A Heart for Hartland Commons
24 12 2009Hartland Commons is a new proposed boutique hotel for the Shaw District located on Florida Ave across from the historic Howard Theater. The design includes some interesting use of glazing to bring light into the interior of the building, but we can’t help wondering if the actual project will ever see the light of day (we couldn’t help ourselves).
We like the rendering above, but the one after the jump almost looks like an entirely different utilitarian communist building, who knows which one gives the better impression of how this thing would actually look once built.
What do you think?
Communist looking gray rendering after the jump…
[Renderings: GGA]
Awful. And how many historic rows would this be displacing??
i dunno. utilitarian communism is back in vogue. it’s so much nicer than neglected property. at least it looks like you could knock it down in a few years and build the next “greatest thing”. i know that commuters from virginia would like to see something else, but for the hood, it’s not bad, and it looks better than most bldgs in virginia. i give it one thumbs up.
signed,
a dc local.
I think you should raise your expectations and standards,
signed,
a VA non-commuter
what is a VA non commuter? you live in another state. are you just saying that you live in VA and want to comment on DC issues, and developments? if so, i have plenty to say about your strip malls, crystal city, etc. us local folks are trying to get the city up to standards. YOU don’t have to live with vagrants, drug dealers, and prostitutes around your empty properties. if you did, an established form of architecture (even if it is “communist”) might make more sense to you. yeah, my expectations are low, but as i said, it’s box like and can be bought and wrecked and rebuilt at one point. unlike the cathedrals from the early 1800s in your neighborhood in VA. oh. sorry. you don’t have any.
my bad.
Chill out poo poo,
-This blog is of regional interest.
-As a matter of fact, I do have houses and churches dating from the 1800’s in my neighborhood, and in the past I’ve had vagrants, vacant properties, and prostititutes too (male and female fwiw).
- It may shock you, but I do wish the best for your fair city and I’m not out to denegrate it at all.
Its just that even though I am a fan of more contemporary styles of architecture, I think you can find a hotel design that looks a little better than a roadside motel circa 1963.
Wow, nice comments… I don’t like the design at all, but keep in mind the colors used in renderings are not always what end up being used in the actual building. Maybe the designers just don’t know how to use their rendering package well.
Interesting composition,but it definitely needs some color on the Florida Ave elevation. The blank walls at ground level aren’t too great either, but I can’t really tell from these renderings.
didn’t mean to offend. it’s just that sometimes i get tired of ‘foreigners’ sticking their nose in dc business. it’s bad enough that i have to drive on roads that all the commuters screw up…. and don’t pay for.
i think the bldg isn’t the greatest, but seriously, it’s better than nothing. i know that’s a shitty attitude, but…. it’s like if you have a kid and have to put her/him in school. are you going to put them into the best school around, even if it’s not the greatest, but that’s all you can afford, or are you just keep them out of school? dc has serious infrastructure/architectural/etc. problems. you move forward, or you don’t move. i think the bldg is fine for now. things change, looks fade, but the commitment to try and make the city better is important - even if it’s not the most amazing architecture on earth.
i should upload some photos that i took around that area a few years ago during thanksgiving. lots of homeless people and trash on the sidewalk.
yeah, if i lived in the burbs, my expectations would definitely be much higher, because…. well, because i could.
wow poo poo,
your comments are almost hateful.
architecture is for the people, not people just for people of DC.
I feel that your comment of: ‘foreigners’ sticking their nose in dc business shows an attitude of “I live in DC, and I’m better than you VA and MD folks…
Hopefully this is an infill development for one of the gas stations or parking lots currently occupying a corner lot on FL ave.
I don’t believe that this will be supplanting any rowhomes. That area is derelict.
first, why don’t you ever put an address or relevant intersection with this stuff? many people don’t know where the Howard Theater is since its been defunct for years. i have thought this many times reading these posts.
second, that is ugly. the shaw library is ok, its broken up and has some sculpture/color. we will look on architecture like this in a decade or two as we do brutalism now. a mistake.
third, its better than a car lot and a few dilapidated buildings.
fourth, GGA are painful to deal with and should stick to interiors where the public wont have to suffer from their starchitect dreams.
back in the day…
“The principal concern of the architects was to fit in to an existing urban fabric, to achieve local symmetry within the context of a historically given settlement. No greater aesthetic catastrophe has struck our cities—European just as much as American—than the modernist idea that a building should stand out from its surroundings, to become a declaration of its own originality. As much as the home, cities depend upon good manners; and good manners require the modest accommodation to neighbors rather than the arrogant assertion of apartness”
- Rodger Scruton
No worries about how this will look…it most likely won’t happen…development is only planned in Shaw, rarely executed…
There is some pretty decent rowhouse stock on the corner of 7th NW and Florida that, if I’m reading the 2nd rendering correctly, would be demolished. The Dunbar apartment building is the best thing on that block and it looks to be “saved”.
View Larger Map
we get so many designs that make me think architects don’t know shit about dc.
we can’t build tall so we get this ranch house mentality.
accentuate the vertical! separate facades for each vertical component and don’t give us these entire blocks of monotony.
and what is the intersection of this prop?
is this where the used car lot is?
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