Project Profile

Washington, DC

Project Details

New Construction: Yes

Date Built: 1970

Building Type: Retail stores, Adaptive reuse, Warehouses, Plazas

City: Washington

State: DC

Country: USA

Project Team

Architect: Arthur Cotton Moore / Associates

Description

The program called for the creation of an economically competitive, speculative office building and shopping area, utilizing the maximum zoning allowable. It required integration into the Georgetown scale and character, mandatory approval by the Fine Arts Commission and the Georgetown Advisory Panel, and approval of the Interior Department for the C&O Canal Deck. Other criteria included preservation of the Class III Historic Landmark warehouses, enrichment with civic town-square type uses, and barrier-free design.

The site offered an irregular assemblage of city lots in an industrial area with extremely limited street frontage.

The project solution included the preservation of the old warehouse building, new construction, and the creation of a shopping arcade to tap M Street traffic. Particular attention was given to exploiting the resource of the old warehouse, with its structurally repetitive, industrial, no-nonsense character.

The significance of this project lies in its successful reclamation of an industrial area into a thriving commercial-office complex. By exploiting the resource of the old warehouse, particularly its heavy wood framing and brick structure, along with new structures, the Architect created a purely pedestrian, privately developed “town-square.” Although the square has limited side street frontage, the project connects to the larger context by a narrow shopping arcade. The project integrates well into the overall Georgetown area through its scale and character.

(Photographer: unknown)