NYU's Student Housing Still On Track Downtown

New York University's College of Arts and Sciences is moving forward with plans for 75,000 square foot, LEED gold-certified "multipurpose center" at 1307 L Street, NW. This week the University received updated Board of Zoning Adjustment approval for the downtown site, which it purchased in 2008 for $7.3 million. The NYU-DC Center, the educational/dormitory facility will house some 150 students studying off-campus each semester.

The Hickok Cole-designed 9-story complex will feature a lecture hall, seminar rooms and office space for NYU’s Office of Government and Community Affairs and John Brademas Center for the Study of Congress, below five-stories of student housing. The facility will also offer temporary living space for visiting professors. The slim 60-foot wide lot posed a design challenge to the architects, luckily students are adept at living in diminutive spaces, especially New Yorkers. Rooms will be arranged in four-room suites. A balcony along the building façade will act as a visual separation between the student housing and the academic areas below.

The BZA exception removes the developers requirement to provide parking or loading areas. The location lends itself to a walkable lifestyle, blocks from the White House and the legion of summer internship opportunities.

A groundbreaking is planned for September of this year, the first student would likely arrive in 2012. Once completed, the Center will serve as NYU’s thirteenth off-campus (but first domestic) study abroad site.

Washington, DC real estate development news