Last night I, as a member of Moms on the Hill, brought together three of the four would-be developers of the Hine Jr. High School site (a representative of National Leadership Campus was stuck in Minneapolis when his flight was delayed). Some of the questions asked pertained to potential partnerships with Tiger Woods Foundation and/or the Shakespeare Company; retail, office, hotel and other prospective tenants; and, who will do the most to keep the rats and other public nuisances at bay. But, as one wise attendee noted to me, it is not about the squabbling over retail suitors at this stage of the game but about the overall good design and how much density of office and retail is desired at the site. Whoever is chosen by the Deputy Mayor’s Office for Economic Development will have to work with myriad city agencies, including zoning, the DC Department of Transportation on traffic routing issues, and the DC Historic Preservation Review Board, with whom Stanton is close. A good overview of the proposals and their links can be found here .
According to Jon Eisen of Street Sense and Bo Menkiti of The Menkiti Group, the Capitol Hill Restoration Society’s recent past president, Dick Wolf, has not returned their phone calls or email during this critical month of June, when CHRS was making its possibly influential recommendation for Stanton. New CHRS president Beth Purcell tells The Hill is Home that CHRS is all volunteer, and its board is “extremely busy,” and “overwhelmed, even.” A lot of members are already “over committed” and they “cannot call a board meeting ” every time something needs to be done or someone calls. She said all groups had lengthy airings at the June 23rd and June 30th public meetings. CHRS member Larry Janezich quit his posting as the society’s newsletter editor (but not from group) in protest over the process by which the CHRS arrived at its recommendation for Stanton. One telling moment last night was the exchange wherein Eisen of Street Sense talked about having to go back to the drawing board 20 or 30 times for projects to get it right while Stanton — I believe Amy Weinstein, the team’s co-architect — noted that they have had many fewer revisions and got things right early in the process. Eisen responded that this can be seen as illustrating how much Street Sense is committed to working with the community’s input, constantly adapting the project to the community’s needs and requirements.
I heard support for both Stanton/EastBanc and Street Sense/Menkiti Group afterward, with Seven Penn Partners’ plan also being liked, and being in the top two if someone was really against Street Sense or Stanton, but I have not heard it mentioned as a first choice.
Comments are due today at 5PM.
Now that we’ve had many chances to see all of the presentations, which proposal do you favor?
I attended the meeting last night and came away impressed with all three proposals. The Stanton Proposal was a close winner in my mind, and I thought their team seemed the most on the ball. It think an urban infill site like this with it’s excellent access to mass transit calls out for greater density, and that swayed me further towards Stanton.
That being said, I would be happy if any of the three proposals came to fruition in anything like what was drawn up.
I’m favoring the Stanton presentation as well. The Street Sense renderings feel a bit generic to me, like DCUSA. Like Tim, I wouldn’t really object to any of the above 3. They are all fairly strong to my (untrained) eye.
On a sidenote, there is one particularly vocal member of the community who seems to post a lot on this issue and attends all the meetings. I would quietly like to point out that he is really alienating a lot of folks around here.
definitely Stanton / Eastbanc. They have the most creative team.
I guess I’m sort of surprised to see all this Stanton/Eastbanc love. There’s nothing wrong, exactly, with their proposal, it just seems so blah to me. Plus, having had the opportunity to tour the Lorien/Brabo Kimpton facilities in Old Town (and completely falling in love) the idea of having something like that on the Hill just seems so appealing (plus, Kimpton is really dog friendly, which is important to me). Aside from that, I like what they want to do aesthetically, but of course, that’s personal preference.
Am I missing something amazing about Stanton that’s swaying so many others?
Street Sense put together a great plan that fits the scale of the neighborhood
with strong commitments from anchor restaurants (local restaurants – not
chains), a hotel, non-profits and a financial team with cash on hand. The got
it right from the start which is why the immediate neighbors are so vocal in
their support.
Stanton gave us a completely out of scope office building centric complex and is
now scrambling to try to change horses mid-stream. Imitation may be the
greatest form of flattery, but I would rather have the team that came in with
the ideas as a comprehensive package, with firm commitments and actually has the
money on hand to make sure it is completed in a timely manner. Quite honestly I
see this like a political race. Stanton is the Hill incumbant that hasn’t
really brought us anything revolutionary and their buildings are quite honestly
out of place in the neighborhood. Go look at them. The challenger has fresh
new ideas, a much better plan and isn’t resting on incumbancy.
Go stand on the Eastern Market metro plaza and think about 4 stories (Hine’s
current height – and the equivalent of the highest level of the Street Sense
proposal) vs. Stanton’s 6 story office-centric complex towering over the Plaza
and 7th and 8th street corridors and I think you will come to a stark
realization that Street Sense… well, makes a heck of a lot more sense.
RT
Count me as the lonely voice that prefers Seven Penn Partner’s Plan. I’d love a Trader Joe’s on the Hill. I like the emphasis on retail that I would actually use as opposed to a hotel or rehearsal space that I wouldn’t use. This project brings in new energy to the Hill. With the other two you leave either two empty spaces on 8th (the spaces Shakespeare leaves) or an empty space on Penn (where Yes! is). What will go in there?
Furthermore, The SPP proposal moves the flea market onto a closed C Street and creates an alley that breaks the site up.
Of the three proposals this is the one Hill residents will use the most – I like that utility.
Oh, I should add that commenter David may not be alone in favoring Seven Penn at least on some level: “Seven Penn Partner’s design of three and a half story townhouses along most of 8th Street is the best,” ANC 6B’s Ken Jarboe stated in a personal letter to Mayor Fenty, saying that should be the benchmark height along 8th Street for all the design proposals. Jarboe stated he was just speaking as a single commissioner. Jarboe did stress in his 4-page July 8th letter that, based on the materials presented to the ANC, “none of the proposals are acceptable,” and that if he were asked to vote on them as a zoning case, he would object and vote against all of them. The ANC 6B pointedly did NOT endorse any of the 4 proposals at its June meeting, (a Stanton endorsement was expected,) but later issued a list of criteria for selecting among the proposals.