DC Metrocentric

The Pittsburgh based bank PNC just revealed their plans for a new regional headquarters at 17th and H Street just a few blocks from the White House. The new 12 story glass structure (pictured) will replace three existing buildings on the block and should be completed by 2010. 

The project is designed by Gensler Architects and what has to be the most interesting building feature we have heard of in a long time is the “eco lobby” with a three-story climate wall that cools the lobby with flowing water. Sounds amazing! [Rendering: Gensler]

They sure are working hard over there on 23rd and Constitution NW. The three cranes pictured have made quick work leveling the terrain for the foundation of the new US Institute for Peace over the last few weeks. Once finished, the building will serve as a nice gateway to the city for those coming across the Potomac from Virginia. 

[Credit: Kidsturk]

As you may have heard, the old Walter Reed hospital in D.C. has been slated to move to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. As you can see from the rendering, the plan is to expand the grounds of the Naval Hospital around the older historic buildings. We especially like how two of the new buildings symmetrically frame the tall historic old Naval building in the center.

The relocation of facilities will include over half a million square feet of new medical office, emergency room, and patient care construction in addition to renovations of existing facilities. In addition to being the main facility for treating members of our military, the center will also become home to research and postgraduate education. The $100 million dollar project is expected to be completed by 2011. [Rendering: HKS 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]

Mayor Fenty has been touting his school restructuring plan for a while, and now we finally got word on what the District’s going to do with some of the 23 schools that are being closed under the plan. The idea is to turn the buildings, which are no longer being used as schools, into offices for the various District agencies as well as nonprofits.

This is great news because the plan will not only find new uses for buildings the district already owns (thus reducing rents paid), but also makes the services more accessible and part of the community.

The D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation will move its headquarters into Young Elementary School in NE and Meyer Elementary School will get the parking enforcement division of the Department of Public Works and Keeley’s boxing program, a nonprofit youth development organization. Also included will be new homes for the DMV, Department of Corrections, the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, and two charter schools among others.

We’re not sure how they grouped the Parking Enforcement with the Boxing program, but maybe they are training future parking police? Regardless, this is definitely a sign of improvement for the DC government and we are all for it!

Pictured is the old John Mercer Langston School which is not part of the plan but is being reused as you can see for the DC Service Corps. [Photo: M.V. Jantzen]

The New Communities Initiative is a comprehensive partnership between the District, neighborhoods and other public and private stakeholders which focuses on neighborhoods where older public housing developments are located and where high concentrations of poverty and crime exist. While areas like Lincoln Heights and Northwest One have been getting a lot of attention lately, there are other areas that haven’t.

One such project is the Park Morton. The District, in collaboration with the residents of Park Morton and the Park View and Petworth community, initiated a process to plan for and implement the revitalization of the Park Morton neighborhood, which is bound by Georgia Avenue on the west, Warder Street on the east, Lamont Street on the south and Park Road on the north.

Consistent with the New Communities Initiative, the goal of this effort is to transform the public housing property and its immediate neighborhood into a mixed-income, mixed-use community. In this new community, residents will have access to high-quality housing options affordable at all income levels and to the human services necessary to help prepare them to take advantage of the new economic opportunities and changes that are coming their way.

We spoke with the District’s Office for Planing and Economic Development and currently the project is awaiting the finalization of financing details with HUD, having already completed an Initiative Plan (warning it’s a big PDF) back in February. With all the activity going on for some of the more high profile developments, projects like Park Morton sometimes get forgotten about by everyone but the actual residence. Hopefully this one will be finalized soon so that a solicitation can get issued.

Looking out at the ATF Headquarters building from Capitol Plaza we noticed some green roof action happening on top of the “decorative” barrier that we had never seen before. While we have never been big fans of the architecture of the actual building, the green does make it look a bit nicer, it’s just too bad you can’t see it from the ground.  

[Photo: DCMetrocentric]

Ever wondered if that house next door is a Federal or a Colonial? Well now you will never have to wonder again. [AsktheArchitect]

Thomas Circle gets a new cooking school called CulinAerie. [DCist]

Demolition and facade preservation on Anacostia Square. There’s nothing like heavy machinery bringing down an old building! [AnacostiaNow]

Transportation Planning Board outlines new spending and zoning for the next six years, including the Great Streets and the Anacostia River Walk. [BeyondDC]

Most of the arguments you hear about Poplar Point in Anacostia revolve around whether to build a new MLS stadium on the site, but the Our Park Coalition is calling for no development at all. The Coalition wants to stop the $2.5 billion, 40-acre mixed-use project by Clark Realty and transform the 110 government owned acres along the Anacostia River into an urban public park.

The WBJ is reporting how difficult a task the environmentalists face in part because Congress established the land transfer with the expressed purpose of increasing the District’s tax base and shoring up its finances. Despite Clark being required to have 70 of the 110 acres developed as public park land, the Our Park Coalition still plans to kick off their efforts to save the entire property as one continuous public park. [Photo: WBJ]

It’s not all about super slick modern design in our fair city, sometimes the preservation of older functional design features like this water tower really do it for us! Water towers are fairly common in other cities like NYC, but in DC they are rare, which is probably why we were so impressed when we saw this one out the window while we were in NoMa at Artomatic last weekend. The NoMa Station project has repainted their old water tower old school style and it looks great.

[Photo: DCMetrocentric]

Pictured below is the incredible futuristic new bike transit center designed by KGP Studios for the District DOT. Despite all the issues involved in making Union Station a true center of transportation, this is definitely a step in the right direction. The design includes both storage and rental facilities… precisely the type of infrastructure the city needs to make alternate forms of transportation attractive.

The project is being built on the west side of Union Station near the metro exit and should be finished by the end of this year. Also it goes without saying that the design looks really awesome… we got one more rendering for you after the jump…

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When we first saw the giant yellow framework (pictured) going up on the new 300 New Jersey Ave project by Architect Richard Rogers we thought it was scaffolding. However on closer examination we noticed it wasn’t really attached to anything so it couldn’t be scaffolding or even structural support. Luckily we were able to get our hands on the Architectural renderings and solved the mystery…

The yellow “tree” as described by the architect is the support for a huge glass atrium which will connect the older Acacia building on the left with the new glass office space on the right. The atrium will be topped by a triangle flying glass roof which will rise above the current 10 story buildings in the area and change the skyline.

Those stairs you can see are not temporary and will serve as a central exposed staircase connecting every floor of the old building with the new. It’s definitely an imaginative atrium design though ten flights of stairs is not very practical and most people will probably take the elevator. [Photo: DCMetrocentric]

Follow the jump to see what the super cool atrium will look like…

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