A New Look and Less Parking for Final Monroe Street Market Building

• January 2nd 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

Monroe Street Market was a major makeover for the area surrounding the Brookland Metro station and Catholic University, delivering 562 apartments, 45 townhouses, and nearly 57,000 square feet of commercial space. Now, the development team is looking to tweak the plans for the last building in the project.

When the planned-unit development was approved in 2009, the building on Block E at the southwest corner of 7th and Monroe Streets NE (map) was envisioned as a six-story building with 156 multi-family units above 23,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and 171 parking spaces across two below-grade levels. Now, the development team is seeking to modify those plans in order to deliver a building with a different appearance  --  and fewer parking spaces.

In addition to having a different color palette and materiality, the new design by Maurice Walters Architect also includes the following modifications:

• The addition of a second residential lobby on Monroe Street;
• The creation of a larger landscape buffer abutting the adjacent property on Lawrence Street;
• Altering the design and size of windows, the design and quantity of dormers, and the design of railings and balconies.

Because demand for parking at the already-delivered buildings has been low, leaving 285 unleased spaces available, the applicant is seeking to remove the second level of parking from the Block E building, creating a single level with 99 spaces (39 of which will be for retail use). This decision is in keeping with a previous report from the District Department of Transportation that warned that the development may be over-parked as proposed. 

The developers will present the new plans at the ANC 5E meeting on January 16th. A zoning hearing has not yet been scheduled.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/a-new-look-and-less-parking-for-monroe-street-market-mixed-use-building/13403.