Housing Market #2: Design Matters

Mayor Williams at the Grand Opening, Landmark Lofts.

The H Street neighborhood will change because of the Abdo project redeveloping the Little Sisters of the Poor Convent/Children's Museum into Landmark Lofts, and the construction of the two multiunit housing buildings, Senate Square, adjacent to it.

The Abdo Company did an incredible job. I imagine, even in this market, they will sell this project out pretty quick. It doesn't hurt that both Mayor Williams and Sheila Johnson will be moving in. But even so, the project is well-located, close to both Union Station and the New York Avenue Metro Stations, and amenities are coming into the corridor.

Because of the market downturn, the Senate Square project has been converted to rentals. I understand why the company "blinked," but the views from many of the sides of the buildings, plus the roof are incredible, and for the most part, they did a great job, not a cheap job, with the individual units.

I think they blinked too early, especially now that Landmark Lofts is actively selling units. The location is great. The hype about H Street is strong. And they did a great job.

The Abdo group, particularly Jim Abdo, really cares about quality.

I've forgotten that I can take some credit for significant changes in the external design of the new Senate Square buildings, through a bunch of meetings of the ANC6C Planning and Zoning Committee, and my points that (1) yellow brick wasn't a common material used in the neighborhood north of Capitol Hill and (2) it made more sense to use a design and fenestration in concert with the warehouse building heritage still somewhat extant along either side of the Union Station railyard. (Plus I pushed strongly for providing access to Zipcars/Flexcars on-site, although I don't know if they are doing that.)

They did a great job.

I am more concerned that the other projects coming to the corridor are not likely to do nearly as well.

A big "problem" with big housing projects is what you see originally is what you get forever. A hip trendy design today could look dated in 3-10 years, and the facade will, for the most part, never change. You can change a house facade because it doesn't cost all that much and you only have to convince one person. But there is no way that 50 to 400 people would agree to assessments to fund a facade change, especially when it would be likely that the units wouldn't rise in value equal to the amount of the assessment, if at all.

I think the design for the 300 block north side (Steuart Development) is ok. I expect the design from Dreyfus (200 block south side) to suck. I know that their original designs weren't compatible with the neighborhood. I am still disappointed in the proposed housing building for the 600 block south side. I worked on helping make it better, but unlike Jim Abdo, they didn't really get it, and they didn't hire the right architects.

I expect that Rappaport, when they get around to redeveloping H Street Connection, will do a crappy job. I mean, can you really expect quality design from a company that develops and manages strip shopping centers?

And the 1200 block south side, Autozone, owned by H Street Community Development Corporation is likely to be a dog, unless they let Paradigm redevelop the site (although Paradigm can do bad work too, as they did with their building at the SE corner of 5th and Massachusetts NW).

Hopefully the real estate downturn is likely to turn some of this property over. Maybe it'll get into the hands of developers that care about design--there aren't many though, especially in the eastern quadrants.

See, all these projects would be anchors, providing destinations, and generating foot-based trips up and down the street, just like housing projects and other retail destinations are doing along 14th Street, from say W Street, almost all the way down to McPherson Square at I Street NW.

406 H Street, owned by Capitol Hill real estate broker and slumlord, John Formant.

It's incredible the change that has come in the past few years. Even on H Street. (Last Friday we ate at Argonaut and the fish tacos and collard greens were great. In fact, I'd say the collards were the best I've ever had in a restaurant, although different from traditional soul food. And there were so many people coming in and out--it didn't hurt that the weather was great and the patio filled up.)

But ugly buildings don't help near as much as quality buildings. If quality didn't matter, all the buildings constructed by Community Development Corporations in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s would have made the city more successful. Instead it was having Marion Barry off the political scene, and a focus on making municipal institutions somewhat functional, combined with the trend favoring urban living.