Capitol Hill Schoolhouse Will Become Residential Project

• October 25, 2012
• 6 Comments

by Shilpi Paul

Rendering courtesy of CAS Riegler.

The Edmonds School building, a former schoolhouse at 901 D Street NE (map), will soon be turned into a 30-unit condo/townhouse project, UrbanTurf has learned.

On Tuesday evening, developer CAS Riegler received unanimous support from ANC 6A’s Economic Development Committee for their application to the Historic Preservation Review Board on the project. With partner Ditto Residential, CAS Riegler plans to restore the building and convert it into homes.

The units in the school will range from junior-one bedrooms to 1,700-square foot three-bedroom lofts. The project will also also have three adjacent 3,500-square foot townhouses. Surface parking and outdoor space will be available to residents.

“We are excited,” CAS Riegler’s Adam Stifel told UrbanTurf. “Conversions of historic schoolhouses are few and far between.”

CAS Riegler will present to the full ANC on November 8, and then go on to the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB). The firm, whose past projects include The Flatiron and The Standard Eleven, also has current projects in Shaw and Columbia Heights.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/schoolhouse_condo_conversion_coming_to_capitol_hill/6205

6 Comments

1. Marq said at 4:30 pm on Thursday October 25, 2012:

   Nice!!!

1. Marq said at 4:42 pm on Thursday October 25, 2012:

   Well somewhat nice… the windows of the new rowhouses should be on the same level with and the same size as the windows of the existing rowhouses.

1. Jessica Wilkie said at 8:45 am on Friday October 26, 2012:

   good! Capitol Hill needs more condos. I only hope they provide enough parking.

1. Elizabeth Teferra said at 5:44 pm on Saturday October 27, 2012:

   In my early years of teaching in DC schools Edmunds School and Peabody School were an “administrative unit”. One principal, one librarian the very first incarnation of what eventually became Capitol Hill Cluster School. That first partnership was 1974. I just have one question based on my own research of our buildings back then. The DCPS built 2 kinds of schools then in the late 19th century, an 8 room schoolhouse, and a 12 room schoolhouse, Edmunds and Peabody respectively. Why in the world do developers not see the beauty in the large square corner rooms with fabulous windows and natural light which even our early school planners chose for children back then as ideal learning and school day living space?  Those rooms continue to excite parents who want to send their children to these vast spaces with high ceilings and beautiful proportions. Yes, I worked in both Edmunds and Peabody and they were both surprisingly lovely for all sizes of people and at the same time though tall and big, powerfully intimate and homey.
   So why do architects insist on chopping them up? Grand rooms don’t just belong in palaces of the rich and famous!

1. really said at 10:54 am on Sunday October 28, 2012:

   great, another former school transformed into condos, while charter schools use city funds to purchase commercial property that is taken off the tax rolls.  let’s hope the next round of closures involve giving the empty facilities to charter schools!

1. Sammy Baxter said at 11:46 am on Tuesday March 12, 2013:

   Just curious…. what happens when DC completes its full gentrification and we need to find school space for many thousand kids?

   That said, the drawing looks good except for the parking. The last thing this city needs is more cars. Build it without parking and let carless people buy the units. Its city owned land, we have the option. Time to plan for the city’s future… not keep planning like its 1980.

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