why not, in a hundred years we'll all be dead.

3717 Ingomar Street NW
5 Bedrooms, 2.5 Baths
$999,999

Populist Real Estate: Crowdfunding and Planning in DC

District Architecture Center, photo courtesy AIA, DC chapter

With DC growing by nearly 1,100 residents per month, according to the Office of Planning (OP), some residents might feel swept up in change.  But one OP initiative aims to frame DC residents as more than just "passive recipients" of planning and urban development.  The city is not alone; several groups - even a young DC company - are headed in that direction.

A "Citizen Planner Forum" was held Thursday night at the District Architecture Center, which opened last year at 421 7th St. NW.  The event marked the culmination in a months-long joint initiative of the DC Office of Planning (OP) and the Washington, DC chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to get input on place-making from people other than experts.

Real Estate and Crowdfunding

Before: Fundrise 1351 H St. NE, image courtesy Fundrise

Another example of projects built on the concept of collaborating with neighbors on development: Fundrise.  The new project in DC is based on using crowd-funding to buy properties, and the message "build the city you want to live in." Through Fundrise, the entity 1351 H Street has already gotten $215,000 in local investments to renovate a property on H Street, according to its web site.  The architect for the renovation is Michael Francis at Queue, LLC.

Daniel Miller is a principal at WestMill Capital Partners real estate development company and co-founder of Fundrise.  He spoke to the group Thursday.  Miller said Fundrise, which Launched just six weeks ago, is based on the concept that any resident of DC or Virginia can buy a $100 stake in a property and help jump-start a small business.  Miller said investors could also get returns.

Fundrise follows on the heels of WestMill's web site Popularise, a crowd-sourcing web site that allows property owners to survey citizens about what they want a property to become.  WestMill has used it to crowdsource ideas for its own property, but other real estate groups have used Popularise too.

Residents Re-framing Development Discourse

Offering another example of the way residents DC are already re-framing the discourse, Anacostia resident Veronica Davis talked about her experience as a co-founder of "Black Women Bike DC". 
Davis noted that growth can trigger tensions surrounding race and fears of being "priced out". An unexpected symbol of that tension, panelists said: bike lanes.

After: 1351 H St. NE.  Rendering courtesy Fundrise

Davis explained that for some residents of DC, bike lanes seem like harbingers of change, even omens of higher rent.  "We founded Black Women Bike to say – we do bike," Davis told the group. "And we needed infrastructure. Part of that is being visible."
 
That kind of citizen action is what the OP wants to encourage.  The aim is to "work together and not just talk at each other," OP director Harriet Tregoning told DCMud. "Our neighborhoods are going to be better-functioning if people feel they have a stake in their neighborhoods."

Carolyn Sponza of AIA DC, also an architect at Gensler, said the main themes that emerged from four earlier focus groups were: a desire for more education about the way planning works, an idea for a planning network that would connect neighbors across wards,  the need for public spaces and "somewhere to sit", and a need for new modes of participation in planning. 

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Another Neighborhood Changer for JBG: NoMa's Capitol Square Breaking Ground Within Days

You’ve got to hand it to the Chevy Chase-based JBG Companies. The development group has a hand in a number of major projects around the region, yet seems undaunted about adding yet another game-changer to the list, and their latest may break ground within a few weeks.

That project is NoMa’s Capitol Square project, an almost two-block-square site located a block away from the NoMa-Gallaudet U Metro station that will eventually include a hotel, office space, retail and residential units.  The first phase—a Hyatt Place hotel—is just starting up, but the rest is all “phaseable,” the developers explain. That is, the developers will build in stages, waiting to move forward on office space, for example, until they have tenants in hand.

Still, it’s a major undertaking. Sited on two parcels—the first a triangle with New York Avenue, 1st Street, and N street as its borders; the second a rectangle on the south side of N Street (see map above), the project will add almost two million square feet of property to the area. Specifically, that will include 200 hotel rooms, 300-350 residential units, and 60,000 s.f. of ground floor retail space, all wrapped into what JBG is describing as a very pedestrian-friendly, retail oriented streetscape. “It might be like a Bethesda Row/Woodmont Avenue experience,” explained Dean Cinkala, a JBG partner.

But first things first. The starting project is Hyatt Place, a 14-story hotel with a fairly small footprint that’s been designed by local architecture firm Cooper Carry. “We literally just closed on financing and acquisition of the land,” said Cinkala. The company plans to begin demolition and abatement immediately, and expects to be finished by early 2014.

That’s at the western end of the triangular plot of land, where the nightclub Mirrors currently sits. The company also owns real estate on the eastern side of the block. That Smithsonian-worthy McDonalds at the corner of 1st and New York Ave. will also be history, transformed into an 800,000 s.f. office building designed by the New Haven, Ct.-based architect Pickard Chilton, which has burst onto the DC architectural scene recently.

There will be more office space on the south block, which isn’t wholly owned by JBG (a nightclub at 1st and Patterson streets will remain, as will another section abutting North Capitol Street). Perkins and Will, a nationally-known architecture firm with a Washington DC office, will be designing a second office building of roughly 575,000 s.f. there, which may be completed in two phases.

JBG properties include 5a and 5b within the red box

Schematic design drawings are complete for both buildings, which will include ground floor retail, but JBG isn’t moving forward on building either one anytime soon. “We don’t plan on building speculatively, given current market conditions,” said Cinkala. “We’ll submit the building[s] if and when the GSA [General Services Administration] puts out a solicitation.” The company has apparently targeted NoMa as an emerging home for the federal government, but Cinkala said he isn’t ruling out the private market—especially if financing for office buildings becomes easier to come by in the next few years.

The final piece of the pie is 33 N Street, a spot on the southern parcel. The current lease expires in November 2013, and Cinkala says the company is currently hiring residential architects to design a 300-350 unit building directly across from the hotel that will be ready to deploy next November. 

That’s a lot of building on the drawing board. To tie it all together, JBG is working with local landscape architects Lee and Associates to create an urban streetscape that draws pedestrians onto the side streets of N and Patterson streets.

It’s all about boosting the neighborhood’s dynamism, said Cinkala. “NoMa is clearly evolving into a mixed-use area. All this development will help the market mature, and create that live-work-play environment that’s so attractive.”

Washington, D.C., real estate development news

Brilliantly Big and Ingeniously Small

Q&A with Paul Sicari of McDermott Will & Emery LLP

and Terri Barnhart of Gensler

By Beth Herman

In a ribbon-cutting, red letter day kind of move from 600 13^th Street NW, international law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP officially took up residence on Monday in the shadow of the Capitol -- 500 North Capitol Street NW. Surely a view from the top.

Jettisoning a 205,000 s.f. former floorplate with superfluous aspects—in light of current video-conferencing technology—such as outmoded two-to-six-person conference rooms for out of town visitors, the decision to relocate the 450-member firm to 185,000 s.f. in an aging 1966 structure was a two-year (ad)venture in the making. An aggressive renovation process took around six months. DCMud spoke with McDermott Will & Emery LLP office administrator Paul Sicari and Terri Barnhart, a design director in the D.C. office of architecture firm Gensler, both of whom, along with MWE’s design committee, imagined and executed the renovation.

DCMud: What can you tell us about the site?

Barnhart: When it was offered by Boston Properties and Clark Enterprises, it was a building on the boards for a renovation for a B-class upgrade. We ended up doing a much more extensive renovation than was originally intended.

Sicari: It was the first home of the SEC, and when they moved out, a division of the IRS moved in and had been there for years.

DCMud: So we’re talking about everything: mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems, elevators, a labyrinth of safety and security systems, aesthetics—a total gutting.

Sicari: On the dozens of hard hat tours I gave, I’d tell people the only thing that stayed was the concrete, but to that we made changes too. In fact we took the roof off the building and added a 9th floor with a roof terrace, (affectionately) called the 10^th floor.

DCMud: Explain the program.

Barnhart: MWE put together a design committee, and we did a visioning session with them to see how to transform the building. We came up with the catch phrase ‘brilliantly big and ingeniously small.’ It represented how a global firm—there’s something very unique about them—how they hold their relationship with their clients, and they wanted to represent that. There’s a lot of client focus and community service built into the firm’s culture as well.

DCMud: So how did this manifest in the design?

Barnhart: We translated the culture into finishes and materials where we have this very large space for the conference center, and certain collaboration areas, but then we tried to focus it down into patterns and materials with different scales throughout. The artwork responds to that as well.

Sicari: The visioning session Gensler conducted with the committee was a virtual tipping point for me in setting the tone and design of the space. The catch phrase really helped define us: We’re an Am Law top 20 law firm, but what differentiates us from our competitors is we have a lot more of these customized smaller practice groups. Our competitors probably don’t have an alcohol/ beverage group. You almost never find a substantial IP prosecution group. We want clients to feel like it’s a boutique firm, even though we’re a giant footprint. ‘Brilliantly big and ingeniously small’ became the lens through which we looked to design our spaces.

DCMud: How did you define spaces?

Sicari: With a firm made up of a lot of small practices, it’s easy for people to get into their silos so they don’t get to know the person down the hall. Even though it’s still a law firm with a lot of walls, we talked about taking a space and making it more of an open concept. We used a lot of glass in the design. We created zones where people are forced to interact. Law firms in the past tended to create three or four copy areas— a copy area on each floor in the name of convenience. We said we don’t want that—we want to create one giant space where people might bump into one another and get to know each other.

DCMud: Doesn’t that mitigate productivity?

Sicari: We created spaces where people can grab coffee, or put their lunch, or pick up a color print job, and thereby interact with their colleagues. Knowing your neighbor is just as important to us as is someone being fast at picking up copies.

DCMud: Are there examples of how the firm may have increased productivity through design?

Sicari: A ‘team room’ is a great example of a concept that we had. It wasn’t about a room; it was about workflow and providing better support not just for our lawyers but for our clients in this more technological 24/7 age that we live in. A team room is a space for a collection of three or four secretaries working staggered shifts and hours, so that we can provide uninterrupted coverage 12 hours a day, five days a week. This kind of thing used to be called a secretarial pool, but that implies anonymity.

DCMud: We understand you are seeking LEED Gold for this reconditioned space. Can you talk about the materials used?

Barnhart: Veneers and substrates are FSC-certified. We used low-VOC paints, glues and sealants, and low-flow plumbing as well as higher efficiency VAV’s. Because of the building’s location and repurposing in an urban setting, we were able to obtain points as well. Occupancy sensors are in place and a lot of glass brings in natural light. There is a fitness center and bike racks.

Sicari: The building is now known as the McDermott building and is within eye shot of everyone who passes through Union Station. That was an exciting element for this location as well. We are really proud to be here.

Washington D.C. design news

Marshall Heights Residents Get Cheap New Digs

Mayor Adrian Fenty joined executives today from The Community Builders in the Fairlawn - Marshall Heights neighborhood for a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of Ward 7's $20 million Fairlawn-Marshall Apartment renovation, providing another subsidized housing project for the Pennsylvania Avenue neighborhood. The mixed-income housing renovation marks the first DC project for The Community Builders, a Boston-based, nonprofit housing developer with projects in 14 states.

The DC Housing Authority (DCHA), the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), and the Department of Mental Health were also on hand to celebrate the part they played in funding the overhaul of 98-units within eight buildings spanning the 2700 block of Q and R Streets, SE as well as the 5000 block of Call Place Street, SE.

Adrianne Todman, DCHA's interim Executive Director, credited the newly remodeled homes as a shining example of "the power of partnership" in DC, adding that projects like this one show that "Housing Authorities are players in real estate deals."

Beginning in February of this year and wrapping up in August, the Fairlawn-Marshall redevelopment was made possible through financing provided by the Housing Production Trust Fund, DCHA, The Department of Mental Health, Enterprise Community Partners and Low Income Housing Tax Credits. Additionally, Community Builder's VP Rob Fossi paid credit to Aegon for bringing "in money from Holland to make this possible."

Renovations encompassed everything from the installation of energy efficient heating and cooling systems to kitchen and bath upgrades to new security entries. At the conclusion of the conference, Mayor Fenty led attendees on a tour of the updated apartments designed by the Bethesda-based Environmental Design Group.

Because they are financed through Low Income Housing Tax Credits, all 98 units will be income and rent restricted. Thirty units will receive public housing assistance from DCHA, with an additional 10 units being designated for supportive housing for disabled clients through a contract with DCHA and the DC Department of Mental Health.

Your Next Place

Fresh off a million-dollar renovation in 2005, this Cleveland Park classic, which dates to 1906, combines the best of old and new in a perfect melding of opposites, sort of like sweet and sour chicken, but with less flourescent red food coloring.  The renovation left the facade intact, but restored the interior from the studs out, and it shows.  Right off the bat, walking up the front porch, you realize that this is a special house.  You know how a lot of nice houses have hardwood floors?  This house has a hardwood ceiling - on the front porch.  Talk about setting the bar high.

But it lives up to it; the foyer features custom oak woodwork, with a built-in kissing bench and antique lighting.  The living room features an original oversized window, along with several reproductions of original windows; there's also new fantastic crown molding, and original pocket doors.  In the formal dining room is an antique cherry mantle with a wood-burning fireplace and Ann Sacks tile.  And both rooms also boast ornate, vintage chandeliers.  You don't realize how much of a difference a good chandelier can make until you see one in action; it's like a hat, only for a room.  A good one can really bring everything together.  The kitchen has marble countertops, a six-burner (plus grill) Viking stove, and the Sub-Zero fridge is fronted with wood paneling, making it look like a cabinet (with a refrigerator inside of it).  There's a powder room, with historic recovered stained glass, and each bedroom is nicer than the next, peaking with a huge, extremely unique attic bedroom that I totally have dibs on if you and I ever end up living together in this house.  The house is also wired for sound, so you can totally embarrass your significant other in front of all your friends by playing that "Call Me Maybe" song at your housewarming party, and there's also a video surveillance system, you voyeuristic creep.

The backyard is massive, and there's parking for three cars.  The lower level, which is essentially a standalone unit, doesn't feel at all like a basement, thanks to the high ceilings (high for a basement, anyway), and clever placement of larger-than-normal windows.  This basement was actually livable, as opposed to most basements, where you move in thinking it'll be really quiet and heat-efficient, and then two weeks later you're somehow on a 32-hour day and have to do all your grocery shopping after midnight because "that's when all the spy satellites are blocked by the moon."

3310 Ross Place NW
4 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths
$1,850,000