Rendering for Central Union Mission Building at 14th and R St, NW; Scheduled for a 2014 Delivery

by Prince Of Petworth — December 6, 2012 at 4:00 pm 44 Comments

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:

j

Looks like ZipCar is going to lose their parking lot?
- Anonymous
  
  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.
- Colin
  
  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
Anonymous

I bet there is a plan to relocate some of these to the garage level. Not sure though.
- bgluckman
  
  Yes, ZipCar is in talks to put at least a few cars in the new property’s garage.
LoganGuy

Any idea about # of parking spaces?
Anony

Yay! More trees. Sections of 14th Street could use a little greening.
Myopic little twit

It’d be kinda weird to buy a condo that used to be a homeless shelter.. no?
- Anonymous
  
  doesn’t seem so weird.
  
  Anyone know what the building was before it was a homeless shelter?
  - Identified
    
    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.
  - bgluckman
    
    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.
    - Anonymous
      
      Interesting that I bought a VW on Wisconsin Avenue in DC just last year.
      - _
        
        Uhhh Marten’s is in Bethesda (MD)
      - j
        
        Yes, there is in fact a VW dealership on Wisconsin in Tenleytown.
      - pdmtp
        
        Yeah, that Volvo dealer is going to be bummed to find out it doesn’t exist too.
    - Kent
      
      The building was originally a Studebaker showroom.
- zero_sum
  
  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”
Anonymous

Best acronym
- Anonymous
  
  Back in the ’80s when this place had a row of hookers in front of it, the double entendre was just too heavy-handed.
  - loganguydc
    
    some of the hookers were heavy-handed also. Agree that the acronym has provided years of jokes, though.
Anonymous

Awesome.
bruno

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 :^)
- Prince Of Petworth
  
  https://www.popville.com/2010/10/michael-on-finding-his-heritage-by-danny-harris/
  - bruno
    
    Wow, thanks POP. Had not seen this before. Michael is in fact from Canada, it turns out.
- hiphopanonymous
  
  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.
Anonymous

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.
- Anonymous
  
  oh, please. you’d kill to live there if you could afford it.
  - Anonymous
    
    +100
  - Marq
    
    +100
  - Anonymous
    
    Not me! That block is terrible.
    - Anonymous
      
      +1 These other people clearly have not spent much time on that block.
      - Marq
        
        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.
  - Anonymous
    
    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.
    - textdoc
      
      This is on the other side of 14th, though.
reality check

Looks a million-trillion times better
figby

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.
- RozCat
  
  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.
  - figby
    
    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.
- D
  
  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.
- Anonymous
  
  Figby — Why didnt you buy it and turn it into something else then?
Nick the Greek

There have been so many ‘coming soon’ announcements for this property that I will believe it when I see it.
- Anonymous
  
  What were the others?
koko

Gosh, more construction!!
Anonymous

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).

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