Park View, D.C.

Residents on and near the 700 b/o Newton Place will surely have noticed the advent of two cranes near the intersection of Georgia Avenue. The cranes are needed to continue construction of The Avenue project and will be on site for roughly 90 days. During this time the building will rise quickly and top out.

The primary crane is currently in place and without swing (counter weights). It is also without the main boom and luffing gib which will be assembled when the weather permits. It had originally been scheduled for yesterday but the rain didn’t cooperate.

The crane is needed to set the precast upper floor planks in place, which will also begin to be delivered soon.

It’s been a couple weeks since my last update on The Avenue project (Park Morton, phase I). So, below is a recent photo showing the development’s progress. I looks like foundation work is getting along well and I wouldn’t be surprised to start seeing construction above grade in the next month or so. The development is located at the southwest corner of Newton and Georgia Avenue and began in earnest in April of this year.

Landex Corporation’s The Avenue

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve posted a progress shot of The Avenue project (Park Morton, phase one). So, below are some recent images showing the progress of the development’s foundation work. The Avenue is location on the southwest corner of Georgia Avenue and Newton Place. Demolition for the project began in April of this year.

View over site from the northeast

View of the site from the southeast

As you can see by the image below, excavation of the site on the southwest corner of Newton and Georgia Avenue is mostly done. It also looks like they’ve started to pour some footings.

To round out the week I thought I’d show some images of the progress that’s been made on The Avenue, the first phase of a redeveloped Park Morton.

Rendering of The Avenue by Wiencek & Associates primarily showing the Georgia Avenue façade

When large-scale demolition began on April 7, 2011, to make way for the first phase of Park Morton’s The Avenue, the project moved from concept to reality. Those most directly impacted by both the immediate construction and future seven-story, 83-unit apartment building will be the residents of the 700 block of Newton Place.

As described by the developers – Landex Corp. – at the November 2010 ANC 1A meeting, the development located on the southwest corner of Georgia Avenue and Newton Place is to be the first of four phases in the eventual replacement of Park Morton. As each phase is built out residents will move in, emptying the current Park Morton buildings so that they can be razed and redeveloped in turn.

To help the project blend in to the existing neighborhood, the western most section of the Newton Place façade will include exterior entrances, bay windows, and brick facing on the lower five floors

To mitigate the size and scale of the project, the developers have used a variety of techniques to make the building seem smaller than it is along the Newton streetscape. The first thing they will do is face the western half of the first five floors in brick while a different facing material will be used for the rest of the façade. Brick will also be used for portions of the Georgia Avenue façade. The use of brick is intended to do two things. First, it is to harmonize better with the neighboring residential rowhouses. Second, it is intended to trick the mind into thinking that this area consists of three rowhouses by limiting the brick to the first five floors which mentally brings the height of the building down from seven stories.

Above the brick facing on Newton Place, floors six and seven will also have a setback of nearly five feet. Both the setback and change in material is intended to make the building appear to be smaller. While there is no denying that The Avenue will tower over most of the buildings surrounding it, a sensitive choice of materials and scale should keep this development from overwhelming the neighborhood.

(Note: Images courtesy of Wiencek & Associates’ Web site.)