10th and O Streets: "Based on Past Experience, We Don't Have Confidence that We Will Like Your Final Product"

A tidy vacant lot at the northwest corner of 10th and O Streets NW will change from an unofficial dog park to three-story townhouse, if plans by Suzane Reatig Architecture are made reality.

Coming soon: one place fewer to walk the dog

However, a committee of Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2F/Logan Circle said it will "recommend to not recommend approval" of the planned project at 1001 O Street because it is "not consistent with historic preservation guidelines, scaling and massing of elements". ANC2F's Community Development Committee (CDC) passed a motion against the plans as presented at its last meeting on February 25.

Megan Mitchell of Suzane Reatig Architecture led the team that made the presentation to the committee. 

"A significant amount of green will remain on the corner," Mitchell said.

She also said the proposed building would have two "likely to be" condo units with entrances at the front of the building. It will have two parking spaces -- only one is required. The plan is for the building to be "slightly under 40 feet maximum" -- taller than neighboring buildings but still not tall enough to trigger the need for zoning relief.

Mitchell said that corner buildings in DC are often taller than mid-block buildings.

Artists' conceptions of the building show a pink building with windows that wrapped around the front corner. Members of the committee asked if this color was what the finished product would actually look like. The presenter said no, that this color was used in the illustration to make the building stand out against its neighbors. Were there illustrations that would show how the finished building would look? No, a lot of those details hadn't been decided.

"Our understanding is that we don't have to present exact color and materials," a member of the team said. "We change things, we adjust things."

The architects would work with DC's Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) on the details, they explained.

This did not match up with the committee's idea of its own responsibilities, which included approving the materials. Members of the committee asked what materials the presenters were thinking of. A member of the team said ironspot bricks. See an example of a house fronted with ironspot bricks here.

"The committee needs to get guarantees that what is presented is what is built," one member said.

The committee also objected to what appeared, on the artist's conceptions, as an exterior staircase to the second floor, facing 10th Street, which would be on public space, meaning, over the sidewalk.

The architects said they were planning a building in a more modern style, as opposed to something that matched or recalled the styles of the older buildings nearby. The committee wasn't enthusiastic. A member of the team asked the committee if they hadn't ever, when in Europe, been in an old section of a city, and come upon "a little jewel, a little glass box" and been impressed with how beautiful it was? This line of argument failed to win over the committee.

Instead, the committee suggested the design should "pull something in from around it" -- meaning, it should resemble other buildings in the neighborhood.

Members of the committee asked the presenters if they had looked at the ANC's guidelines for presenters, which are posted online. The presenters had not.

"Every single time that firm presents there's confusion about the process," a committee member said after the architecture firm had left.

1232- 1234 10th Street (photo credit: BadWolfDC)

Community members also came to the meeting and cited previous works in Shaw by the same firm with disapproval. See 2012 blog posts about their work at 926 N Street on the blogs Preserving DC Stables and DCmud, and a 2014 post about their work on 1232-1234 10th Street (see photo) on the blog BadWolfDC.

"Based on past experience, we don't have confidence that we will like your final product," a committee member told the presenters.

This item is on the agenda for consideration by the full ANC at its the regular monthly meeting, scheduled for tomorrow, April 1, at 7pm, at the Washington Plaza Hotel (10 Thomas Circle).

Liquor License for Celebrity Chef Cedric Maupillier at City Market at O

At its regular monthly meeting September 2, Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 6E/Shaw unanimously endorsed the request for a restaurant-category liquor license for Convival, the new restaurant by celebrity chef Cedric Maupillier. The restaurant will open at City Market at O, at the corner of 8th and O Streets NW)

City Market at O (image credit below)

Restaurateur and co-owner Saied Azali appeared before ANC6E to support the request.

Azali told ANC6E Maupillier was a long-time fixture on the DC restaurant scene, working first at Central (1001 Pennsylvania Avenue) and the now-closed Citronelle. Azali and Maupillier are currently co-owners of the highly-praised Mintwood (1813 Columbia Road). In 2013, Maupillier was nominated Best New Chef by Food and Wine Magazine and also won a James Beard Award.

Azali told the ANC that one-quarter of the area of the restaurant will be devoted to the kitchen and "the emphasis is on food", including affordable "health food" (including vegan) and "portion control". The restaurant will have an outdoor serving area.

Azali said Convival will be the first restaurant that Maupillier owns, although online information says that Maupillier co-owns Mintwood with Azali.

ANC6E Chair Alexander Padro (Commissioner for district 01) said a standard settlement agreement for the area had been negotiated with the owners of Convival. This included standard stipulations for the outdoor area, i.e., that there would be no music played and outdoor service would end at midnight.

The restaurant will be Padro's ANC district.

Azali also said there would be underground parking below the nearby Giant supermarket for clients with cars, but the restaurant wish to be primarily a neighborhood place that people could walk to.

"Neighbors are the most important thing for us," Azali said.

Convival has previously been reported on by Washingtonian magazine and blog BadWolf DC.

The liquor-license request will now move on to DC's Alcohol Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) for final approval.

(image credit: citymarketato.blogspot.com, image marked as "labelled for reuse" on Google Image search)

In the 9th Inning of the Gray Administration, the Score: Deputy Mayor 11, ANCs 0

"It's important to remember that our recommendation is only that," said Alexander Padro, Chair of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6E/Shaw at the last regular monthly meeting on July 1.

"The Deputy Mayor in this administration has frequently ignored the
recommendation from Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. I've been tracking eleven of them in the Gray administration and zero for eleven have actually gone to the bidders that had the support of the ANCs," Padro said.

The 8th and O parking lot and the church (left)

Padro (also commissioner for district 01) made his remarks about the DC Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) directly after the ANC voted to recommend the plan of Four Points LLC to develop a plot of land at 8th and O Streets NW. The land is currently the site of a church parking lot.

Five of the seven members of ANC6E attended a community meeting on the 8th and O development the previous evening, June 30, where they saw full presentations by the four contenders for DMPED permission to develop the land: Four Points, A & R Development, Madison Investments, and Roadside Development. All four did an abbreviated version of the presentation at the ANC6E meeting.

The winner of ANC endorsement had a very different proposal from the others, because Four Points LLC is also aiming to buy -- in a separate transaction -- the property next door, the Scripture Cathedral Church, and then unite the properties in a single building with 172 rental units and 11,400 square feet of retail space.

It was reported at the ANC meeting that the Scripture Cathedral Church is moving all its operations to its Maryland campus in Landover.

Details and artists' renderings of the four proposals as they appeared at the June 30 community meeting were reported on the real estate blog Urban Turf here.

A report on ANC6E's decision to choose the plan of Four Points LLC appeared on the blog District Source here.

ANC6E videos their meetings in their entirety and post them on its YouTube channel. See Padro make the remarks quoted above on video 00061 here, at time 28:30.

The entire June 30 community meeting on this property can also be viewed on ANC6E's YouTube channel.

928 O Street: "Extinguish Your Torches and Put Away the Pitchforks"

"I think you need community feedback," said Walt Cain, representative for district 02 on Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (ANC) 2F/Logan Circle.


928 O Street last week

The draft agenda for the June 25 meeting of ANC2F's Community Development Committee (CDC) showed a late addition. The architects and developers of a new property to be built at 928 O Street NW, backing on to Naylor Court, wished the CDC to recommend endorsement of a modern-looking three-story grey box of a structure in a historic district, so the plan could go ahead to DC's Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB). Neighbors, quite unhappy, had come to oppose the project.

Cain, who is also chair of the CDC, started off the segment of the meeting pertaining to this project with the request (see headline) about torches and pitchforks. He told the meeting that, contrary to the posted agenda, the petitioners, Brook Rose Development and McGraw Bagnoli Architects, had come to make a preliminary presentation only. No HPRB request was imminent.

"The building is non-contributing," added Commissioner Greg Melcher (district 06), in whose district the building is located. When a building is "non-contributing", it means that, although it is located in a historic district, it is not deemed to have particular architectural merit.

Architect David Lee Bagnoli presented. He told the committee that the property abuts a two-story house on the east, and a vacant lot on the west.

Melcher said the neighbor to the west considered the "vacant lot" to be his side yard.

The developers are limited to a building of three stories, forty feet high. Their proposal is for a three-unit building. One unit would have two levels, a second three, and the third unit would be in the basement.

"It looks really massive," Melcher said. "Nothing else on the street looks like that."

The initial concept is a grey box with a glass bay on the front.

"We thought a light grey would be an appropriate color," the presenter said. "We're open to discussion on the color."

The property also backs onto Naylor Court. The proposal had a wall with a roll-up door facing the alley.

"A roll-up door won't fly," a committee member said. There were two roll-up doors on the alley already. Committee members advocated some type of structure facing onto the alley, but the presenters noted that the total footprint of two buildings would likely put the project over the maximum lot occupancy allowed under zoning regulations. The committee continued to urge a structure on the alley.

There wasn't much the committee liked about the project.

"I don't think you're heading in the right direction on this," a committee member said.

"Yours looks like a pop-up," another said.

After the committee was done, the floor was open to members of the community, who were equally unenthusiastic about the project, objecting especially to its scale.

Further discussion of the project was on and was then taken off the agenda of the next meeting of ANC2F, scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday, July 9, at the Washington Plaza Hotel (10 Thomas Circle)

The project requires HPRB approval because it is located in the Blagden Alley/Naylor Court Historic District.

See a summary of the entire June 25 CDC meeting prepared by ANC2F here.

See coverage of this same presentation by real estate blog Urban Turf, with pictures of the proposed designs, here.

Mention You're a Shaw Resident for Discount at New Hotel

At its regular monthly meeting April 1, Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 6E/Shaw granted a stipulated liquor license to the soon-to-open 182-room Cambria Suites Hotel (899 O Street NW) located above City Market at O. The full ANC followed the recommendation of the liquor-licensing affairs committee of ANC6E to grant the stipulated license. The vote was unanimous.

And also a hotel for out-to-town visitors

As part of the presentation in support of the request for a stipulated license, attorney Stephen J. O'Brien of the law firm Mallios & O'Brien told ANC6E that Shaw residents will get a discounted rate at the new hotel if they make reservations directly by phone to the hotel after it opens on May 1. O'Brien conceded residents themselves would have little reason for a hotel room for themselves. This discount is aimed at Shaw residents who are hosting out-of-town guests and cannot adequately house them in their tiny inner-city apartments.

The discount will not be advertised on the hotel's web site.

"The community will have to know enough to ask for it," O'Brien said. If the person answering the phone at the hotel doesn't know about the discount, he added, Shaw residents seeking the discount should ask to speak to Francisco Selles, the General Manager, who would make sure the discount was applied.

There may be blackout periods, O'Brien also said.

It was admitted at the meeting that it is impossible to collect or maintain a full list of Shaw residents. So, the discount will operate on the honor system, meaning, anyone calling and claiming to be a Shaw resident would receive the discount.

The Cambria Suites Hotel would be primarily aimed at the business traveller, according to O'Brien. As a result, the operators expected most of the guests to stay between Sunday and Thursday evenings. More rooms will be available on Friday and Saturday nights which, O'Brien hoped, would compliment the needs of local residents who have out-of-town guests coming for the weekend.

The hotel's web site is accepting reservations for check in after May 14.

On-line information says the hotel project represented an investment of over $40 million and created an estimated 300 jobs in the Washington area. The majority of employees are D.C. residents, according to information presented at the meeting, and there are still "a handful of jobs" left. They can be applied for through the company web site, www.concordhotels.com.

Granting a stipulated license is one of the few actions that an ANC can take that is more than advisory in nature. On the basis of ANC6E's action, the hotel will be able to legally serve alcohol until its long-term liquor-license application makes its way through the D.C. liquor-licensing bureaucracy, assuming no other party makes an official objection.

Alcohol will be served in the hotel lobby bar, which will be one level up from the street. There will be a summer garden with alcohol service. It will close at 11pm.

ANC6E videos its meetings and puts the videos on Youtube. Watch the section of this meeting that deals with the Cambria Suites Hotel here, starting at time 11:00.

Initiative to Change O Street Traffic Pattern

Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2F/Logan Circle heard a proposal last night to change the direction of O Street NW between 9th and 11th Streets. The proposal was made at ANC2F's regular monthly meeting last night (December 4).

Intersection of 10th and O Streets (Google Street View)

Paul Harrison, a resident of the 1000 block of O Street, came before ANC2F to announce the initiative of a group of concerned citizens. Harrison reported that most of the people on that block had signed a petition to D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans (Ward 2), requesting the change in traffic pattern.

If the change went through as request, O Street would turn one-way westbound between 10th and 11th Streets, and one way eastbound between 9th and 10th Streets. To put it another way, O Street traffic would diverge from 10th Street.

Harrison said the block had many families with young children who were concerned their street was no longer safe. O Street is currently a two-way street. Traffic had increased dramatically on it due to activity around the future site of City Market at O at the corner of O and 7th Streets. Many trucks have started using O Street as a regular route.

The proposal was supported by Sheri Kimball, constituent services director for Evans. Kimball told ANC2F she lived on the block. Of the residents of the block, only three had not signed the petition for the change, she said.

"The truck traffic down O Street is outrageous," she said.

In the ensuing discussion, it was asked why there were not signs banning trucks from the block. It turns out that there are, but the ban is not enforced.

Kimball told ANC2F that changing the traffic pattern on this stretch of O Street was just a matter of appropriate signage. It would be easy to remove the signs back again if the traffic pattern change turned out to be problematic.

"It would take about five minutes to undo," she said. "If it causes all kinds of problems, it won't be the first thing we've have to undo in this city."

ANC2F did not vote on the proposal.