Abdo Breaks Ground On Gaslight Square

With a bulldozer on-site and several golden shovels in hand, Abdo Development celebrated the groundbreaking of Gaslight Square this morning, the first for-sale condo project to emerge from the post-recession Northern Virginia economy. Actual construction on the 120-unit project will begin later this week, with James G. Davis Construction Corporation serving as general contractor. Design is courtesy of Abdo's in-house architects, with Reston-based Architecture Incorporated designated as the architect of record. The combination of red-brick and large black-rimmed industrial style is an apparent play off the Wooster and Mercer Lofts next door.

The real estate for the $82 million project was purchased in 2007, with the plans approved shortly after and the large plot of land cleared, fenced, and poised for action; but like so many other projects, the busted housing bubble and subsequent market collapse derailed deals. Thankfully, D.C.-based Federal Capital Partners have stepped in with $24 million in equity and mezzanine financing, with United Bank chipping in another $48 million worth of construction financing. The injection of capital will at least get phase one under way, the first of three proposed four-and-a-half-story, 40-unit buildings as well as the platform for building number two. Depending on how condo sales go with the first phase, explains Jim Davis, Principal of Davis Construction, the rest of the development will progress accordingly. "Construction of the first building should take roughly a year," says Davis, putting an initial delivery in early 2012.

Each building will be separated by a wide, landscaped quad, complete with sidewalk, trees, benches, and gaslights, hence the name, but will not feature any other amenities - no pool, concierge, gym, etc. - in order to minimize the condo fees, which have grown in surrounding condominiums. One of the most innovative features of these units, says Davis, is the elevator-cum-condo-entrances, allowing residents to park below grade and take the elevator directly into their unit (Davis credits Abdo with the idea, though its been used as nearby as Turnberry Towers, as well as in DC). Placing the stairs and elevator shaft directly between two units also provides for improved sound and odor control, and "eliminates the normally inhibitive front entrance corridor, allowing light to enter each unit from both sides, similar to a townhouse," says Davis. Ranging from $700,000 to $1.4 million in price, the one and two-bedrooms will offer anywhere from 1,200 to 2,000 s.f. of space, as well as private outdoor terraces.

With Skanska's mixed-use project having broken ground across the street, and Monday Properties racing to construct the tallest building this side of the Potomac, it is certain that Rosslyn is heating up.

Arlington, VA Real Estate Development News

Perseus Building Office Project on 14th Street

1728 14th Street, Image courtesy Bonstra Haresign

The stoic facade of the Granger building at 1728 14th Street will be getting an overhaul, now that developer Perseus Realty has closed on the purchase.  The developer sealed the acquisition of the property - located between R and S Streets - in mid-August, John Clarkson of Perseus told DCMud on Thursday; the DC Property Sales Database shows the building sold for $4.8 million. Perseus and Ogden CAP Properties are partners in the joint venture.  Also on board is Bonstra Haresign Architects, and Andrew Poncher of Streetsense for retail leasing.  The firm is behind a number of other 14th street projects including the AME Zion church renovation and lower-level addition, the Q14 Condominiums building, as well as Studio Theater and The Aston at 14th and R, all within a few blocks down the street.

Current Granger Warehouse Facade, Image Courtesy Bill Bonstra

Plans for the site include the adaptive re-use of the warehouse building, built in 1988, and the new design includes four floors with 28,000 square feet of retail and office space.  Of the many developments slated for 14th Street, this is one of the few office concepts (Furioso's project being the other).  Clarkson, who provided an up-to-date rendering to DCMud on Thursday, said Perseus expects to begin construction on the project in February 2013 with a 12-month construction time.  The Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2F wrote a letter in full support of the project, which also received preliminary approval from the DC Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) in July.

Like 1728, most of Bonstra Haresign's other 14th Street projects have also been located in the historic district, Bonstra Haresign managing partner Bill Bonstra told DCMud.  "What is really important is understanding the context and what I call the DNA of the site."  The site, 60 feet in width, likely once housed three townhouses, Bonstra said.  "That understanding allowed us to come to terms with the appropriateness of the architecture."

The project also sits in the context of a rich history of commercial buildings on 14th Street, many of them built in the Nineteen-teens and Twenties as automotive showrooms.  Back then, 14th Street was a trolley corridor and a place to window shop. "There was a tradition of retail and commercial buildings and we looked at that tradition as a model."

The design pays homage to the street's architectural tradition with a formal facade with strong center and side doors and a masonry structure, yet also incorporates generous amounts of glass, color, and contemporary planes. Design for the masonry incorporates striping, detail, setbacks, and reveals.  "What we set out to do was respect that tradition of commercial buildings on the street but also make it a building of its time," Bonstra said.  "We believe that the front elevation of this building will be a nice complement to historic buildings, but it will be a part of our time architecturally."

Bonstra said the building will contribute to the true mixed-use history of 14th Street, ultimately providing more of what the street lacks: neighborhood businesses and offices.  The property also includes two historic townhouses north of the Granger warehouse building, but Perseus doesn't have plans to alter them at this time, Clarkson said, though those townhouses might get some interior improvements in the coming year.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

The Mission in Logan Gets Extension

The former automobile show room and current home of Central Union Mission in the 14th Street Historic District is one step closer to a long-awaited redevelopment following a Historic Preservation Review Board meeting on Thursday. 

With limited discussion, the board voted to accept staff recommendations granting a two-year extension to the project on the southeast corner of 14th and R Streets, accepting refinements made in response to the Board's 2006 direction, and restating that it is consistent with the Preservation Act.
Developer Jeffrey Schonberger (Alturas LLC) has been planning to renovate and expand properties at 1625 - 1631 14th Ave., NW since 2006, pending relocation of the homeless shelter that now owns and operates the building. The current structure - a 5-story former Studebaker show room built in 1922 and three, 3-story brick row homes originally built in the late 1800's but remodeled after the turn of the century for commercial uses - will involve restoration and new construction.
According to the Historic Preservation Office staff report prepared for Thursday's meeting, the redevelopment will include restoring the four buildings' facades to their early-20th-century appearance, building a seven-story addition behind the rowhouses and adding underground parking in what used to be the showroom basement. The double-height auto showroom would also be restored and the buildings appearance maintained to the greatest extent possible.

The ground floor of the project will be designated for retail, said Eric Colbert of Eric Colbert & Associates, the architect for the project, predicting at least one restaurant in the mix. Blake Dickson Real Estate will be marketing the retail space.  The upper floors of the row homes and the additional rear structure will form residential units including some two-story units, Colbert said. The Mission building was built by the Wardman Construction Company.

Delays primarily related to relocating Central Union Mission, once slated for Georgia Avenue but now scheduled to go to the Gales School, have hindered development in the past.

Colbert and Schonberger said after the meeting that construction documents would be filed next month and that they would be ready to break ground on the project in 7 to 12 months.

Washington D.C. real estate and retail news

Hockey House

Q&A with Bob Wilkoff of Archaeon, Inc. Architects

By Beth Herman

Because of a contemporary mom’s burgeoning interest in professional hockey, predicated on a Washington Capitals' championship season, the cramped first floor of a late 1970s 2,800 s.f. residence in Potomac, Maryland, underwent a significant reorganization. The goal was for client advantage in viewing much-anticipated games on the family’s flat screen TV from the kitchen and other points. With a few strategic slap shots, Bob Wilkoff of Archaeon, Inc. Architects brought her game plan home.

DCMud: Describe the home’s interior and some of the challenges for you in opening it up to the space that featured the TV.

Wilkoff: The house was dated and compartmentalized—no open flow from space to space. There was a convoluted access to get from the garage and entrance foyer into the kitchen through a series of corridors, and a tight breakfast room. The kitchen was landlocked in the back corner of the house. There was also a very small family room that was adjacent to the kitchen but not contiguous to it in any way: You still had to go through the breakfast room, through a corridor, back into the hall, past the laundry room to get to the family room.

DCMud: Were there any prior renovations at all?

Wilkoff: The kitchen had been redone about 15 or 18 years ago and had held up well, but it was claustrophobic. A built-in computer desk in the corridor between the breakfast room and main entrance hall wasn’t used, becoming just a catch-all for things. It wasted a lot of square footage.

DCMud: So how did you begin to use the superfluous square footage?

Wilkoff: The client wanted to make the family room feel bigger without expanding the house, and open up the kitchen to the family room so she could watch the game. We were not going to add a single square foot to the house—everything was being done within the existing footprint. I might add that though the dining room had a cathedral ceiling, it was also not spacious. In fact it felt like you were in a tower.

DCMud: What was the process?

Wilkoff: We opened up as much of those areas as we could. We took out the knee wall handrails in the entrance foyer stairwell -- a typical ‘70s detail where you have a half-height drywall partition up to a wood cap handrail. It had some bold forms but also closed everything in. There was no sense of a vision beyond the space of those walls. A balcony over the foyer that overlooked the dining room had that same detail, so we cut out all of those drywall handrail walls down to the stringers of the stairs and landings, and put in a stainless steel cable rail design which opened everything up dramatically without changing the space of the stair structures at all.

DCMud: And the rest of the square footage?

Wilkoff: We then gutted the series of corridors that were there and put in a new corridor that went from the entrance foyer to the family room, but we put it at a 15-degree angle. This allowed us to steal more space out of the family room to make it almost four feet wider—to use all of those (haphazard) corridors as a single corridor within this angle. We opened a giant peninsula from the new kitchen to the family room. There was also an over-sized powder room off of these old corridors. It had been dead space at the time, so they’d made the powder room really big and the laundry room as well. We reconfigured the powder and laundry rooms to a more typical size. In this way, we were able to steal another 18 inches of that old space and make the family room 18 inches wider one way and four feet wider the other way, all from the dead space.

DCMud: So really without picking up any square footage, you incorporated a great deal of wasted space into the two new living spaces—and the hockey mom client achieved her vantage point(s) in grand style.

Wilkoff: It feels as though the space has been doubled. We also used new cabinetry, fixtures, hardware, appliances. In fact the angled corridor is a porcelain ceramic tile—floor-to-ceiling—for a more dramatic feel. And it created an entrance portal into these spaces, so you feel like you are going through a transitional space. Some AV cabinets were built into the corridor with the same wood used on the kitchen cabinets. The same cabinet detailing was echoed in the dining room so these three spaces related to one another.

DCMud: And the TV—the renovation’s raison d’etre?

We gutted a dated and dare I say hideous fireplace, and put in a remote controlled gas unit. We took the huge wall between the fireplace and the kitchen’s new end windows and put the big flat screen TV on it. It’s centered between the family room and kitchen, so anywhere you are in that space, the focus is on the TV.

DCMud: A real game changer. And speaking of focus, what D.C. building would you say has inspired you the most as an architect?

Wilkoff: I grew up watching Italian craftsmen hand carving stone on the lawn of the soon-to-be National Cathedral. It was old world craftsmanship that is gone today. There were tents on the Cathedral’s front lawn that sheltered these workers all along Wisconsin Avenue as they carved gargoyles and numbered stones going into this gorgeous building. It left a huge impression.

Washington D.C. design news

Another Big Push for Southwest Revamp

The federal government has issued a Notice of Intent that could potentially remake part of Washington D.C.'s Southwest quadrant, asking the private sector for input to make better use of the agency-heavy neighborhood.  The area, now dominated by superblocks, highways, feeder roads, checkpoints and nondescript, outdated federal buildings that make it feel more like a secure compound than one of the city's neighborhoods, was intentionally erased in the 1950's when urban planners last redesigned the area and has since faced scrutiny by myriad planners.

The government's notice, issued on Friday and calling the area "Federal Triangle South", could be the beginning of the most significant reshuffling of GSA-controlled space in the greater DC area, though the area covered in Friday's issuance is only a small portion of the land dominated by government agencies.  The notice was also admittedly vague, with no timetable and an official "inquiry" only to be released in 90 days.  But the space at issue is also part of the "Southwest Ecodistrict," a 110-acre redevelopment zone.  Along with the reinvention of the Southwest Waterfront, now just months away from beginning, and the rebuilding of 10th Street, the redevelopment could herald an entirely new neighborhood, transforming housing, roads, railroad tracks, parks and streetscapes.

The Southwest Ecodistrict, shepherded by the National Capitol Planning Commission, would stretch from Constitution Avenue along the Mall down to the edge of the waterfront.  But because the land is controlled by a mash of private, municipal and federal entities ("walkability" sites don't even consider it a neighborhood) that make any coordinated redevelopment not unlike herding barnacles, the project has remained in the planning stages.  The project centers on recreating Maryland Avenue which, like Pennsylvania Avenue, radiates from the Capitol Building, but which has been subordinated to railways, highways and monolithic buildings.

The government's solicitation notes the value of the land and its incongruent underuse: "Challenges in the Federal Triangle South include older buildings that are driving high operating costs, a backlog of required capital improvements, land use inefficiencies, space inefficiencies, and lack of area amenities...GSA seeks to leverage the value of its real property assets to provide more efficient facilities for Federal Customers and potentially create the catalyst for a revitalization of this area of Southwest Washington."

Challenges abound.  It is not clear how entire federal agencies could be moved, nor how far the federal government is willing to go toward allowing mixed-use development and relocation of federal agencies.  But, if the concerned parties permit, the vastness of the area could allow planners to start over much as was done 6 decades ago when the government opted to tear down troubled neighborhoods in favor of a pristine federal enclave.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Your Next Place

This massive former embassy is on the market for the first time in over fifty years; most likely all the U.S. government listening devices have been deactivated, though of course I can't be sure.  (Just to be safe, turn loud music on before discussing anything against the law, such as selling heroin, terror plots, or same-sex marriage.)

But this incredibly property is bursting with unlimited potential, sort of like a new relationship.  The best part is that this building is guaranteed not to eventually disappoint you by drinking too much wine when meeting your parents and asking, "if evolution is real, why haven't the chimpanzees in the zoo turned into humans yet, huh?!"  A potential what, eight-bedroomer (!), this house's ceiling is limited only by your imagination.  The brick Colonial-style facade is definitely a keeper, with its timeless qualities, as well as the distinctive details (check out those windows!).  The spiral staircase, dazzling M.C. Escher-like piece of work, is also worth preserving.  Ah, who am I kidding, this place is fine as is.  You could just scatter some IKEA furniture around and call it a home.  (Protip: a tablecloth thrown over a four-by-four quadrangle of unpacked moving boxes makes a sort-of-convincing table)  The back area is paved over, which you could keep and use as a parking lot or you could tear up the concrete and make it into a gloriously large yard. Who knows, poke around a bit and you might find an old diplomatic license plate the previous tenants forgot to pack during the move.  Imagine, a world where no traffic or parking laws apply to you:  in some religions, that's their definition of heaven.

Of course, with 7500 square feet of space to work with, you could turn this into a one-in-a-million dream home with just a little imagination and elbow grease (and a few hundred thousand dollars for renovations).  This building brought back a lot of memories of when I was a child and my father became smitten with the idea of buying and renovating an old high school into our family home.  My mother was against this idea, as she wanted our next house to be, well, a house.  My father replied that, yes, good point, but the abandoned school comes with a full-sized basketball court AND a glass-front trophy case he could use for all his office bowling league trophies.  In retrospect, this was the first (but by no means the last) time she realized she'd married a big grown-up child.

2310 Tracy Place NW
$2,700,000
6 Bedroom, 2 Full Baths, 2 Half Baths

Two Megabuildings Downtown in Pipeline for Gould

On the edge of Mount Vernon Square, where some of the last vacant lots in the downtown core still exist, plans for more office buildings are heating up.  One developer with a stake in the zone is Gould Property Company.  Gould has plans to build two oversized office buildings - a 380,000 s.f. office building at 600 Massachusetts Avenue and a 620,000 s.f. office building at 900 New York Avenue.  While both await tenants before construction will begin, sources say designs are done and waiting on the right tenant.

Gould Property's 600 Mass Ave. - Rendering courtesy CORE

Gould's "Z"-shaped parcel - nearly half the block at the corner of 6th Street and Massachusetts Avenue, was designed by Core Architecture + Design, also architect on the completed Gould project Market Square North.  The building's plan calls for 10 floors with ground floor retail.  In 2006, the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) first gave approval to the developer's concept to move two row houses it owns, 621 and 623 Eye Street, built in 1852, next to a cluster of other row houses on the southeast corner of the lot.  It also approved Gould's plans to demolish a row house at 627 Eye St. to make way for the building, and demolition has already taken place.  After the HPRB put its stamp on the demolition, a Mayor's Agent gave a final necessary nod to the plan in 2007.

Gould Property's 600 Mass Ave. - Rendering courtesy CORE

The design has also passed the Chinatown design review process necessary for buildings in the neighborhood.  "It is a very unique building because it is unlike most of Washington, DC where you basically feel like it is a box," Ron Ngiam, senior project designer with CORE, told DCMud.  With the site shaped like a "Z", architects also worked to meet the challenge of designing a building to fit a unique site.  The zoning of the site prevented a boxy, full, 10-floor building, so architects created a series of terraces.  "We were able to carve quite a bit of light and air into the building and produced a whole series of green roofs," Ngiam said.

"Instead of filling in the property with a box, we were able to do something architecturally interesting." Ngiam also said the building's setback on Eye St. respects the scale of that streetscape.  "We are quite excited about the project," he told DCMud.

600 Mass Ave. - Eye St. Frontage - Rendering courtesy CORE

The 600 Mass Ave project is not the only building in the pipeline for Gould.  The developer is also behind plans to develop a portion of the old Convention Center Site at 900 New York Ave.  The building is part of an $850 million dollar mixed-use CityCenterDC which started construction last year.  Hines and Archstone are developing most of the CityCenterDC master plan, which calls for condos, office buildings, apartments, and retail, replacing the 10 acres that were left empty after demolition of the old convention center in 2004.

For CityCenterDC, Gould is planning a 12-story building designed by Pickard Chilton Architects.  The design includes a center atrium that reaches the full height of the building's 12 floors.  The atrium is covered with a "unique free standing" glass roof supported by v-shaped columns.  Renderings also call for lushly planted rooftop terraces, nine-foot ceilings, and ground floor retail.

900 New York Ave. - Rendering Pickard Chilton website

Gould, run by real estate scion Kingdon Gould, obtained the site from the city in exchange for a parcel it owned 9th Street NW, which the city needed to make room for a 1,175 room Marriott Marquis through a 99-year lease agreement.

Gould is also behind plans with Vornado Realty for a massive redevelopment of Rosslyn Plaza that would replace six buildings with four new ones to include hundreds of new residential units, as well as hotel space. 

900 New York Ave. - Rendering Pickard Chilton website

At both 900 New York Avenue and 600 Massachusetts Avenue, the developer has the approvals needed to start, according to the Downtown DC Business Improvement District (BID).  Now all the projects need are good tenants.

Mirror, Mirror

Q&A with Steve Lawlor of Lawlor Architects

By Beth Herman

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

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

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

DCMud: Describe the client’s wish list.

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

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

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

DCMud: What about the materials?

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

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

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

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

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