Rosslyn Commons Approved
18 06 2008
We just got word that the Arlington County Board has approved the redevelopment of 2.78 acres along Clarendon Blvd right by the Rosslyn Metro. The development is being called Rosslyn Commons and will replace the sites currect garden apartments with two new apartment towers and townhouses built around a large interior courtyard.
This project is going to bring a lot more density into the area (454 apartments replacing 84 on the current site) and will also have considerable street facing retail space and will require affordable below market rate units to be mixed in with the majority of market rate ones. It’s interesting how Arlington has managed to continue this type of mixed income development successfully while avoiding the large low income projects that are common in DC and other urban areas.
The buildings design by Architects Collaborative are fairly run of the mill for the area and they are using the townhouse trick along to back of the project to ease the transition to the lower density homes on surrounding streets, which we think has worked well on other projects. The Brick townhomes will be built in two rows, with one row fronting on the interior courtyard. The other row will front on 16th Road North. All the townhouses will incorporate stoops and include balconies and terraces.
Rosslyn Commons features sustainable design and of course they will go for LEED certification. The project is being built by super developer JBG and they said they will break ground some time next year.
this sounds like a joke, but i am actually glad to see more brick coming into Rosslyn. there is a lot of beige and brown there, and the buildings actually look pretty great from the rendering–although maybe that corner could somehow be a little more interesting.
retail?
The buildings actually have a lot more glass than most of the new buildings in Arlington. The retail will line Clarendon Boulevard - starting around mid-block (north of the Starbucks) and continuing up to Ode St.