District Receives Seven Proposals for one of last remaining lots in Mount Vernon Triangle
What would you do with a vacant lot at Fifth and Eye Street NW asked the District this past January.

The Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, Neil Albert, announced  March 17 that seven development companies responded to its solicitation to redevelop the 20,600 square foot lot in the Mount Vernon Triangle area. The lot is located near to the Washington Convention Center and is one of the last available sites in an area which has undergone significant redevelopment in recent years, including an influx of new condos, retail space, and commercial office space.

“This is really one of the last sites left in the Mount Vernon Triangle,” Albert said. “This neighborhood has basically sprung up overnight and this site presents a great opportunity to add some dynamic uses to better serve the existing community and the new mix of office, retail and housing.”

In its solicitation for proposals, the District called for a development team with a proven track record to transform the vacant site into a mixed-use project that could potentially include housing, retail, cultural and hospitality uses.

The development teams who have submitted proposals for the site include Buccini/Pollin Group, Clark Realty Capital, Donohoe Development Co, JBG Cos., MVT Associates, LLC, The Neighborhood Development Co., and Potomac Investment Properties, Inc.

“We really see this as kind of a gateway into the Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood,” said Sean Madigan, a spokesperson for the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development told DC North. “It’s one of the first major blocks when you come out of Chinatown to the North.

About what the city’s priority for developing the space, Madigan says, “We are looking at something that is active and has some vitality during the day and in the evening.”

The various proposals for the site include a 10,000 square foot jazz venue, boutique and high-end hotels, restaurants, spas fitness clubs, cafes and coffee shops. Some proposals included apartments and condos, which would include affordable housing according to the Deputy Mayor’s office. All the proposals included at least 100 underground parking spaces.

The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development will study the proposals over the next few weeks and Madigan said that a public meeting will be scheduled the week of April 21 for the community to hear presentations from each of the development teams.

“We expect to select a team by May or June,” said Madigan, adding that the groundbreaking for the project would likely begin a year later.

Mount Vernon Triangle spans approximately 15 blocks over 30 acres bordered by Seventh Street on the west, New York Avenue on the north, New Jersey Avenue on the east, and Massachusetts Avenue, 6th Street, and K Street on the south. The area currently includes more than four million square feet of planned development.

A New History for Historic Building
Armenian Genocide Museum of America Opens
The landmark building which housed the Federal American National Bank (later National Bank of Washington) at 14th and G Streets, NW will soon be much more than an historic, but vacant, building.

The plan to house the Armenian Genocide Museum of America at this location was approved at the March 27 meeting of the HPRB. Chair Tersh Boasberg called the project an “interesting and adaptive reuse…of a building that has been vacant for many many years.” The building has a neo-classical exterior and includes a two-story interior banking hall which is one of only about a dozen interiors in the city that have been designated historic.

The approved design plans call for the building to be converted to a museum devoted to Armenian culture, identity, and education about the genocide of the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire during and just after the First World War. The proposal includes a more contemporary looking addition made of glass and Armenian limestone to be constructed in the vacant lot to the rear of the building. The new addition would serve as the museum’s primary entrance as existing entrances may not be as accessible.

There were concerns about trying to match the new material to the material of the existing building, but the HPRB approved the plans for the exterior component of the plan but asked to revisit the interior portion of the design concept before final approval.

Historic Landmark Status Approved for Waffle Shop
by Natasha Abbas

Preservationists, the Art Deco Society of Washington, and fans of the last of the District’s Waffle Shops, located at 522 10th Street NW, recently succeeded in ensuring historic landmark status for the well-known mid-century downtown diner. After months of careful study from preservationists and architectural historians, the District’s Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) approved the interior and the exterior of the site as a District of Columbia historic landmark at its March 27 monthly meeting.

Throughout the HPRB hearing, HPO staff and the HPRB board referred to the renowned 1942 Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks as a cultural framework for the Waffle House’s historic importance. In Nighthawks, Hopper’s depiction of a lonely diner scene portrays modern themes of isolation in urban life, with the scene depicted from an outsiders perspective looking into the open diner front. “It’s iconic in many ways,” said HPO Staff Reviewer Tim Dennee, noting that the Waffle House is a great model of a modern era, industrial style building. According to preservationists, the Art Moderne restaurant exterior utilizes elements of streamline design and featuring characteristic materials of the era such as large plate glass panels, polished aluminum, and mosaic tile.

The HPRB review board raised some questions as to whether the interior of the Waffle House itself still had its historic integrity, but architectural historians were on hand to testify that it indeed still maintained much of its original structure.

But while the building itself has been deemed historic, its fate still remains unclear as plans are underway to build an 11-story 91,000 square foot office space on the same site where the Waffle Shop is located. One possibility is to build around it, but the possibility of dismantling the diner piece by piece and relocating it has also been under discussion within the community for some time. A lawyer of the firm representing the owners of the building did his best to announce the owner’s intentions at the hearing but was prevented from doing so by HPRB Chair Tersh Boasberg who said such announcements were not relevant to the hearing. “We would anticipate moving the property,” Mr. Glasgow managed to state before being silenced. The final location has not been disclosed, but Mount Vernon Square has been suggested as a possibility.

The 10th Street Waffle Shop is the last of five Waffle Shops which once existed in the District from the mid-20th century till very recently. Another celebrated Waffle Shop was located at 14th and Park Rd NW in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, but closed its doors a couple of years ago to make way for a 1000 car parking lot for the DC USA retail complex.

Ward Notes

ANC 2C – Shaw, Mount Vernon Square
Commissioners voted on a request from the United House of Prayer for all People, located at 601 M Street NW, to privatize and secure the alley between an apartment building it owns on the 1200 block of 7th street and the Convention Center. The vote was 2 to 2, with Commissioners requesting documentation support reported Commissioner Alex Padro.

ANC 2C approved a request for the establishment of a bus loading zone at Wah Luck House senior residence at 800 6th Street NW on the condition that the bus loading and unloading zone only be used for a senior citizens, that the shuttle bus that be provided at no charge, that the loading zone not be used for commercial use, and that the hours of operation end by 9:30pm reported Commissioner Padro.

ANC 2F –Logan Circle, Thomas Circle, Shaw, Downtown
ANC 2F resolved to give notice to Veranda Restaurant at 1100 P Street of its breach of the Voluntary Agreement (pertaining to odors and a grease catching system) and demand compliance within 10 days failing which the Commission consider taking action with the ABC Board.