71-Unit Project on 11th Street Aims to Deliver in Early 2016

• October 30, 2014
• 2 Comments

by UrbanTurf Staff

Courtesy of Torti Gallas.

Community Three Development’s 71-unit condo project planned for the northeast corner of 11th and M Street NW (map) will start construction soon, according to the Washington Business Journal’s Michael Neibauer. Community Three aims to deliver in early 2016.

UrbanTurf first reported on the large residential project in February 2013, and it was approved by the Historic Preservation Review Board a few months after that. The development will have underground parking as well as a retail component on the ground level.

Community Three will be developing their project on the parking lot to the north and east of the laundromat at the address, wrapping around the existing building.

Architect Torti Gallas created a design of two distinct buildings: a six-story structure fronting 11th Street NW, and a nine-story building fronting M Street NW. The 71 units will be distributed throughout the project, which will feel like one building on the interior. The design was inspired by the rowhouses and classical apartment buildings that fill the neighborhood.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/71-unit_project_at_11th_and_m_aims_to_deliver_in_early_2016/9166

2 Comments

1. Nathaniel Martin said at 8:17 pm on Thursday October 30, 2014:
   This design is incredibly disappointing. First, there's the dull historicism of that wing facing M Street. Why? WHY?? The context is not especially sensitive -- we could have had an interesting modern building here, instead of an uninspired, overblown chunk of fakery. Had the architects used a more modern approach, they might have found a way to chisel the mass of that wing more thoughtfully, thus avoiding the sheer wall that overwhelms the small commercial building at the corner (and perhaps also avoiding the lame cornice that turns the corner from the front facade and dies -- a device that, while common in buildings of the 1910's and '20's, is a sign of a compositional failure for which there is no excuse in the 21st century). And then there's the issue of the contrast between the bulky, awkward M Street wing and the oddly shallow 11th Street wing. I suppose I should be thankful that the 11th Street wing is more interesting visually, but why couldn't that same architectural expression continue to the taller portion at the rear, thus diminishing the blockiness of the M Street slab? How disappointing. QED.

1. skidrowedc@gmail.com said at 11:01 pm on Thursday October 30, 2014:
   What's curious about this design is that it seems to draw fairly directly from the 2 boom-era condos the next block south on 11th, neither of which, I would judge, is sufficiently successful to warrant copying. This project's historicist wing is a version of 1111 11th, with angled bay windows, cornices, and an almost suffocatingly uniform precast materiality. The modern wing, with its gridded windows, is a version of 1125 11th down to the red brick and punched windows of the return wall. Both 1111 and 1125 11th suffer from obvious budget cuts and unimpressive detailing. Let's hope that Torti Gallas and Community Three Development have noticed this and aren't repeating those mistakes! It's probably too late the change the design much, but the devil is in the details, and it's not too late to get those right. I do have some optimism, given that the same architect's building on 14th Street (the Bentley) is turning out rather well from the perspective of detailing and materials. Still, I have to agree with Nathaniel Martin's comment that, overall, this is a missed opportunity.