The Latest Renderings of the St. Thomas’ Parish Church Redevelopment

• September 11, 2014

by Lark Turner

The St. Thomas’ Parish Church redevelopment has gotten another overhaul.

The Logan Circle project to rebuild the church, most of which burned down in the ’70s, has inspired an effort by neighbors to preserve the building’s ruins — as well as the open space the church has provided to the public since the arson attack. In response to the community’s concerns, and an ANC that was unwilling to fully support the last plan the church floated, the design has been tweaked.

“We really cut down the massing closer to the Church Street townhouses, so now there’s a visual break above the existing parish hall,” said Nick Jessee of developer CAS Riegler. “We tried to make it much more of a standalone residential building and a standalone parish hall next to it.”

The changes to the residential portion of the project and the church design were submitted to the Historic Preservation Office separately over the past couple of months. The most recent submittal to HPO concerns significant changes to the church’s facade.

Cutting back the massing of the residential building above the parish hall resulted in some compromises, Jessee said.

“We did cut out some square footage as a result of losing a couple floors on the east side of the site,” he said. “I think we were saying 50-60 units before, now it’s closer to 50.”

The developers told the ANC that in response to community concerns, they would go back to the drawing board on the design. The development is scheduled to go before the Historic Preservation Review Board in the next few weeks.

Here’s a look at what the church and residences looked like in previous iterations:

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_latest_renderings_of_the_st._thomas_parish_church_redevelopment/8959