We are told that the new traffic lights and crossing signals will be turned on Friday at Waterfront Station. Here is a photo of old and new.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
New and Old at Waterfront Station
"Complete" TLC for M Street
Complete Streets is the concept that Tommy Well's is proposing for M Street. At a meeting last night at the MPD 1st District Headquarters, the Councilmember hosted a presentation of a plan for an M Street makeover: both SW and SE.
According to an informational website, "Complete streets are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users. Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities must be able to safely move along and across a complete street." JD attended the meeting and has a great report here at jdland.
Tommy Wells' presentation can be found here. I would love to start a conversation about what each person would like to see on M Street, but I think that the real question is what does the community need from M Street. Once the needs are assessed, then a plan can be properly devised. A real danger would be to bring a concept to our main artery which looks great, but does not really address the needs of our neighborhood: circulation, safety, real use, integration with other streets, future uses, general feel, and both development response and encouragement.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Safeway News
Craig Muckle, Safeway's Public Affairs Manager, introduced the brand new management team for the new store to the community at the ANC meeting. The new store manager, Mike Bigalow, comes fresh from a stint at the brand new Brandywine Safeway. There will be three assistant managers on site. Muckle told us that the store will be closed for only 8 days and not the 12 reported earlier. Closing will be on April 6. From March 23rd to that date, the liquidation of merchandise will carry a 30% discount. The new store will open with a preview party for shopping and tours (with a 10% discount on all groceries) on April 15th from 4 pm to 8 pm or later. The Grand Opening with ribbon cutting will be the next day, April 16. Safeway is working to find solutions for anyone who might face a hardship caused by the closing. They will assess the real needs and then provide solutions. But stock up: 30% off is hard to beat.
ANC Chair Ron McBee commended Safeway for accomplishing a singular goal: over 50% of the new hires for the store are residents of the 20024 zip code.
As for parking, there will be underground parking and a bit of above ground parking (some 40 spaces) which will be validated for free for 90 minutes with a minimum $8.00 Safeway purchase.
Demolition of the old store will be conducted by Waterfront Associates, and may take up to a year, since a raze permit can only be requested after the current tenant has moved out, and interior demo will be done first. The area will be fenced off for safety and for aesthetics.
Those strange posts at Waterfont Station Metro Plaza
in front of the current Safeway are actually lights. The tops will be lit as early as tomorrow, according to Vornado's project manager, Gordon Fraley. The idea is that when the trees grow up, the lights will become an artistic feature illuminating the branches from within. There will be other lighting on the plaza.
Meanwhile, the ANC 6D meeting provided other news from Waterfront Station:
About 900 of the total 1,500 city workers will be moved in by March 25th and the move will begin this Friday. By Monday, at the very least, 4th Street will be open for entry by foot by the occupants of both new buildings. If the weather cooperates, the street may open to all pedestrian traffic by then. By the end of March, or sooner, again weather depending, the street will open to vehicle traffic.
News on the ever popular retail front was provided by David Smith of Waterfront Associates:
- Bank of American will not be moving to 4th Street. It is looking for space elsewhere in SW or Near SE. Meanwhile, the can remain "Trailer Bank" until their lease runs out on Dec. 12, 2012.
- There is a bank negotiating a lease for a space on 4th Street.
- A sandwich shopped, which was not named, signed a lease today.
- A sit down restaurant (to occupy the space opposite the new Safeway) and a burger type restaurant are very near to signing leases.
- There are heavy negotiations with another restaurant and a dry cleaner for other retail spaces.
- It is hoped that the restaurants will be ready to open by late summer or early fall.
- Most of the sidewalk space on 4th Street will be public space controlled by the city.
- The promenades on either side of 4th on the south side of each building remain privately controlled property for public use.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Monday ANC Meeting
Tomorrow night's ANC 6D meeting will take place at the Courtyard by Marriot at 140 L Street in SE. Basically, all of the Capitol Riverfront Bid is a part of the 6D area, along with Southwest.
The agenda includes updates on the Waterfront Station project, Safeway, Waterfront parking, the Randall/Corcoran/Rubell deal, a historic preservation hearing on the Southwest House, and various planned marathon routes.
Friday, March 5, 2010
FBI Coming to SW, or at least a few employees
The WJB is reporting that some 800 FBI employees will be moving into office space at Patriot's Plaza II on E Street, Southwest.
"The Justice Department agency, according to sources close to the deal, plans to move into 180,000 square feet at Patriots Plaza II, a 321,502-square-foot building in the 300 block of E Street SW."
Last November, the Agriculture Department took 330,000 square feet at Patriots Plaza III, a 380,000-square-foot building completed in September.
The building has many security features including specially hardened concrete and bullet proof glass.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
An inside (and out) view of Waterfront Station
Left: Metro Plaza from East building
Right: Jersey barriers go home!
Andy Litsky, ANC Commissioner, took a tour of the new ANC office and meeting spaces in the new buildings on 4th Street and was kind enough to send us some photos. Things are moving along, including the Jersey barriers.
Andy said that he did hunt down the large community space that ANC had negotiated to be put into the Waterfront development. "Accommodating 100 or so people (that's how it's set up presently), it is located in the East Building on the second floor. As requested, it is accessible through a common hallway and not buried within District agency space that would make it cumbersome to access. Still, we'll have to work out the details to ensure that we'll have access to it when required. It is accessible by both elevator and open stairway through the main lobby." Litsky says.
Below: Community meeting space and office signage.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
SEU and REAL CONTROVERSY
The news is out about Southeastern University.
If it can be relied upon, since it is not known on whose authority David Sobelsohn is reporting this:
I have it on good authority that the Graduate School has purchased the former home of Southeastern University at 501 I St., SW.
Formerly associated with the US Department of Agriculture, the Graduate School is now an independent educational institution. It currently holds classes in the Capital Gallery, 600 Maryland Ave., SW. But for much of the year classrooms are full every day. They need more space.
When the Graduate School opens on I Street, the school hopes to continue Southeastern’s close relationship with the community. But my sources report that the Southeastern building would need enormous work to rehabilitate, and that the Graduate School considers it currently close to uninhabitable. The Graduate School has commissioned an engineering study of Southeastern & is considering its options, from renovation to demolition.
The Graduate School has been meeting with elected officials in DC & SW. It expects to make an official announcement by April.
David C. Sobelsohn
Commissioner, ANC 6D02
Enormous work to rehabilitate.
Close to uninhabitable.
1. In October, 2009, the Washington Examiner reported an infusion of "$1.5 million gift from D.C. taxpayers three months before the school was notified that it would lose its accreditation -- and eight months before it canceled classes."
2. The money was issued on Dec. 4, 2008 by the deputy mayor for planning and economic development. The earmark was requested by the Fenty administration and included in the fiscal 2009 budget.
3. So where is the money?
Southeastern spent every dime, said Peter Canine, the school's chief financial officer and one of the university's 20 remaining employees. Among the categories were planning design and project management, infrastructure improvement, interior construction, code compliance, furniture and equipment, and technology.
Therefore, expenditure of at least $1.5 million or at most $3.1 million in taxpayer money plus an unknown amount of private development funds have resulted in an uninhabitable building. Where did the money go? What kind of a plan created infrastructure that requires an engineering study (not an interior decorator) and may be better off demolished? Where was the oversight and where is the accountability?
Mayor Fenty? Councilmember Wells? Commissioner Sobelsohn?
Monday, March 1, 2010
An Opinion on Development
The following was posted on a flicker page by army.arch.
The Waterside Mall was part of a massive urban renewal (basically every single building constructed prior to 1950 was demolished) of Southwest DC in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The mall was designed in the Brutalist style and was mostly concrete without windows facing M Street. Most of the mall was demolished in 2007, and a new Waterfront Station is almost finished. Even the Safeway you see here will be demolished once the new Safeway (in the building behind it) is completed.In the comments, readers speak of how much recycling (or how little) is done with concrete. As far as I know, there were concrete crushers on the mall property during the demolition process and some pretty big piles of crushed concrete were created and used in the backfilling the project. I watched this process from my balcony. I do not know if anyone investigated the possibilities of refitting the old mall. What do you think about this issue?
Admittedly, this mall was horrendous, but how many landfills have to filled [sic] with 50 year old concrete waste before we realize that we just can't sustain this kind of redevelopment.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
A Couple of Sunday Morning Details: Arena Stage and Market Inn
Arena Stage is progressing on the construction of the dramatic roof: the outer covering of the soffit is being installed. The photo shows a glimpse of the roof from the courtyard of Waterside Towers where the covering is in place. Presently, the scaffolding is in place below the entire point on the north end of the building for the soffit covering installation.
Whiting and Turner set up their staging trailers for the Forensic Lab on the parking lot of the former Market Inn at the corner of 2nd and E streets. Late yesterday, workmen were burying fiber optic cable along the front of the Market Inn property. A foreman there told me that a building is planned for the site of the old restaurant, but he didn't know if Whiting and Turner was doing the construction. I will be on the lookout for a building permit and report back on this soon. At the time I saw the property, the parking lot was being fenced off, and the pedestrian underpass which leads to G Street was blocked by caution tape.
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