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SC1100
Completed
Thompson Hotel ('20)
West Half ('19)
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Yards/Guild Apts. ('19)
Capper/The Harlow ('19)
New DC Water HQ ('19)
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Virginia Ave. Tunnel ('19)
99 M ('18)
Agora ('18)
1221 Van ('18)
District Winery ('17)
Insignia on M ('17)
F1rst/Residence Inn ('17)
One Hill South ('17)
Homewood Suites ('16)
ORE 82 ('16)
The Bixby ('16)
Dock 79 ('16)
Community Center ('16)
The Brig ('16)
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Yards/Arris ('16)
Hampton Inn ('15)
Southeast Blvd. ('15)
11th St. Bridges ('15)
Parc Riverside ('14)
Twelve12/Yards ('14)
Lumber Shed ('13)
Boilermaker Shops ('13)
Camden South Cap. ('13)
Canal Park ('12)
Capitol Quarter ('12)
225 Virginia/200 I ('12)
Foundry Lofts ('12)
1015 Half Street ('10)
Yards Park ('10)
Velocity Condos ('09)
Teague Park ('09)
909 New Jersey Ave. ('09)
55 M ('09)
100 M ('08)
Onyx ('08)
70/100 I ('08)
Nationals Park ('08)
Seniors Bldg Demo ('07)
400 M ('07)
Douglass Bridge Fix ('07)
US DOT HQ ('07)
20 M ('07)
Capper Seniors 1 ('06)
Capitol Hill Tower ('06)
Courtyard/Marriott ('06)
Marine Barracks ('04)
 
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Northbound South Capitol Access at Potomac Ave. [Sometimes] Closed; Briefing on Bridge Plans
For those of you who like to drive the loop around the stadium site to check out the latest progress, be advised that you can no longer go will often find the road closed north from Potomac Avenue on the mini-South Capitol Street that runs on the east side of the viaduct (pictures here); it's been closed as prep work gets underway for the lowering of the Douglass Bridge starting in July. The work now starting on the new Nationals office building that will run along the southern end of South Capitol Street (see my stadium renderings page for drawings) has spilled out into that access road from time to time over the past week or sol. If you don't make that drive yourself and are hoping for an update to my Stadium Construction Gallery, I'm somewhat hamstrung by the overcast weather this weekend (which makes for pretty icky photos), so unless there's a break in the cloud cover it may possibly be a few days before I add a new batch of shots.
Speaking of the bridge work, on June 7 DDOT is having a press briefing on the project, which they are now calling an "Extreme Makeover" -- hmmmm, I think I said that first ;-). The briefing will discuss traffic detours, construction plans and schedule, commuting solutions (such as Bridge Bucks), and the additional improvements to South Capitol Street that are coming. In other words, soon we'll finally get the details on how this is all going to shake out.
UPDATE: Apologies for the mix-up in the comments above about the street closure; it's open today, when no work is going on at the stadium site. And, just to repay you for that boo-boo, I went out and took pictures even though the sky is not bright blue; will probably have them posted tomorrow.

 

WMATA Approves Temporary Altering of Douglass Bridge Bus Routes
I mentioned this in my preview of Thursday's WMATA board meeting, but then missed it in my summary of what happened, so we'll throw it over to the Post: "Fares on four Metrobus routes that will be detoured in July and August, when District officials will close the South Capitol Street Bridge for a major construction project, will be temporarily reduced, the Metro board said.The fare on the A9 route will go from $1.25 to 75 cents, and the express bus fare on the P17, P19 and W13 routes will drop from $3 to $1.25 during construction. The routes will temporarily end at Metrorail stations on the Green Line to help buses and commuters avoid traffic detoured by the bridge closing. The A9 (South Capitol Street Line) will end at the Anacostia station, and the P17, P19 (Oxon Hill-Fort Washington Line) and W13 (Bock Road Line) routes will end at the Southern Avenue Metrorail station."
The Post piece also briefly mentions the vote to move the Southeastern Bus Garage to DC Village, and you can read my entry from yesterday for more detail on how exactly the debate went, and also for links to various documents about the move. There was no word today that I've heard as to whether the city had reached a deal on moving the shelter beds currently at DC Village--remember, if that doesn't happen by Thursday May 31, the boards' approval vote of the move and the various next steps does not take effect. And you can listen to the archived audiocast of the meeting if you're especially interested.

 

Capitol Riverfront BID Legislation Introduced
It's a Capitol Riverfront kind of day here, as I now see that the bill to create the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District was introduced to the DC city council last week by Tommy Wells and Jack Evans; it's B17-0208, "Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District Amendment Act of 2007." The text of the bill is online; it describes the boundaries as being all of Near Southeast and most of Buzzards Point (from 2nd Street SW eastward, with a few jogs along Q and P), and it sets out the taxes it will assess on commercial properties within the BID. No word yet on when hearings will be. You can visit the Capitol Riverfront BID web site to read their executive summary, bylaws, and operating plan, and also take a look at some of my previous entries on the creation of the BID. And what exactly is a Business Improvement District? It's an area where the majority of property owners agree to an "self-tax" that pays for services that aren't provided by the city, like security, public space maintenance and cleanup, marketing, promotion, development, parking, transportation, etc. Here's the Wikipedia entry, if you want more general background on BIDs, and RestoreDC also has a page on DC's BIDs.
 

Capitol Riverfront Promo Video Available
Hat tip to reader K. for the news that the Capitol Riverfront promotional video commissioned by the Washington DC Economic Partnership I mentioned last week is now available online (it's not streaming, you have to wait for the 4 MB or so Quicktime file to download before watching it). Quoting again from the press release: "The five-minute video fuses massing models, renderings, map graphics, fly-by animations, copy writing and narration into a montage of the current and planned development of this highly sought-after area of Washington, DC." Definitely watch it, it's very well done as these things go, although anyone who spends time at JDLand won't see any great surprises. Keep in mind that it's a video geared toward investors and commercial entities, with plenty of statistics and enticing images (millions of square feet of office space! thousands of new residential units! stadiums! riverwalks! happy patrons strolling past shiny new chain establishments!) but there are some neat animated snippets of some of the buildings in progress in Near Southeast, and renderings maps of the plans for the Southwest Waterfront and Poplar Point. One thing I did learn--the map in the video shows the possible DC United stadium at Poplar Point as being located more to east, across from the Navy Yard, and not on the little peninsula directly across the river from the Nationals ballpark.

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All Sorts of New Overhead Photos Posted
What a beautiful day! And with that weather, what luck that I had arranged some trips high up into a few of the tall buildings around the neighborhood to get new shots of the latest demolished lots and holes in the ground. I've uploaded these new pictures From Above and matched them with "before" shots on a whole slew of pages (you might have to scroll a bit to see the new pictures): Nation/1015 Half, the old Edge/Wet block on Square 699N, the North of M overview page, the Monument Half Street page (that's a biiiiig hole in the ground), the 100 M/Onyx on First page (where the construction on the Onyx end of the block is getting close to street level), 70/100 I Street, 909 New Jersey (showing the A1 garage all alone) and even the Stadium Construction Gallery (waaaaaay at the bottom, with a view from just a bit to the side of Dead Center Field, albeit four blocks away). I also created a new Overhead Photos page, showing all the ones I've posted on the site, grouped together by location. And I also created a special view with larger-than-usual pictures from today (don't miss it!), because it was so beautiful and you really could see forever from those high-up locations, and I wanted people to be able to see more than just little specks of buildings.
 

Interview with Ballpark Project Manager
Thanks to the legions of folks who sent me this link today (it's been kind of a busy day!)--it's video of an interview (11 minutes) yesterday on Washington Post Live with John Stranix, who represents the owners as a project manager for the new Nationals ballpark. Short version? It's going great! Otherwise, not much news that hasn't been posted here (except for mentioning that the turf will be put down in October). But you do get to see the computer-generated tour of the stadium again, along with some recent video clips from the infield.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

WMATA Board Approves Plan to Move to DC Village. Except....
At today's WMATA board meeting, the board approved the plans to move forward with the move of the Southeastern Bus Garage at Half and M streets to DC Village. The specific actions they approved were to hold a public hearing on the project, advertise the Phase 1 construction contract, negotiate with the city to aquire the DC Village property, apply for a Federal bus facility grant, and authorize the sale of the garage and its parking lot; however, board member (and DC councilman) Jim Graham asked for an amendment to the resolution, stating that if the city does not have an agreement on the relocation of the homeless shelter currently at DC Village (which would be closed with the move of the garage) within seven days, this resolution will not take effect. Graham said that he had hoped the deal would have been completed by today, but that "the word immiment really accurately describes how close we are." If there is no deal, the resolution would have to come back to the WMATA board again for re-approval next month. If the agreement is reached, then Metro is planning to have a public hearing on the proposed plan, probably in July based on now having to wait for the shelter agreement to be struck. Here is the Metro press release about the board's action and the proposed move of the garage, and also the meeting's agenda, and the link to the archived audiocast (the bus garage item is about 50 minutes into the audio).
 

The Blog Goes Multi-Platform
We've got a bit of a milestone here at JDLand, because starting today the Post's District Extra section has a new column called "Ballpark and Beyond," which will take selected news and photos from this very blog and publish them in convenient, on-the-go, dead-tree format. (So if you don't get the paper, or you don't get the DC edition, pick one up when you're within the city limits on Thursday to check it out.) It's quite exciting, as you can imagine, to be able to have my work here be circulated out to a much wider audience, and it's also great that the Post is finding a place in print for news that is very "hyperlocal." (This is probably where I should mention that I've worked in the Post newsroom for nine years, not as a reporter or editor but as a computer geek, and that this web site has always been and will continue to be my own project.)
If you're a long-time visitor to the site, don't worry, nothing is going to change. I'll still yammer on incessantly about renderings and zoning text amendments, though perhaps with fuller explanations than I have in the past (to catch the newcomers reading the print version up to speed). But otherwise, I'm going to keep on doing what I've always done. Just think of this as the site going "multi-platform."
For those of you who are new to the site, thanks for dropping by, and I hope you'll take a look around to see what's available. The map to the right gives you the basics--move your mouse over it, and you'll get information on the various projects in the neighborhood. (You can also scroll down to the Project Directory for a more straightforward list of what's happening.) Click on the map, and you'll be taken to the project pages, where you can get more detail, links, photos, and news items (here's my Nationals Ballpark page as an example--be sure to click on the "tabs" to see the additional information). There's also the Photo Archive, where you can pick an intersection and see a sampling of the thousands of photos I've taken of Near Southeast since 2003, and watch the view change. (Or not change, depending on where you're looking.) I also have data feeds from the DC government that are updated daily with crime reports, public space and building permits, service requests, and recent real estate transactions. Plus there's a calendar of upcoming events. And of course you should check back often to see what the latest is, because I post new items a heck of a lot more than once a week.
So hopefully this new venture will be a success. And who knows, maybe there's more to come.
PS: You can now also get to this site by using the URL www.ballparkandbeyond.com. But do not fear, it'll always be at JDLand.

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More Stadium Garage Renderings
I don't know if these are new, or just new to me, but I found today two new drawings of the infamous parking garages now under construction on the north end of the ballpark site, which I've put on my Stadium Renderings page (they came from the DC Sports and Entertainment Commissions' Ballpark Gallery). One shows an overhead view of the two garages, and the second appears to be a ground-level view of the western garage as it would look to fans arriving via the main plaza at Half and N streets. I guess we won't have to wait all that much longer to see if the pretty watercolor renderings match what ends up being built.
More posts: parking, Nationals Park
 

Humane Society Shelter Opening Now Scheduled for September
In an Examiner article today about the Washington Humane Society's plan to consolidate operations in a single building in Northeast, it was mentioned that the planned Spay/Neuter Clinic under construction at 10th and L SE is now going to open in September; I guess the June move-in date announced back in April arrived a little too quickly. For more on the plans, I'll quote again from the society's Spring 2007 newsletter: "As if being the largest Spay/Neuter Clinic in the Metropolitan area was not already enough, in June 2007, the Washington Humane Society will unveil the first ever low-cost Regional Spay/Neuter Center, created specifically to service the entire DC metropolitan area. The new facility will be named the National Capital Area Spay and Neuter Surgical Center. The current low-cost Spay/Neuter Clinic is located on Georgia Avenue in Northwest and will move to Capitol Hill, 1001 L Street, SE to a facility that is nearly four times the size of the current location. [...] The new National Capital Area Spay and Neuter Surgical Center will provide an average of fifty sterilization surgeries on both dogs and cats every day, five days a week."
 

Bridge Bucks Program Debuts
A couple weeks back I posted about DDOT's new "Bridge Bucks" program, which offers $50 per month toward transit fares and vanpool fees for people who will be affected by this summer's Extreme Makeover: Frederick Douglass Bridge. DDOT sent out a press release yesterday saying that the program has now launched, and you can visit the Bridge Bucks site for more details. Or, as I said then, avoid it all and just take a nice eight-week summer vacation; you could spend it camping at 4th and L.
 

Camping Out at Capitol Quarter
The next offering of market-rate townhouses at Capitol Quarter is planned for sometime in June, but even with no official date announced, people are already camping out in to make sure they get their chance at a unit. I dunno, maybe EYA needs to shift its strategy of how it determines who gets to buy their houses--Sack races? Skeeball tournaments? Scavenger hunts? Weekly televised talent shows where the audience votes on who wins? For those of you whose lives prevent a three-week camping expedition to the wilds of 4th and L, go to the official Capitol Quarter web site to sign up for their e-mail list to be notified about the next releases.

More posts: Capper, Capitol Quarter
 

WMATA Board Meeting - Bus Garage Move, Route Changes for Bridge Closure
On Thursday the WMATA board has on its agenda the approval of series of recommendations to continue moving forward on the plan to relocate the Southeastern Bus Garage from its current spot at Half and M to DC Village. The recommendations are the same as what came out of the Planning and Real Estate Subcommittee earlier this month to hold a public hearing on the project, advertise the Phase 1 construction contract, negotiate with the city to aquire the DC Village property, apply for a Federal bus facility grant, and authorize the sale of the garage and its parking lot (presumably to Monument Realty, though I've yet to see any official announcement that Monument was the source of the unsolicited offer in April for the property). The plan would then be to come back to the board in September with a land transaction agreement to be executed, and a construction contract to be awarded. As I've mentioned previously, WMATA is very much wanting to be out of the Half and M garage before the Nationals ballpark opens in March 2008. In addition to the documents for Thursday's meeting, the background documents from the May 11 subcommittee meeting also have lots of good detail on the proposed move, as do my last few entries on the subject.
And also on the agenda (good thing I scrolled down!) is a request to approve temporary changes in the routes and fares for the A9, P17, P19, and W13 bus lines during July and August's Extreme Makeover: Frederick Douglass Bridge. If you ride these buses, be sure to read what's being proposed, but the gist is that because the detour route's expected congestion would impact bus schedules, WMATA is proposing to temporarily end those bus routes at subway stations on the east side of the river, but reducing the fares to help offset the higher cost of riding the subway.
If you're really interested in this meeting, WMATA provides live streaming and archived audiocasts of its meetings. (Yay!)

 

Stadium Public Art
From the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, a "Call for Artists" went out earlier this month to "design and create a suspended public art installation along the main concourse of the new Washington Nationals baseball stadium. The goal of this public art project is to provide an exciting arts enhancement to the interior of the ballpark while celebrating the spirit of our national pastime. The work will be visible along the main concourse, across the field from Baseball Plaza, and from street level on the south side of the ballpark." (In other words, by the grand staircase near 1st and Potomac.) And, my favorite part: "The selected artwork must be durable, safe, weather resistant, and require minimal maintenance." Total budget, a mere $200,000. Deadline for submissions is June 18, and it is expected that the selected artists will be announced in September. Of course, even art for the stadium is not without controversy, as seen in my December post about how money being set aside by the arts commission to fund stadium art is considered by the CFO to come under the requirements of the dreaded $611 million cost cap on stadium spending. But in January, a deal was apparently brokered where the arts commission would in essence "implement a public arts project at the ballpark, using taxpayer dollars, without the cost of a single painting or sculpture showing up in the stadium construction budget. At no point would the sports commission or the Nationals take ownership of the art" (basically leasing the art to the stadium). Public funding sleight-of-hand at its finest!
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Temporary Stadium-Area Surface Parking Lots Approved
Tonight the Zoning Commission approved with a 3-0-2 vote Case 07-08, the request to allow temporary surface parking lots (lasting no more than five years) on a number of parcels within walking distance of the Nationals ballpark. (I considered this hearing so important that I took off my fuzzy slippers and actually ventured to Judiciary Square to attend in person rather than watching Ye Olde Webcast.) Commissioners Mitten, Hood, and Turnbull voted for the action; Commissioners Parsons and Jeffries did not attend.
The Office of Planning, while making clear in its report that it strongly encourages the use of mass transit and other alternatives to cars and would not normally support surface parking lots, testified that these lots and the 3,775 maximum spaces they would provide (see my Stadium Parking page for a map that shows their locations) will help to alleviate the short-term shortage of available parking during the next few years until new developments with additional underground parking in the area are completed.
It was requested that the case be approved immediately, on an emergency basis, with the explanation that the sooner the Nationals know where their lots are going to be, the better they can tailor the assignments of season-ticket holders to different lots based on where they are arriving from. (It was also emphasized numerous times that the parking lots are just one part of the overall traffic planning for the stadium.)
The main opposition to the amendment came from residents of Southwest, and ANC 6D commissioner Andy Litsky testified that the neighborhoods were not so much concerned with the lots themselves, but how traffic would be directed to the lots, with the bulk of the consternation focused on 4th, P, and I Streets, SW, which the residents consider to be local roads but which were mentioned by a traffic consultant at the March public meeting as being likely routes to the possible lots in Buzzards Point. There was also a surprising moment when a representative of Pepco testified that there's no way that Square 665 at Buzzards Point can be considered an option for a surface lot, because there's a substation still in operation on it. The Office of Planning explained that this text amendment was merely identifying "potential" lots, and that it's assumed that not all squares will ever actually have surface parking on them, and in fact the presentation slides by traffic consultant Gorove Slade from the March public meeting indicated that most likely no parking would be created at Buzzards Point. Ken Laden of DDOT then testified that his agency has never considered 4th, P, and I in SW to be important streets, because the vast majority of the lot locations are on the east side of South Capitol Street and that DDOT is trying to keep the bulk of the traffic in Near Southeast (where there are currently very few residential developments).
This gave the zoning commissioners an opening they were looking for, and they crafted a pretty sweet way to take the residents' concerns into account: because each surface parking lot will still have to go through the normal DC approval process for a Certificate of Occupancy (environmental review, DDOT review, etc.), they ordered that the associated traffic plans submitted with the COO may not include directing traffic to/from the lots down local streets (specifically mentioning 4th, P, and I). With that, the amendment was approved on an emergency basis. Andy Litsky said he was "pleased" with the decision.
As for the overall traffic management plan, apparently DDOT was not real happy with the first draft that they received on April 30 from the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission (Laden said it wasn't "user-friendly") and are expecting a new draft in early June, which will then be put out for public comment (and I'm guessing there will be plenty of that). It will include the same sort of on-street parking restrictions that have been used around RFK, where no one can park during games without a special residential parking permit, although exactly how far the boundaries of that restricted area will reach is still under discussion.
And DDOT's Laden also said that an agreement is close to being reached that would add a Circulator bus line from Union Station to the new US Capitol Visitors' Center to the Capitol South and Navy Yard Metro stations, which would give direct access to the red, orange, and blue lines without having to change trains at L'Enfant Plaza.
Above all, it was repeated numerous times that this will be a work-in-progress, that the plans will be tweaked and massaged as the planners see what works and what doesn't. In other words, while traffic will undoubtedly be a nightmare on Opening Day 2008, that doesn't mean it will always be that way. And, oh yeah, take Metro.
For additional background, here's my post from when the zoning case first came up. And be sure to read the Office of Planning's report, Andy Litsky's testimony, and the presentation slides from the March public meeting. And all my other Stadium Parking and Transporation documents and links.
UPDATE: Here's the Post piece on the hearing.

 

Congressional Cleaners Coming Soon
Within the last few days, a sign has popped up in a ground-floor window on Capitol Hill Tower's New Jersey Avenue frontage announcing "Congressional Cleaners Coming Soon." Word was out many moons ago that this dry cleaner would be moving to CHT, but finally it looks like it's not far off. (There have been some recently approved building permits that pointed in this direction as well, but the sign is even better evidence.) So soon you'll be able to add dry-cleaning to the list of every-day tasks available in Near Southeast, along with banking (Chevy Chase bank at New Jersey and L), eating (Five Guys, Subway, Wendy's, McDonald's, and Sizzlin' Express), and of course, all of your beauty supply and wig needs.
 

Nation Demolition Finally Completed
It took awhile, but the demolition of the old Nation nightclub at 1015 Half Street is finally all-but-complete. (They left the three-story shell up for quite a while, but it's finally gone.) You can see Nation befores-and-afters on my 1015 Half Street page, or check how the Half and K and Half and L corners have changed over the past seven weeks (with the additional demolition happening on Square 699N across the street from Nation). And Nation is now immortalized as #136 on my Demolished Buildings page.

 

Douglass Bridge Closures CANCELLED This Weekend
UPDATE: This planned closure for this weekend has been cancelled because of the rotten weather forecast. Original entry:
Once again, the outbound side of the Douglass Bridge will be closed this weekend; here's the scoop from DDOT: "Improvements to the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge (sometimes referred to as the South Capitol Street Bridge) will continue this weekend, as crews continue repairs on the southbound or outbound lanes. Following the evening rush hour on Friday, May 18 at 10 pm, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will temporarily close the southbound (outbound) lanes on the Douglass Bridge. All lanes will be reopened in time for the Monday (May 21) evening rush hour. Outbound bridge drivers will be directed to follow signed detours to I-395 South across the 11th Street Bridge to I-295 South. Drivers also may consider taking either New York Avenue or Benning Road as alternate routes." This is of course all in preparation for The Mother of All Bridge Closures, coming in July and August when both sides of the bridge will be shut down to demolish the northern 800 feet of the viaduct, and lower the exit of the bridge so that it reaches ground level at Potomac Avenue.

 

New Drawing of 250 M Street
Hot on the heels of the Zoning Commission's approval of William C. Smith's plan for its 190,000-sq-ft office building at 250 M Street, I've found an updated drawing of what the project will look like (designed by Hickok Cole Architects), and I've added it to my 250 M Street page. You can see how the building is designed to echo 1100 New Jersey Avenue, its neighbor across Canal Park.
 

Upcoming Zoning Hearing on Stadium Parking
A reminder before the weekend starts that on Monday night the Zoning Commission will be having its hearing on Case 07-08, the request to amend the city's zoning laws to allow temporary (no longer than five years) surface parking lots on certain squares in Near Southeast and Southwest to help provide parking for the new stadium. (It's available via live webcast [but not archived] for those who don't wish to schlep to the meeting.) You can read the Office of Planning's report in support of the case that I posted earlier this week and see my map laying out where the parking lots would be located; there's also a piece in this morning's Examiner about how nearby residents (read: residents in Southwest, since there are hardly any in Near Southeast) are "furious, fearing that the location of the new lots will force traffic onto their narrow neighborhood streets, trapping them in their homes on game days." Note that the mention by Andy Litsky in the article of 4th Street is referring to the street in Southwest, not Southeast. My Stadium Transportation and Parking page also has in addition to the map the various presentations by DDOT and the traffic consultants about the plans to get people to and from the stadium, the on-street parking plans (i.e., none), and also the news items from the past few months about this subject. I imagine the zoning hearing is going to be quite festive.

 
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