Restaurant Proposed For Penthouse of Hotel/Apartment Project at 5th and I

• November 2, 2015
• 2 Comments

by UrbanTurf Staff

Rendering of 901 5th Street NW. Click to enlarge.

The hybrid hotel/apartment project on the boards for 901 5th Street NW (map) will have a different proportion of hotel rooms and apartments than originally planned, and may also have a restaurant or cocktail bar on the penthouse level, if the Board of Zoning Adjustment gives the green light.

The project comes from a development group led by the Peebles Corporation, which beat out three other teams in May of last year to develop the city-owned site. The other members of the development team include Walker Group, MacFarlane Partners and Standard Group. WDG Architecture designed the project.

Click to enlarge.

Original plans for the project called for a hotel on floors 1-8 with a total of 153 rooms and 5,500 square feet of “meeting/function space.” On top of the hotel would be 52 residential units on floors 9-12.

The developers recently revised their plans for the total number of hotel rooms and apartments at the project. Now, they are proposing a total of 175 hotel rooms, and 48 apartments.

Click to enlarge.

In addition, the team is asking for a special exception from the city’s proposed regulation related to penthouses “to allow a bar, cocktail lounge and/or restaurant use within the penthouse of the proposed building.”

The Board of Zoning Adjustment will consider the changes on November 10.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/a_new_scaled_back_look_for_hotel_apartment_project_planned_at_5th_and_i/10531

2 Comments

1. skidrowedc@gmail.com said at 9:14 pm on Monday November 2, 2015:
   Oh my, that is one awkward building... WDG and Peebles: In this kind of architecture, proportions and consistency are paramount. It's not too late to adjust either. The base (floors 1 & 2) is somewhat quotidian, but if the materials are good (minimum 4" thick stone--not precast; quality center-glazed windows with low-iron glass; solid & interesting hardware; etc.) and the plantings at the second floor level become reality, it can be okay. The hotel portion, flrs 3-8 isn't too bad (although I can't really tell what's in the recess, could be devastating), but the corner is inconsistent with the rest. The condo floors are where the composition really falls apart. A good start might be to reverse location of inset and projected balconies -- inset at the corner, project along the faces. Beyond that, I don't know, but you need to do something! This is such a visible location, and it already has two serious clunkers as neighbors -- 555 Mass Condominium across 5th Street and Meridian at Gallery Place across Mass Ave. We just can't have another bloated compositional wreck on this site.

1. Nathaniel Martin said at 4:58 pm on Tuesday November 3, 2015:
   Yeah, it's as if the project team was in a meeting reviewing the base design and someone said, "Boy, this is dull--let's do something entirely different on top--doesn't matter what." Is architectural composition a lost art?