Zoning Commission Approves Hine School Redevelopment Project

Observers of the long-running saga that is the redevelopment of Capitol Hill’s Hine School can finally turn the page. Yesterday, DC’s zoning commission definitively approved the project’s PUD, which means developers Stanton-EastBanc can now move forward and focus on next steps: gathering financing and preparing for a groundbreaking next summer.

Last night’s meeting was the project’s final action hearing. At a meeting last month, commissioners requested clarification on a number of mostly-small matters, like whether trucks would be limited to accessing the project’s loading docks by driving in rear-first. Stanton-EastBanc representatives submitted their responses—in the loading dock case, pointing out that the entire design would have to be altered in order to facilitate front-end loading—and the commissioners were satisfied.

The Hine School project—which will include residential units and ground floor retail in Capitol Hill’s busy Eastern Market area—has moved slowly since it was awarded to the developers September 2009. Intense community engagement has necessitated a bevy of meetings and consultations, and numerous revisions.

But the project’s community-engagement process has finally come to an end, and the developers are ready to move on. “We’re seeking financing for the project, and are starting that whole process of getting building permits,” explained Alex Golding, a senior associate with Stanton Development Company. He said that the partners started assembling construction documents and drawings some time ago in order to hit the ground running once the PUD was approved, and will be soliciting construction bids in early 2013. “We’re closing with the District [on the property] in July 2013 and hope to begin construction right after that,” he added.

Of course, not everything related to the project’s community aspects has been sewn up. Questions of where the Eastern Market flea market will be located are still unresolved. The market—which has been located on the Hine School site and is currently run by two different private entities—will temporarily operate on a closed 7th Street, but the city hasn’t yet approved that location as a permanent solution. To boot, questions of whether those private groups will continue to run the weekend markets, or whether the city should take them over, are still pending.

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Hine School Project: Planning Not Quite Done

Sometimes ‘final’ doesn’t mean final. Exhibit A: the DC Zoning Commission’s meeting on Monday night to take final action on Capitol Hill’s Hine School development.

Developers Stanton/EastBanc may have arrived at the meeting expecting a resolution of zoning issues, but it turned out that the commissioners weren’t quite done. A host of questions arose that the developers will need to respond to by October 29th, and the topic will be taken up again by the Commission, probably on November 19th.

The commissioners spent almost an hour going over details of the project and materials that the developers had turned in following the most recent zoning meeting on September 10, and came up with new questions. Many of the issues were quite technical, covering topics like the District’s First Source hiring policy and the construction management agreement; others, such as whether trucks would have adequate space to unload, were slightly broader. But the result is a slowed down process for Stanton/EastBanc, which may have to re-open discussions with the local ANC in order to resolve the questions that the committee posed.

“We were obviously disappointed that the final vote didn’t happen last night, since we’re on a tight timeframe; we need to move forward to close on land and start construction,” explained Mary Mottershead, EastBanc’s head of development. “Some of the items won’t be ready for completion when we need the [permits] for building,” she worried.

The Hine School project—which will include residential units and ground floor retail in Capitol Hill’s busy Eastern Market area—has moved slowly since it was awarded to the developers September 2009. Intense community engagement has necessitated a bevy of meetings and consultations, and numerous revisions, and these final zoning commission meetings are the result of roughly 15 hours of hearings that occurred over the summer.

Still, even as the development team responds to the questions that arose, they are focused on the future, said Mottershead. “We’re still moving forward,” she said. “We’re working on construction drawings and permit plans, and we’re hopeful the next meeting will be the last one.”

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D.C. Zoning Commission Votes on Hine Redevelopment, Final Decision Still to Come

Anyone who thought last night’s Zoning Commission hearing would be the final word on the Hine School redevelopment project’s longstanding PUD and map amendment efforts was surely disappointed.

Representatives from Stanton-EastBanc, the development team for the Capitol Hill mixed-use project, as well as from the architecture firm behind the project, Esocoff & Associates, gathered in front of the Zoning Commission, joining a range of neighbors largely opposed to the project in its current form. But the commission failed to vote on the project, opting instead to gather more information from the developers and reconvene on October 15th for a final decision.

The meeting, which was closed to comments, came on the heels of some fifteen hours of Zoning Commission hearings that occurred in June and July. During those meetings, civic groups and concerned citizens presented their concerns about the future of the Eastern Market flea market and worries that the project included too little open space for the community. Questions about the project’s north building, which is slated to include only subsidized housing, also arose.

In mid-August, the development team submitted an 81-page final PUD order that responded to many of those complaints. New elements include better design of the north building; description of a compromise that has been reached with Eastern Market’s flea market managers, allowing vendors to use an additional street for the weekend market; and details about a 46-point memorandum of agreement between the developers and the area’s ANC commissioners which, among other things, would limit the project’s retail elements to specifically commercial streets.

During last night’s hearing, the commissioners leafed through the document. “There are a lot of improvements,” said Commissioner Turnbull. “I think the pluses outweigh the negatives.” Still, he had concerns about waste removal and the project’s loading docks, while Chairman Hood questioned whether the project might eventually cause debilitating traffic problems in the area.

In the end, the commissioners voted unanimously to ask the development team for more information on a handful of points, including details on how 55-foot-long trucks will serve the project’s south building, how garbage pickup will occur in the alley north of C Street, and a revised floor area ratio calculation that doesn’t include C Street. The developers have until September 24th to respond.

While the development team was largely satisfied with the hearing, many neighbors left unhappy. “I thought [the commissioners] would do more,” said Ivan Frishberg, the 6B02 ANC commissioner. “I thought they’d ask for more in terms of the structure and design of the building.”

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HPRB Hears Hine Project Changes

Changes to the Hine Project, such as reducing the height of a penthouse, improving transitions and adjusting facades, helped resolve some issues for the Historic Preservation Review Board, which voted today to approve a staff report recommendation that concludes "the revisions improve the compatibility of the conceptual plan and (are) consistent with the purposes of the preservation act."

The Board last approved a concept review for the development effort at the old Hine Junior High School Site near Eastern Market in August, at which time Board members offered guidance for further plan development.

Architect Amy Weinstein, a principal at Esocoff and Associates/Weinstein Studio, presented the revised plans and explained the changes to the Board, many members of which were not part of the initial concept review.

Changes include:

• The alley side of the residential building on C Street was redesigned using different materials to set apart the base, core and top of the building similar to the front design.
• New design features throughout the development include panel brick ornamentation, rolled coping in cast stone and copper, and bridged bay projections.
• The 5-story piece on 8th Street transitions to the rest of the building with rolled edges and varied materials.
• At D Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, the bays are extended and bridged to connect the retail spaces.
• A larger setback and reduced height moves the penthouse above the office building at 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue farther out of view.
• Twisted brick columns were added to the windows and clustered at the corner of 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
• The plaza component at 7th and C streets now has more of a "late Victorian vocabulary."

7th Street

Although the Board did approve the staff report, members voiced concerns with the project.

Recommendations for continued development included more attention to the C Street alley design, reconsidering the water feature, looking at ways to better transition from residential to office space, and - this being DC - reducing building height.

Stanton-EastBanc team is developing the site, Oehme van Sweden is the landscape architect.

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Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

Located in a Victorian red-brick townhome, this very fine vertically-arranged living space will get you one step closer to everyone's childhood dream of living in a lighthouse. Put in a fireman's pole and I promise I'll drop by unannounced at least four times a week. (Which is probably the best reason not to put one in.)

You ascend through the place via a beautiful floating stairwell painted sky blue, from the living room up to the kitchen (granite countertops, Kitchen Aid Professional appliances) and then up to the two bedrooms and the luxury baths (Travertine tile, etc.). Four levels in all. I'm a huuuuuge fan of this place - a friend of mine lives in a vertical-type place and there's something really novel and appealing about the setup. Not to mention the peripheral fitness benefits of the stairs; if you really want to beat the obesity epidemic, all you have to do is mandate that all new houses have to be built on the Y axis. My hammies were on fire after just a brief open houser – I bet after a month of living here you'd have the lower body of a young Jean-Claude Van Damme.


The place also boasts some beautiful interior design and furnishings - from the pendant lighting to the turquoise bathroom basins – which you could maybe convince your friends and family you picked out yourself, depending on how good a liar you are. In back is a small patio perfect for grilling out or a getting a little sun with your morning coffee, and the unit also comes with assigned parking. I once lived in a place where I had an assigned parking space, but I didn't have a car, so I rented it on Craigslist. The guy who rented it conveniently omitted the fact that he was going to be living in the car he'd be parking there. I felt bad for him so I let him stay for a month, and at night sometimes when he'd shift in his sleep his feet would accidentally hit the brakes, and his brakelights would flash and reflect onto the wall of my bedroom, where I'd be up late reading. If you can come up with a more depressing image than that, I'll give you a hundred dollars. (Not really.)

1328 Maryland Ave NE #4
Washington, D.C.
2 Bedrooms, 2 Baths
$539,900

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Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

This Capitol Hill rowhouse looks like your standard issue rowhouse from the outside, and then you walk in and you're all like “whoa.” I felt really bad about judging this book by its cover, but then I remembered that the other nine times out of every ten it's a totally accurate, legitimate life strategy, and then I felt better.

Architecturally redesigned in 2007, this home really took a quantum leap forward aesthetically. The main addition was the conversion of the living room into a huge, amphitheater-like space that goes up two full levels. With plenty of windows letting in light, this is a totally unique and fantastic space, especially for a rowhouse. The renovation also added a very nice roof terrace – you can see halfway across the city from up there, or so it seems – and a small balcony. Basically they put in everything you always wished rowhouses had – larger exterior spaces, larger interior spaces - but almost never do. Add in a fireman's pole and a “Star Trek: the Next Generation” pinball machine and this would be the perfect house.

Aside from all that, the house boasts fine hardwood floors, exposed brick, recessed lighting, and large, beautiful bedrooms. Located on a serene Capitol Hill block that was so outrageously picturesque on the day I visited, with loads of mature trees in front of the pristine houses, that it was downright ridiculous. I was about to point and laugh contemptuously at this little panorama but there was an attractive woman right there, walking her dog, so instead I just sucked in my cheeks and squinted off into the distance. I'm pretty sure she was impressed.

318 16th Street SE
4 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths
$799,000

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District's Northeast Neighborhood Library to Get Facelift

The District's Northeast Neighborhood Library, the fourth-oldest library in the city, is getting a $10 million makeover.

The D.C. Public Library announced it had selected Baltimore-based Whiting-Turner Construction, builder of Rockville Town Square and RBK Construction, with BELL Architects and Vines Architecture, as the design/build team for its Georgian-style Capitol Hill facility.

The library, at 330 7th Street NE, first opened in 1932. It will get its original woodwork restored, as well as new plumbing and lighting, along with more space for meetings, and a new elevator and restrooms. Existing furnishings and fixtures will be rehabbed as well.

Design plans will take six months, and the project, which will shoot for a LEED Silver Certification once complete, is expected to begin in fall 2012 and will take about a year to finish, the D.C. Public Library said.

(photo courtesy DC Public Library)

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Hine School Project Shifts Plans

The Hine School Project, a development won by Stanton-EastBanc, is shaping up to provide more residential units than outlined in initial plans, partly because of business pullouts.

As reported by Michael Niebauer in Washington Business Journal, residential space has been allocated an additional 100,000 square feet, up from 144,594 in 2009. Though the additional residences will alleviate the District's current housing pinch, the shift was the result of the Tiger Woods Foundation decision to nix youth center plans and the International Relief and Development aborting a headquarters move. The total square footage has dropped nearly 100,000, to approximately 558,000 s.f. square feet of retail, office and residential space.

"We're still early in the process on this project," says Dave Garrison, Commissioner for ANC 6B. "We're not sure how static the plans are. There are still many layers to go before the formal submission of design." Stanton-EastBanc will feature slides on its website that reflect the changes in the design within the next couple days.

Garrison says the the plans will be formally reviewed by the Historic Preservation Board in early March, with a second hearing before the ANC board later in the month. It would then go on to the zoning board, at which point there will be a special meeting regarding the project's community benefits and amenities, since it creates greater density than is currently permitted by zoning. "This is an idiocyncratic process that will be shaped by circumstances, timing and the economy that really is a wide open discussion about the plans," said Garrison.

If all goes smoothly, the projected calendar for development is to apply for permits late this year, with construction to begin in 2012, with a completion date of 2015.

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Your Next Place...

By Franklin Schneider

A literal stone's throw from the Eastern Market metro station (please do not throw stones at the Eastern Market metro station), this is an incredibly appealing 2BR/2BA unit. With multiple skylights, and high ceilings, the space feels open and dramatic. There's a fireplace, a compact galley kitchen with stainless steel appliances, a washer/dryer, and two roof decks, from which you can in fact see the Capitol Dome. Now, when you see something on the news about the government doing something you don't like, you can dash out onto the deck and shake your fist at the thing itself! I bet that would totally make you feel better! It's also about as effective as voting. (Just kidding. Sort of.) The place also comes with garage parking which, if you're a car owner, you recognize as one of the greatest pleasures in life. I mean, there are few things more demoralizing than looking for parking. After circling my neighborhood for almost half an hour late at night last week, consistently rounding corners just as some other driver slid into a recently-vacated space, it hit me like a lightning bolt: life really doesn't have any meaning at all, does it? (I finally just parked it illegally.)
But really, what more could you want from a place? If I was the agent for this property, I would silently lead prospective buyers through each room, up to the decks, down to the parking garage, and then, at the conclusion of this tour, grab them by the shoulders and shake them violently while screaming, “WHAT MORE COULD YOU POSSIBLY WANT!?” But then that's why I'm not a real estate agent.

350 9th St SE #25
Washington
$528,500
2 Bdrms, 2 Baths, Parking

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Hill's Old Naval Hospital Halfway to Rebirth

In June 1866, a 24-year-old African American seaman named Benjamin Drummond became the first patient to be treated at what was then the state-of-the-art Naval Hospital (more recently known as the Old Naval Hospital). Having escaped from a Confederate prison in Galveston, Texas, Drummond attempted to return to duty as a Union sailor, but complications from a gunshot wound suffered three years prior while serving in the Gulf of Mexico forced him to seek medical attention in Washington DC. Drummond was discharged in 1868 with a government pension. The Old Naval Hospital has served many purposes since it first served Drummond in the 19th century, but until recently the stately structure has sat lonely, abandoned, and slowly rotting. Now, after a festive groundbreaking in July, the historic landmark is roughly halfway to its completed $10 million renovation and highly anticipated reincarnation as the community-oriented Hill Center at 9th and Pennsylvania Avenue, SE.

In 2002 the locally-spawned Old Naval Hospital Foundation (ONHF) submitted a comprehensive plan for the property's renovation and reuse as an "educational center for children and adults and a gathering place for community residents" to the city. After earning the endorsement of the Historic Preservation Review Board in 2009, and following the culmination of several years of securing federal grants ($5.5 million of District funds, and $2 million from the federal government), the ONHF is currently moving swiftly forward with plans to open the Hill Center by next summer.

David Bell of Bell Architects PC, a local firm specializing in historic preservation and adaptive reuse projects, helped draw up design plans for the renovation, and continues to work closely with the Foundation. Rosemary Freeman, handling public affairs for the Foundation, explained that her community and the ONHF wishes to "blend the old with the new, so to leave this historic property to our children and future citizens, as well as save lots of energy dollars going forward." In tandem with the development team and architects, the community endeavored to these ends, ensuring that several "nifty, environmentally sustainable, energy-efficient components" were included in the design plans. Two of those gadgets were recently installed, as 32 150-feet-deep geothermal heating wells are nearing completion, and an energy saving machine-room-less elevator was recently shafted into the structure. "We feel it is a model for historic renovations using 'green' technologies," Freeman boasts. Architect Bell believes the geothermal wells to be the "first ground source heat pump of this scale in an historic building in Washington DC."

The Center will offer nine fourth-floor offices, rented to local non-profits hungry for affordable operating space. The rest of the building will offer classrooms and multipurpose meeting spaces (one room will hold 100 people) for "activities, learning, meetings, lectures, classes, exhibits, performances, and civic and social functions for people of all ages and interests." Once the doors are reopened, visitors can expect "drawing and painting, music, parenting, creative writing, cooking and more." A portion of the building will serve to commemorate the proud history of the Naval Hospital, and the Carriage House will be transformed into a "family-friendly cafe." The Foundation is leading mid-construction tours this afternoon for savvy journalist-types to show off their achievements.

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Hello Cupcake II

For cupcake fanatics in DC (apparently there are a lot of them), the knowledge that Dupont Circle's Hello Cupcake has been planning to expand to Barracks Row amidst the escalating cupcake frenzy is welcome news. But diversifying the catalog of cake and frosting combos is not the only thing that goes into a new location, as the new store will open with national expectations. While Penny Karas, founder and owner of Hello Cupcake, juggles the tasks of a small business owner, her husband Bill Bonstra and his colleagues at Bonstra Haresign Architects are working to make sure customers at Hello Cupcake's newest location (705 8th Street SE) will consume their sugary treats in a comfortable, colorful, and intelligently designed space.

The original

Bonstra and his team were responsible for the interior design of the first Hello Cupcake store that earned the National 2009 IES Capital Chapter Lighting Award of Merit and also won design awards in each of four categories of the AIA/DC Chapter Awards program. Bonstra said he wasn't exactly surprised, but still humbled and delighted: "We knew we had done something good, but to be recognized by your peers is fantastic." The interior space that Bonstra created on Dupont Circle seems like an upscale and modern take on an airy Candy Land dreamscape. The new space in Southeast will be a continuation of the same, says Bonstra. "The new store will be consistent with the brand that has been developed, and will play on some of the same design themes, but will also be unique, as every project and space is new and different." Bonstra will also adhere to the same LEED and Green Restaurant Association standards that governed many of the design decisions the first go around.

Hello Cupcake or Hello Kitty?

Like the Dupont Circle location, the Barracks Row cupcakery will feature lively signage, generous and inviting windows, and colorful sidewalk furniture. While the previous location was a retail space in the ground floor of a large office building, Hello Cupcake's newest venue replaces Capitol Hill Bikes in a three-story historic row-house, featuring residential units on top of the ground floor retail space. With all this, plus the addition of several planters and flower boxes, Bonstra believes his wife's new location will add "needed vibrancy" to the historic facade and the southern portion of Barracks Row. The new store has the luxury of a basement floor, which will allow Karas to jump-start the nationwide shipping operation she had included in her business plan from the beginning.

Hello Cupcake II interior rendering

Karas hopes that she can tap into some of the baseball fans that shuttle to Nationals' stadium from the nearby Barracks Row eateries. Baseball game traffic won't be back until next spring, but cupcake consumption on Barrack's row should happen before then as construction is set to finish before the first of the new year. Bonstra says that his team is in the process of securing all necessary building permits, and that some minor demolition has already begun. Energized by a few cupcake induced sugar highs, Prill Construction Group is moving speedily ahead as they oversee general contracting work.

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