New Designs Proposed For Georgetown’s Exxon Condos

• April 28, 2014
• 6 Comments

by Lark Turner

The developer of a Georgetown condo project at the site of the Key Bridge Exxon has released new plans after their latest proposal was rejected by the Old Georgetown Board (OGB) in early March.

EastBanc and Handel Architects have come up with six different designs to present to the OGB in early May in hopes of getting its 27-unit Georgetown Hillside condo project on its way to final approval. Commissioner Tom Birch told UrbanTurf Eastbanc’s that the previous design was “kind of somber” and didn’t fit in with the types of materials used throughout M Street. The site at 3607 M Street NW (map) is adjacent to the famed Exorcist stairs.

Here’s a look at the previous design:

Rendering for Georgetown Hillside.

EastBanc seems to have taken the ANC and OGB’s advice seriously in its latest take on the condos. They appear designed to blend in more with the hillside and with an adjacent historic building. Here are a few more of the proposed ideas for the building’s facade:

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Here is another look at the first design from across the river:

And a night view:

ANC 2E will be reviewing the latest designs at their monthly meeting Monday night. We will have more details on the new designs on Tuesday.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/new_georgetown_hillside_proposal_gets_facelifts/8414

6 Comments

1. Longtime Washingtonian said at 7:39 pm on Monday April 28, 2014:
   Hmm. I liked the darker color of the previous design. I still think this is fine. Why should it match the old building next door? It's a new building. It should look new. As long as the scale is appropriate -- which it seems to be -- there should be room for something modern!

1. Wendy said at 7:54 pm on Monday April 28, 2014:
   It should be in harmony with the beautiful older building next door to create a neighborhood, a community feel, not just "here's a building, and then there's a building next door, and another totally different building." All of the ugly new boxes proposed by EastBanc are charmless; could be built anywhere; and look like enormous dead paperweights on the area. No green space--EastBanc is allergic to green--and just gray and black.

1. skidrowe said at 8:23 pm on Monday April 28, 2014:
   I really don't get where the current architectural obsession with the styling of contemporary northern European architecture comes from. "Modern" can be so many different things, why copy so directly from cultures (homogeneous, reserved) and climates (dreary) that are quite different from ours? Especially in Georgetown. The rendering with the adjacent streetcar barn makes it clear: the problem isn't overall size. The problem is lack of any scale other than large (the massing, basically) and minute (the fine points of glass & metal detailing). The streetcar barn has elements and details at all scales. Modern makes sense for the new building, it being new, but the developers and architects should look at the effects of ACTUAL modernity--elements of sustainability most notably--not the modern STYLE of the Netherlands and Finland. Sustainable elements will give middle scale moves; will introduce materials and forms that make sense for our climate; and so forth. Some (like shutters) harken directly back to traditional architecture, bridging the gap in a place like Georgetown. That's the direction this project needs to go.

1. Lisa said at 5:07 pm on Tuesday April 29, 2014:
   I do hope that there will be extensive planning on exiting and entering this new condo building. M Street is already a nightmare especially for those trying to get in and out of that Exxon.

1. William said at 5:41 pm on Wednesday April 30, 2014:
   Because 27 units (many of whose residents will likely take a bus/streetcar to work) are going to impact the intersection so greatly?

1. Paul said at 1:36 am on Wednesday May 14, 2014:
   "Those who can, build. Those who can't, criticize." - Robert Moses