The Best New Apartment Amenity Coming to DC: The Trail Lobby

• December 18th 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

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UrbanTurf usually avoids publishing rankings or lists…except at the end of the year, when we look back at what DC’s residential real estate scene had to offer during the previous 12 months. This week, we revisit some of the best, most intriguing and peculiar things we came across over the course of 2018. Enjoy.

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While the second phase of the Washington Gateway project in NoMa was originally intended as an office building, a modification filed this August put forth a markedly different vision: a 241-unit residential development with a "Trail Connection Lobby".

This 15-story building will take advantage of its placement where the Metropolitan Branch Trail intersects with Florida Avenue NE (map) by turning part of its double-height lobby into a publicly-accessible amenity, complete with bike ramps, trail and neighborhood maps, water fountains, WiFi, an emergency call box and a bike repair area. An elevator large enough for two bikes and a stair with four bike troughs will minimize the grade change for cyclists using the lobby as a shortcut.

Designed by SK&I Architecture, the trail lobby will be publicly-accessible from 6am-midnight every day. While work continues to improve the MBT in Northeast, delivery of this development from landowner WMATA and developer MRP Realty seems poised to be a game-changer for local cyclists and pedestrians.

UrbanTurf's 2018 in Review Articles: 

• The Year of the $40 Million Home
• The Best DC Legislation That Didn't Get Passed in 2018
• The Most Ambitious Transportation Plan Pitched in 2018
• The Best History of a House to Hit the Market in 2018: Where JFK Met Jackie
• The Best Listing of 2018 (For the Mere Mortal)
• The Most Peculiar Tool Used to Fight a New Development in 2018
• The Best Use of a Vacant Triangle
• The Most Impactful Legislation for DC Renters and Homeowners Passed in 2018
• The Best Listing of 2018 (For the Well Paid Lobbyist) 
• The Most Creative Responses to PUDs

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the-best-new-apartment-amenity-in-dc-the-trail-lobby/14786.