Construction Underway at Portals Apartments

Construction is underway on 1399 Maryland Avenue, the first new residential building north of the Southwest freeway and south of the National Mall since urban renewal. Originally planned as an office building at The Portals, Republic Properties decided to change course and build multifamily instead. The current design by Robert A.M. Stern Architects is for a 373-unit rental apartment building. Many of the units will have sweeping views of the Tidal Basin and the building will be prominent for drivers entering the city on the 14th Street Bridge. Delivery is scheduled for 2019.

Rendering courtesy of Republic Properties

Condos Nixed at The Portals, Will Be All Rental Instead

Republic Properties has decided to convert 75 condo units it planned on the top four floors of its 1399 Maryland Avenue residential project at The Portals to rental apartments. Originally, this project was planned as an office building, but market conditions caused the developer to change course a couple years ago and move forward as a hybrid rental/condo building. This latest change brings up the total number of rental units at the project to 373 units. Unit sizes of the former condo units will still be large, especially compared to most new apartment buildings – averaging about 1,400 square feet. The project is planned as a high-end building and many of the units will have sweeping views of the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Memorial (and traffic conditions on the 14th Street Bridge). 

This will be the first residential building constructed north of the freeway within the quadrant since Urban Renewal. Permits have been issued and construction is anticipated to start before the end of the year, but that timeline could slip into early 2017. Delivery will likely occur in the late 2018 or 2019 timeframe. 

Renderings courtesy of Robert A.M. Stern Architects

Portals Residential to Start Construction in Second Quarter

Construction on the residential phase of The Portals is expected to start in the second quarter of this year. Republic Properties owns 1399 Maryland Avenue and originally planned an office building there, but switched course in 2015. The Commission of Fine Arts approved the project last year, which will include 290 rental apartments and 75 condos on the top four floors, designed by WDG Architecture and Robert A.M. Stern Architects. Due to its location at the end of Maryland Avenue, units will have views of the Jefferson Memorial, the Tidal Basin, the Potomac River, and the Capitol. According to the Washington Business Journal, a sheeting and shoring permit was just granted for the project. Aside from the planned residential building, a fourth office building (Portals IV) is planned on the remaining vacant parcel between 1399 Maryland Avenue and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Rendering courtesy of WDG

A Few Quick Items: MLK Memorial Dedication, Nationals Neighborhood Game, Mixed Reviews for Station 4, L'Enfant Plaza Office Building for Sale

- On Wednesday, Mayor Gray announced a list of events leading up to the dedication ceremony of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial along the Tidal Basin. Most of the events will take place at the MLK Library downtown, but on Tuesday, August 23rd, DC residents will get to tour the memorial from 8am to 8pm - days before the official dedication. Timed tickets will be distributed to tour the memorial. Stay tuned for details on how to receive those tickets. The official dedication ceremony will take place on August 28th at 11am. Prior to the dedication, there will be a musical tribute to Dr. King from 10-11am and a concert from 2-4pm. All three events are free and open to the public. In addition, the Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation has a slew of other events planned leading up to the dedication.

- August 25 is the make-up date for the Nationals Neighborhood Game at Nationals Park, which was rescheduled due to a rain-out from April 16th. Locals will be singing the national anthem, throwing the first pitch, and saying "play ball!". There are some free tickets available, so contact your ANC 6D commissioner or SWNA representative for details.

- The Washington Post's food critic Tom Sietsema recently wrote a review of Station 4 and it wasn't a good one. Here is a snippet:

Precious little of that magic surfaced in a recent dinner at Station 4, which started with breadsticks flavored with dried black olives and continued with a riff on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich using almonds, tomato jelly, foie gras and brioche. (Imagine really sweet French toast with some meat in each bite.) [Orlando] Amaro's "San Francisco style" cioppino is something no Bay Area resident would recognize as the classic robust seafood stew. "At least the kitchen didn't overcook the seafood," said the optimist at the table.

A waiter talks up the octopus, and we follow his lead. The herb-marinated, char-grilled seafood with potato confit cooked in duck fat and a trail of smoked paprika mayonnaise is the best thing we eat all night.

Station 4's pizza may be the worst. The pie is so without charm, we leave all but two slices behind.

Come to think of it, the previously frozen french fries, supposedly cooked in duck fat but revealing no such sign, are mediocre, too. Pappardelle with short ribs, thick and heavy, ignore the reality show outside, where the thermometer is pushing triple digits. A side dish of Brussels sprouts (hey, chef, it's summer!) is overcooked.

Meanwhile, it seems Metromix went to a completely different restaurant.  Here is some of what they had to say about Station 4:

When handpicking the chef for his new modern American restaurant Station 4, owner Med Lahlou decided go for a more nuevo route than new. And the results have been spectacular. Famed Venezuelan chef Orlando Amaro—whose Blue Moon has been named one of Miami’s top restaurants—has added his own flair in his signature dishes.

The restaurant’s location is a few blocks from the Southwest Waterfront (and across the street from the Metro station of the same name), and as you’d imagine seafood plays a key role in the menu. Amaro’s charred octopus is an excellent choice from sea, with potato confit, smoked paprika aioli and tomato-feta tartar. The combination makes for a succulent and crispy texture to the octopus.

Other excellent seafood options at the restaurant are the San Francisco-style cioppino—made with fresh crab, shrimp, mussels, clams and calamari in a saffron-tomato broth and served with a toasted baguette—as well as the sautéed calamari served with lemon-oil tapenade and squid ink vinaigrette.

There's only one way to find out which of these reviews is more correct...go check it out for yourself!

-  It was reported last week in the Washington Business Journal that 950 L'Enfant Plaza was put on the market by Heyman Properties. The office building is the south building at the plaza and is one of the buildings not owned by JBG (the other is the USPS headquarters), which is in the midst of renovating the retail center and plans to build a hotel, office, and maybe apartments.

A Couple Quick Items: Commander Kamperin Retires, King Memorial Celebration

- MPD's First District Commander David Kamperin announced his retirement last week after 32 years of service in law enforcement (almost 26 years with MPD). In his email announcing his retirement, Kamperin mentions some of his accomplishments as commander:

Over the past nearly four years we have accomplished many things within the First District: increased foot patrols throughout the community, decreased response time for calls for service, improved customer service, enhanced Community Policing within the Patrol Service Areas and annual crime reductions. In 2010, through the dedication and efforts of the men and women of the First District, working closely with the community, 1D received the Department’s Crime Reduction Award.

First District Headquarters moved from 4th and E Street in 2009 to the former Bowen Elementary School along M Street.  The former headquarters building was demolished and the city's new Consolidated Forensic Laboratory is rising on the site. 

Kamperin's last day will be May 21, but the Citizen Advisory Council (CAC) for 1D will hold an event this evening at 7pm.  The event will take place in the community room at 1D HQ.

- The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is getting closer to completion along the Tidal Basin and plans are underway to celebrate the opening in August. The Washington Post reports there will be a week-long celebration leading to the unveiling on August 29th. The dedication will take place on the 48th anniversary of King's "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  Here are some details from the article:

The dedication will take place at 11 a.m. in West Potomac Park, near the site of the memorial, which is on Independence Avenue, southwest of the World War II Memorial. There will be musical tributes in the park before and after the dedication. Among the week’s events, a public expo marking King’s legacy will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Aug. 25-28.The memorial will also have an inscription wall, water features, landscaping and a bookstore and visitors center. Reserved tickets to the dedication will be distributed through an online lottery system, the foundation said. People can request up to two tickets by visiting DedicateTheDream.org. Visitors must register by 11:59 p.m. on May 31 to be included in the lottery. Ticket recipients for the seated and reserved standing areas will be notified by e-mail on June 15. Public standing areas that do not require tickets will also be available.

Prepping for Saturday's Festival

As the Southwest Waterfront Fireworks Festival fast approaches, preparations are underway along the waterfront to entertain the thousands of people that are expected on Saturday.  As mentioned previously, the festival will last from 1pm to 8:30pm with a full schedule of events, followed by the fireworks show. Over at the Gangplank Marina, E dock is being converted to a commercial dock so cruise boats like DC Harbor Cruises can take tourists along the Potomac River (above photo). 

Over at 7th Street Landing, DC Harbor Cruises has taken over District Doghouse's old kiosk, which won't be coming back this season.  Eventually, the cruise operator will move to another kiosk under construction on the other side of 7th Street Landing to serve the E dock. The new food provider that will be moving to District Doghouse's kiosk will be the BBQ operation that is currently on the grounds of St. Augustine's. Last week I tweeted about the mural of The Wharf being installed in front of the Hoffman-Madison Waterfront team's construction trailer next to 7th Street Landing.  In addition, this year's Cherry Blast will take place at the former Zanzibar on the Waterfront building from 8pm-12am. According to the Going Out Gurus:

This year, the party is down on the Southwest waterfront - at the old Zanzibar - where the entertainment includes performance art, burlesque and graffiti, plus music from quirky, hook-filled Brooklyn indie band Bear Hands, the Beach Boys-influenced synth-pop group ANR and a number of DJs. Check out murals while snacking at food trucks. And Zanzibar’s deck offers a perfect spot to watch the official Cherry Blossom Festival fireworks. The $10 admission includes one free drink, but no tickets will be sold at the door, so get yours in advance.

Volunteers from the Southwest Library Playground Project (SWLPP) will be set up at the Gangplank Marina park pavilion to do face painting and sell water, which has been donated by Deer Park.  The face painting will be free, but donations will be accepted to go towards the construction of a new playground next to the Southwest Library. Half of the proceeds from water sales at several stations throughout the festival will go towards relief efforts in Japan and the other half will go towards the SWLPP.

As Barbara Ehrlich, one of the organizers of the festival from the Washington Waterfront Association, told me this afternoon, this year's Southwest Waterfront Fireworks Festival will be the biggest event staged by the group (in collaboration with the Hoffman-Madison Waterfront team) and will serve as a dry run for next year. That is when the National Cherry Blossom Festival will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the gifting of the cherry trees along the Tidal Basin from the people of Japan to DC. 

MLK Memorial Construction Camera Installed

A construction camera has been recently installed at the Washington, DC Martin Luther King National Memorial site, rising along the Tidal Basin. The memorial is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2011.

Update on King Memorial

DCMud gives a good description of the history of the Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, as well as what visitors will expect to see once the memorial is complete next summer. The memorial is located on the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin - about midway between the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. This follows a WaPo article from February that describes the process of how components of the memorial will be shipped to Washington from China.

Scenes from Southwest...National Cherry Blossom Festival

Clockwise (from upper left): (1) The cherry blossoms are in all their glory along the Tidal Basin. (2) The U.S. Navy Band performs at the Prelude to the Fireworks festival on the Southwest Waterfront. (3) The John Glenn fire boat is back in service after sustaining damage in an accident in January 2009 and shoots water to help celebrate the Prelude to the Fireworks festival. (4) A crowd gathers below Banneker Overlook to wait for the Festival Fireworks Show.

King Memorial Sculpture Prepped for Shipping

In today's Washington Post, there's an article describing the process of how the MLK Memorial will be erected along the Tidal Basin. As early as March or April, the granite components of the memorial will be shipped on barges from China to Baltimore, then transported to Washington, where it will be assembled with cranes and be ready for the grand opening by the summer of 2011. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued a construction permit in October 2009 and site work began in late December. Below is a description of the memorial, from the Post article:

The King memorial, located not far from the Lincoln Memorial where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, is to be built on a crescent-shaped, four-acre site amid the city's famed cherry trees. The three main elements resemble a simulated stone mountain from which the center has been carved out and placed by itself in the foreground. The centerpiece -- named the Stone of Hope for a line from the 1963 speech -- is 30 feet 8 inches tall and bears the image of King in a business suit with his arms folded...The two background pieces -- together called the Mountain of Despair from the same line in the speech -- are of similar size and frame a walkway through which visitors may pass to get to the King sculpture.

Included in the article is a graphic showing how large the King sculpture will be compared to other statues in DC. The Stone of Hope will be about ten feet taller than the statue of Thomas Jefferson at the Jefferson Memorial, Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial, and the Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol dome. The memorial was designed by Roma Design Group of San Francisco and the sculpture designed by Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin. Above is a rendering of a portion of the memorial, from the MLK Memorial website.

A Few Quick Items

- Construction began at the end of December on the MLK Memorial on a four-acre site along the Tidal Basin. A construction permit was issued by the National Park Service in October for the memorial, which should be complete by the summer of 2011. Above is a photo of a plaque on the spot where the memorial will be located, near the FDR Memorial.

- In today's Breaking Ground blog from the Washington Business Journal, there was a post about office building deliveries in the city. During the fourth quarter, the only office building that delivered in DC was Constitution Center. Even though the blog says the building is delivered, there is still construction fencing around the structure as finishing touches are being made. It is still vacant.

- According to an article in Globest.com, the GSA renewed a lease at the end of 2009 on behalf of the Administration for Children and Families of the Department of Health & Human Services. The lease is a five-year renewal of 187,000 square feet of space at the Aerospace Building on 901 D Street.

MLK Memorial About Ready to Start Construction

According to an article in The Washington Post, the planned MLK Memorial near the Tidal Basin has received all necessary approvals from the National Capital Planning Commission in a special meeting held on Monday night. With these approvals in hand, the National Park Service should issue building permits by early November so construction can begin on this long-awaited memorial. The Post article describes the memorial as follows:

The memorial is planned for a four-acre crescent-shaped site amid the cherry blossoms on the northwest shore of the Tidal Basin. The centerpiece is to be a 2 1/2 -story granite sculpture of the slain civil rights leader. Called the Stone of Hope, it depicts King standing with his arms folded as if emerging from the stone. At 28 feet, it will be eight feet taller than the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the memorial to the 16th president and will rest on pilings driven as far as 50 feet down to bedrock.

Construction should be complete in late summer of 2011. Above is a rendering of the planned memorial, from the MLK Memorial website.

Update: The WBJ reports that Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed a construction permit on Thursday at a ceremony on the National Mall, which means the memorial can now be built!

MLK Memorial Creators to Apply Next Week for Building Permits

According to this Washington Post article, the design of the MLK Memorial was approved by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. From the article: "The unanimous approval of the commission appeared to clear the way for construction of the $120 million crescent-shape memorial on the northwest shore of the Tidal Basin near the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial...Initial utility work began on the site in August, and the memorial is scheduled to be completed in 2010." The creators of the memorial will apply to the Department of Interior for building permits next week. As I mentioned in a previous post, the commission had some issues regarding the design of the sculpture of Dr. King, however, they ended up approving the memorial with conditions.

MLK Memorial Design is Approved

An article in the Washington Business Journal states that the National Capital Planning Commission approved the final designs for the MLK Memorial on September 4th. From the article: "The features approved by the National Capital Planning Commission include a semicircle-shaped wall inscribed with King’s words, a stone “mountain of despair” referencing a phrase from his speeches, a carved statue of King, a visitors building and red maple trees nearby...The King memorial, to be built across the tidal basin from the Jefferson Memorial, will be the first to be built since the World War II Memorial was completed in 2004. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2010 is expected to cost $120 million." Here's a link to my post in June about the project. The rendering is from the Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial.

Design of MLK Memorial Altered

In today's Washington Post, an article states that members from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts were satisfied with design changes to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial planned for the Tidal Basin between the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. The granite that will surround King's likeness will be moved forward a couple inches to give the impression that King is emerging from the granite instead of being placed into the granite. Wrinkles on his forehead will be removed and a hint of a smile will be placed on his face. Although the commission had concerns about King's arms being folded (they thought it made him look too confrontational and was reminiscent of the "Social Realist style" popular in communist countries), the folded arms will remain in the design. Construction is expected to start by the end of the year. The newest memorial to grace the National Mall is set for completion by Spring 2010.