Comments on: U Street’s Cardozo

By: DC Metrocentric » Zahn Architects: Color Blind?

DC Metrocentric » Zahn Architects: Color Blind? — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:35:20 +0000

[…] have been giving Zahn Architects a hard time lately about some of their designs, and this rendering we found for Basilica Lofts isn’t going to help their case. However we […]

By: The King of Spain

The King of Spain — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 05:54:26 +0000

You’re right, Jamie, not every building can have the ideal setup - it’s not economical for one thing, since most streets don’t get the traffic. Considering its location, though, this is just dumb.

By: DG-rad

DG-rad — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:16:02 +0000

oh wow ok. definitely on your side. If this is directly on U then it is patently ridiculous in its current form .

no worries everyone

By: dcmetrocentric

dcmetrocentric — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:58:47 +0000

DG-rad,
The address of the site is 2001 11th Street NW on the corner of U Street and it’s where The Bohemian Caverns currently is located, as if there were not enough reasons already to never want this thing built.

By: DG-rad

DG-rad — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:45:55 +0000

what’s the cross street?

By: Jamie

Jamie — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:08:34 +0000

Not every boutique condo project can incorporate street level retail and be a model for mixed-use design.

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:17:35 +0000

What’s wrong with the design? It’s on U St., yet it is set back from the street, with a yard, and no retail. Just a single front door and a garage entrance which requires a curb cut. Can’t get much worse than that… A much better idea would be no setback on U St, with retail, and a larger setback on the number street with a public plaza or park (a cafe fronting the public space would be amazing). The garage entrance should be on the number street as well…

By: DG-rad

DG-rad — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:44:26 +0000

wait… ok i see that the white brick or whatever it is doesn’t look great, but otherwise what is so awful about the design?

By: RanB

RanB — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:27:29 +0000

Ugh! They pulled a little too much building bling from the binbox. All it needs is tail fins.

By: galmeida

galmeida — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:56:09 +0000

omg awful. this should be against the lawwwwwww

By: Alexa W.

Alexa W. — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:18:07 +0000

So ugly… it hurts my eyes

By: The King of Spain

The King of Spain — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:05:40 +0000

All this faux-traditionalism is cute, but that grass moat around the base is never going to yield a healthy community and this will look even worse in execution.

I’d take a forthright brutalist box over this building, which lacks design clarity, and is just as hostile to the street.

DC’s planners take after Federal Triangle rather than Georgetown, and wonder why the streets are so empty. This is silly. DC needs comprehensive zoning reform to allow for mixed uses. We’re not keeping tanneries out of our neighborhoods anymore.