As You Like It, Again: Yet Another Revised Plan For The Bard in Southwest

• October 31st 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

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After months of conversations and negotiations with the Office of Planning, community stakeholders and dissenting neighbors, the development team behind The Bard development in Southwest DC is returning with a proposal even smaller than the one presented last November.

While Erkiletian Development Company and the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC), cheekily doing business as “As You Like It, LLC”, are still pursuing a planned-unit development (PUD) at the former site of Southeastern University at 501 I Street SW (map), the four-story mixed-use project will have less units than the previous proposal, and will no longer be a rental development. Shalom Baranes is the design architect.

The planned development will have 69 condominiums rather than 85 rentals, and rather than five four-bedroom apartments for STC fellows and 20 units of actor housing, there will be 18 dormitory-style beds and 18 actor apartments. The shrunken residential component also decreases the square footage set aside for inclusionary zoning to 5,378 square feet for households earning up to 80 percent MFI and 710 square feet for households earning up to 50 percent MFI.

There will still be 29,425 square feet of Shakespeare Theatre Company administrative, rehearsal and performance space on the lower floors of the building, with a below-grade tunnel connecting these areas. The garage has been reconfigured to eliminate tandem and stacked spaces, delivering 38 below-grade vehicular spaces; there will also be two surface spaces on-site and 15 parking spaces provided off-site.

Along with the decreased density, the aesthetic has also changed quite a bit. The materiality has changed so that brick predominates, and the primary building has been stepped back further from the street. The brick façade of the building at the corner of 6th and Eye will be distinguished by a bas-relief quill, while imprinted glass panels along Eye Street will still serve as another arts display. Passers-by will be able to see STC costumes on display through the glass façade of the residential lobby.

It is unclear whether any units will still be set aside for staff members from the nearby Amidon Bowen and Jefferson Academy public schools. The next Zoning Commission hearing for this development has been scheduled for January. 

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/as-you-like-it-yet-another-revised-plan-for-the-bard-in-southwest/14637.