Other
Sweet Cat (Stray) in Bloomingdale
Top Stories
Scuttlebutt: Former Cajun Experience Restaurant to Become a New Restaurant from Jackie Greenbaum? Vendetta Bocce Bar and Italian Restaurant Opens Tues. on H Street, NE New Outdoor Tavern with Food Trucks Coming to 3rd and L St, NENeighborhoods
Adams MorganCapitol HillColumbia HeightsH St. NELogan Circle16th St. heightsAU ParkAlexandriaAnacostiaBarnaby WoodsBethesdaBloomingdaleBrentwoodBrightwoodBrooklandCarver/LangstonCathedral HeightsChevy ChaseCleveland ParkCrestwoodDowntownDupont CircleEckingtonEdgewoodFoggy BottomForest HillsFriendship HeightsFt. LincolnFt. TottenGeorgetownGlover ParkHill EastHillcrestIvy CityKaloramaKingman ParkLamond-RiggsLangdonLanier HeightsLedroit ParkMDMt. PleasantMt. Vernon SquareNavy YardNoMaPalisadesPark ViewPenn Quarter/ChinatownPetworthPleasant PlainsRosedaleSW WaterfrontShawShepherd ParkSilver SpringSpring ValleyTakomaTakoma ParkTenleytownTrinidadTruxton CircleU StreetVAVan NessWesley HeightsWest EndWoodland-NormanstoneWoodley ParkWoodridge
See MoreRecent Forum Posts
Recent Classifieds
Rendering for Central Union Mission Building at 14th and R St, NW; Scheduled for a 2014 Delivery
14th and R St, NW
More exciting development news for Logan Circle. I just noticed a rendering for the planned development coming to the Central Union Mission building at 1350 R St, NW. [Central Union Mission is moving to the old Gales School at 65 Massachusetts Avenue, NW.] The banner says the property will be delivered Q2 2014:
Here’s how it currently looks:
Category: Buildings, Development, Logan Circle, Top Stories
Blog Categories
Most Commented This Week
68
COMMENTS
PoPville Photo Archives Caption Contest
14 May 2013 12:00 PM
57
COMMENTS
The Great Trash Can War of 2013
14 May 2013 10:08 AM
55
COMMENTS
MPD Reports Cyclist Killed at 11th and U St, NW on Thursday
19 May 2013 4:27 PM
54
COMMENTS
49
COMMENTS
Dysfunction Junction Vol. 6: Wisconsin and M Street, NW
15 May 2013 9:29 AM
Upcoming Events
Recent Comments
DF
3:03am
One of the best parts about living up in Takoma was easy access to Quarry House. If this... 
1:41am
Owner of Sidebar - one of the best cocktails around. Owner of Quarry House - one of the...
11:49pm
LOL.
It's actually booby-trapped to be anti-kid.
11:29pm
Anons @1:40pm - Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I especially
love where you said "Yet...
Enos
11:12pm
Jessica is right on. The new valet situation has made T street much more passable. I...
Looks like ZipCar is going to lose their parking lot?
Not sure if the work on this project will impact the parking lot or not?
The zip car lot is to be developed as part of a seperate adjoining development.
Here is the latest info I could find on that parking lot:
http://dcmud.blogspot.com/2012/08/vacant-lot-in-14th-street-corridor-to.html
I bet there is a plan to relocate some of these to the garage level. Not sure though.
Yes, ZipCar is in talks to put at least a few cars in the new property’s garage.
Any idea about # of parking spaces?
Yay! More trees. Sections of 14th Street could use a little greening.
It’d be kinda weird to buy a condo that used to be a homeless shelter.. no?
doesn’t seem so weird.
Anyone know what the building was before it was a homeless shelter?
the 14th street location had been the shelter and admin offices since 1986 … so nope, I don’t know what it was prior to that.
Like Room & Board up the street, it was originally built as a car dealer in the ’20s. I’m not sure of the brand; I believe Oakland/Pontiac was in the R&B space. Through the 60s, 14th Street was home to many dealers, including where Miss Pixies is now and additional showrooms at 14th and P that disappeared a fairly long time ago.
As brands like Hudson and Studebaker disappeared over the years, and the inner city rotted post riots, most of the DC dealers closed up, starting with these.
When I was working on the FIAT relaunch in the US, we actually recommended 14th Street as a place where it would be great to place a satellite showroom (especially since the brand wanted to encourage in-town stores), but obviously, no local dealer body was wanting to set up show in what is essentially a different state. DC was basically without a dealer from the mid-90s when Passport Nissan closed its Rhode Island Avenue location until two years ago, when the Tesla showroom opened.
Interesting that I bought a VW on Wisconsin Avenue in DC just last year.
Uhhh Marten’s is in Bethesda (MD)
Yes, there is in fact a VW dealership on Wisconsin in Tenleytown.
Yeah, that Volvo dealer is going to be bummed to find out it doesn’t exist too.
The building was originally a Studebaker showroom.
Is it actually going to be condos? Or just retail space?
If condos, I really hope they call it something edgy like “The Mission” or perhaps “The Derelictè”
Best acronym
Back in the ’80s when this place had a row of hookers in front of it, the double entendre was just too heavy-handed.
some of the hookers were heavy-handed also. Agree that the acronym has provided years of jokes, though.
Awesome.
If you remember Michael, the homeless guy that used to camp there (slept on a sleeping bag), I have kept in touch with him…. he is now back home with his family. Quite a saga :^)
http://www.popville.com/2010/10/michael-on-finding-his-heritage-by-danny-harris/
Wow, thanks POP. Had not seen this before. Michael is in fact from Canada, it turns out.
I’m glad to hear that Michael’s back home but I will miss his presence there. On my way back from Whole Foods on a really hot day, I stopped and gave him a popsicle. Every time after that he would jokingly ask me if I was going to get popsicles. I also know a bit more about his story and what he was doing on the corner.
As someone with close ties to the Mission, this makes me sad. The new building is much smaller and, to the best of my knowledge not all of the services will fit.
I would not want to live there…..not because it was a homeless shelter, but because it is too close to the high-crime block on R Street between 14th and 15th.
oh, please. you’d kill to live there if you could afford it.
+100
+100
Not me! That block is terrible.
+1 These other people clearly have not spent much time on that block.
I have spent plenty of time in the area and believe that buying in this area is a good investment. With the massive amount of development going on 14 st, it’s only a matter of time before all (or most) of the subsidize housing in this area (especially on R st) become market rate apts or condos. The apts on R st are actually decent looking from the outside.
Uhmm, I had a friend that lived on R between 14th and 15th – and based upon their stories of interaction with the neighbors – you could not pay me to live there.
This is on the other side of 14th, though.
Looks a million-trillion times better
Awesome. More bland corporate development, just like all the crappy and weirdly identical commercial development all around 14th Street and beyond. The visual uniformity will be quite jarring in about four years.
How can uniformity be jarring? Won’t it be more cohesive, like say a block of identically styled row houses?
To my amateur eyes, the urban architecture of today–glass, space, openness, greenery, graceful limited ornamentation— seems so much better than almost every thing built between say 1955-1995.
It will be jarring when we realize that in our zeal to get something, anything, just something better into formerly blighted urban spaces that we settled for less than we deserve. Edgy-suburban to match all the condos going on. Soon enough it will look like a planned community.
Nice response, Roz. I largely agree. Figby, this is mostly adaptive reuse of the existing buildings. I can see how new glass boxes or new faux urban stuff might irk you, but that’s not what’s going on here.
Figby — Why didnt you buy it and turn it into something else then?
There have been so many ‘coming soon’ announcements for this property that I will believe it when I see it.
What were the others?
Gosh, more construction!!
The 1400 block of R Street and the 1400 block of W Street have major issues with loitering and drug dealing. It isn’t necesarily the residents of the block, but their friends, unfortunately, or who they choose to hang out with. Need to do something about loitering laws in DC to fix the issue (ie., groups hanging out on the block at 4 a.m. really means trouble).