PriceSpotter: Price Reveal – Ex Vice-Presidential Palace

Your weekly chance to take a stab at real estate appraisal.

Well the results are in for the nice little 8 bedroom, 6.5 bath from NW DC… and the listed price for this old stomping ground of old vice presidents….   $4,495,000 well done with the guesses!

Lionsgate Bethesda

Situated on the corner of Old Georgetown Rd & Woodmont Ave and still under construction the Lionsgate Condos sit in wait.

Since the market slow down, the builders have slowed the pace of the build-out in order to save on costs. This slowing down of construction is becoming a prevalent method builders are employing to stretch out when new buildings come to market.

It is understandable that builders with multiple new properties in an area would want to delay bringing properties to market, however this practice leaves those who bought into developments early in the lurch. The other method some area condos are using is converting the unsold units to rentals until the market bounces back. Has anyone noticed other developments in the area who are using the “slowdown” or ”apartment conversion” technique? 

If you’re into that type of thing, a construction photo from Monday right after the jump…

The Willard

Built in 1903 The Willard InterContinental Hotel right along Pennsylvania Ave has hosted everything from  Inaugural Balls to Heads of State. But more importantly, the Mint Julep is thought to have been invented at the hotel’s Bar.

It was one of the most prestigious hotels in Washington during the first part of the 20th century, however it fell on hard times after World War II and was eventually shuttered. In danger of demolition, the hotel was extensively renovated and enlarged by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates from 1979-1986 adding the InterContinental to its name.

With views of the White House, Washington Monument, and Capital it is situated at the cross roads of our Nations Capital. Which is probably why plans for Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nations took shape when he held meetings in the hotel’s lobby in 1916. We guess they had to meet in the lobby because even back then they couldn’t afford the high conference meeting room rates. Calvin Coolidge lived at the hotel for a month in 1923 while Warren G. Harding’s widow vacated the White House.

Famous “for DC” Homes

Most people only think of an airport when they hear Dulles, but the airport was of course named for a man, and that man was John Foster Dulles the Secretary of State under Eisenhower. Dulles spent most of his years in DC living in NW DC on Dumbarton Ave. It’s a very nice looking house, and with a two car garage, its much nicer than where our current Secretary of State lives.

 

Dulles wasn’t the only famous for DC person to live in the house… after the jump a White House connection and a little more history on Dulles…

PriceSpotter: Vice-Presidential Palace

Your weekly chance to take a stab at real estate appraisal. Submit your guesses in the comments and closest guess gets the pricespotter crown for the week.

This nice little house built in 1931 and recently restored is located in the WESLEY HEIGHTS neighborhood. The 8 bedroom, 6 and a half bathroom has apparently been home to a past vice president. The Big Reveal and bragging rights for the closest guess will be this Friday afternoon.

Another Picture and more details after the jump…

Newseum Condos

Well as the “New” Newseum puts up the finishing touches, an interesting element of the building is fully taking shape. Namely, the addition of Condos slapped on the back of the building. This mixed use helped off set the cost of the building which is on some major prime real estate right across from the National Art Gallery and does look slightly out of place from the surrounding government buildings (Though it matches the new museum perfectly). 

The option for mixed use is not explored often enough to help make the best use of areas and in some cases allow valuable buildings, which benefit the public, to be built in areas they otherwise might not have been. Plus bringing more residences to that area of town will help round out the mix which currently is pretty dead at night once all the tourists have gone home!

Green Architecture: Green Roof

In the first of a series of posts highlighting how green architecture is being incorporated into Washington Area buildings we take a look at the “Green Roof”

Last year the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) replaced the conventional roof on its downtown Washington, DC headquarters with a green roof. Even more interesting is that in addition to the roof, they installed equipment to monitor the benefits of the roof and after a year of monitoring, the results are in!

The new green roof was found to have retained thousands of gallons of stormwater, reduced building energy costs by hundreds of dollars a month, and lowered outdoor air temperatures. These striking results extend the benefits to the entire area and shows other area companies that installing green architectural elements is not only environmentally friendly, but cost friendly as well.

More details on the ASLA report, how to get a tour of the project, and one more picture after the jump…

Dupont Lights

 

The Dupont Circle underpass construction is nearing completion. The underpass, which moves traffic under the circle instead of through it, helps create a town gathering place of Dupont without being bisected by traffic. Beautifully pictured here at night pre-construction, the way the street lights are exposed makes it look like a group of low lying stars have descended on the circle. Very Nice. 

[Photo: Andresincollege]

The Bright Lights of Bethesda

It’s great to see the preservation of existing architecture when new developments come along and the Bethesda Theater conversion to condos is a good example of the preservation of previous architecture.

It really does add something to down town Bethesda to have the blue neon sign as part of the street scape. The development did maintain a performance space in the original building but so far the space hasn’t gotten much use.

This great picture at right shows great contrast and how sometimes, a little neon can be a good thing!

NE Capital Markets New Plans

The Capital City Market in North East is in for some major changes after over 80 years as one of the areas only whole sale markets.

In its place on the 24 acres site will be a new billion dollar redevelopment of the area called New Town.

It is interesting and a little sad to see the displacement of these historic sites, however the facilities have never been able to keep up with the new standards in market storage and shipping that is vital to keeping a modern market up and running. Interestingly enough, 80 years ago the market moved to it’s current location to make way for development from what bacame the down town area of the golden triangle.

Though a plan already was approved by the city council, one important element of responsible growth that would be nice to see in the plans would be developing space for some of the current vendors in remain in the area. It’s thoughtful and responsible conditions like that that help areas retain the people that helped create it, and is something we wish was part of more of the developments in the area!