DC Metrocentric

 New Communities Initiate - Three years since it’s inception, the initiative is largely intact and wider in scope, despite a flat-lining housing market. It remains the centerpiece of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s strategy to aid and upgrade the city’s poorest neighborhoods, however market conditions are skewing the mix of future residents which may push out the very people it intends to help. [WBJ]

We 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 are pleased to learn that this did not turn out to be the actual color scheme used on the finished building (which was built last year). We can only speculate, but maybe the computer program they use to render buildings only has ugly colors.

We are thinking about taking up a collection so they can spring for a better program that has some nicer and more natural looking textures. [Credit: Zahn Architects]

Looks like DC’s mega mansions aren’t selling like the were in 2006! Remember that nice eight bedroom in Kalorama that we featured in our little Pricechecker game way back in November? After being on the market for A FULL YEAR at close to $6 million they finally chopped off an even million dollars bringing the price to $4,995,000… talk about following the market down.

Named after the road in Bethesda and not the movie, Arlington Road is a mixed use project designed by KGD architects. It has a nice enough design for the area but the interesting thing is that the project incorporates a Post Office into the design similar to what they have done over in Clarendon. It is a great ideas for a post office built years before the area was as developed as it is now.

[Rendering: Kishimoto/Gordon/Dalaya]

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 16^th 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.

The Northwest One project in Ward 6 is comprised of five low-income housing complexes that have historically been an epicenter of crime in the city. This project represents a rare opportunity to undo decades of poor urban planning in an area bound by North Capitol Street on the east, New York Avenue on the north, and New Jersey Avenue on the west.

When it’s complete, Northwest One will include 1600 units of mixed-income housing, 40,000 SF of retail, and 220,000 SF of commercial office space. The coolest part of the project is that One Vision Development Partners has promised to replace each subsidized housing unit with a new unit and provide roughly two times as many new market rate and workforce units.

The District is also investing about $45 million to rebuild the nearby Walker-Jones Elementary School, incorporating a new recreation center and public library. These are the type of projects that can truly change a neighborhood for the better, all while avoiding the trend of pushing out the current residents like some of the other hot developments in the District have done.

It’s one thing to complain about your condo building to your friends and neighbors, but the folks at EllisDenningSucks.com have taken their griping to a whole new level… and we love it! 

The site is only a few weeks old, but already they have managed to chronicle a series of problems they have experienced with their new home in the Fennessy Lofts built by Ellis Denning near Logan Circle. The problems range from the not such a big deal (doors that don’t close all the way and buckled wood flooring) to the very big deal (gas leaks and flooding).

It does seem like their efforts are paying off a little because they have gotten some response from the developers, but we still don’t think they will be registering WeLoveEllisDenning.com any time soon. The site is a must read for anyone considering the Fennessy (though we can’t imagine you will after visiting the site) or anyone else who enjoys a good well merited rant! [Rendering: EllisDenning]

Ted Koppel, the former “Nightline” host, has cut the price on his Potomac-front house yet again! The house has been on the market since 2005 when it was originally listed for $4.1 million and he’s now asking for only $1.94 million for the nearly 9,000-square-foot spread.

We understand that $2 million is a lot of money, but it seems like this house shouldn’t be having such a hard time selling. The thing has an indoor pool, a gym with a sauna, a horse barn, and it has river views. We have seen way smaller places go for much more, so we are not sure what’s going on here… maybe the place smells like old people? [via Perez Hilton]

Much of the Washington DC Metro area is “walkable” meaning that residents can get to many of the things they need without ever having to use more than their legs. Of course living in a pedestrian friendly neighborhood has tons of benefits, but how do you know how walkable your neighborhood really is… why walkscore of course!

We found it really interesting to play around with the site and found some locations that you wouldn’t expect to have such high scores like areas in Northeast and parts of Arlington, in addition to all the areas you would expect to get high marks like Georgetown, Dupont, and Capitol Hill among others. 

So why is it so great to be able to walk everywhere (besides the reduction in greenhouse gas)? Well one study found that the average residents of a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood are significantly healthier and weigh less than someone who lives in a sprawling neighborhood and higher pedestrian traffic leads to stronger local businesses. [Flickr: VisceralCog]

So what’s your neighborhoods walkability score?

It looks like the new DC legislation we mentioned last month that was designed to significantly raise the costs of keeping abandoned run down properties in the District, is having some unintended negative consequences for area residents.

The Washington City Paper is reporting that the recent increase in property tax assessments for vacant properties has led to homeowners in non-vacant buildings to be erroneously charged the higher rate. We can only imagine how difficult these errors will be to fix given the slow bureaucracy of the District we all know and love. 

This house pictured above at 11th and Vermont, NW was abondoned for years, but within the last month all the ivy has come down and it looks completely different, though the clean up actually made it look worse in our opinion. We suspect that the new legislation had something to do with the quick cleanup of a bunch of buildings around town that we have noticed! 

[Flickr Photo: Ronnie R]