Old Georgetown Board Doesn’t Support Design for Exxon Condo Project

• March 7, 2014

by Lark Turner

Rendering for Georgetown Hillside.

Another design for the condos planned for the Key Bridge Exxon site in Georgetown has been panned by both the neighborhood ANC and the Old Georgetown Board.

Developer EastBanc has long been planning a residential project on the site of the Key Bridge Exxon station at 3607 M Street NW (map). The latest proposal calls for about 27 units adjacent to the famed Exorcist stairs.

But both ANC 2E and the Old Georgetown Board issued strong opinions this week suggesting the project doesn’t fit with the neighborhood’s character. The ANC chose not to endorse the project, its resolution said, because “the industrial/modern design is not in keeping with the use of brick on commercial and residential structures in this part of Georgetown.”

On Thursday, the Old Georgetown Board (OGB) also passed on the latest design. ANC 2E Commissioner Tom Birch, who attended last night’s meeting, said the OGB largely agreed that the design he called “kind of somber” wouldn’t work in Georgetown.

“It’s back to the drawing board,” Birch told UrbanTurf on Friday. He was quick to add that while the organizations aren’t opposed to modern structures in the neighborhood, the site needs a more nuanced and set-back facade than the one presented — which he called largely similar to previous iterations.

The ANC and OGB consider the site an important one in part because it sits near a primary entry point into the neighborhood. Birch advised the developer “to look at the kind of materials that are used up and down M Street” for the next design.

EastBanc didn’t respond to a request for comment on the ANC’s resolution.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/georgetown_organizations_pan_design_for_exxon_site/8213