The V Street Super Pop Up Gets Painted

Anonymous

this is really unfortunate

graham

My guess is that it’s just a spray-on waterproofing and that it will be some other type of exterior system on top of the grey.

andy

Just put a red light behind the window up top and it will be the Hal 9000 building.

Anonymous

I can’t wait to see the inside pics of these places. It’s a super long building with small’ish windows only at each end. Totally depressing.

I’m also really interested in what the hell that porthole windows faces. Is that a sleeping loft above the balcony? Wtf?

Anonymous

Would somebody actually pat $600k+ to live in a THAT? That’s A LOT of stairs to climb …

Boris S. Wort

I’m trying to think of an uglier building in DC and just can’t.

andy

There will always be the Future Bacon Funeral Home.

Niko

DC’s solution to the Height Act apparently. Who need a 150ft building when you can have thousands of buildings at 50ft.

ET

Is that ground floor window angled???????? If so that is just weird and not weird in a good way.

At least now that it is finished it doesn’t look so precarious. I wonder what the construction guys were saying to each other when they worked on this.

And 4:10 pm Anonymous – definitely NOT!

14thandChapin

dang that looks terrible

Smilla

Still hate it.

Todd

Looks like a big middle finger telling all the other folks in the neighborhood to “go f*ck themselves.”

PicNic

I cannot believe this monstrosity got through the city. It giving the neighborhood the finger literally and metaphorically.

Anonymous

This monstrosity is why “by right” building needs to be removed from the books. No, we don’t need to make this a historic district and be saddled with all the onerous restrictions that come with that; however, we do need some sort of oversight as to how an area is developed. Can’t we find a middle ground between laissez-faire do-whatever-you-want-neighbors-be-damned “by right” development AND heavy-handed historical restrictions?

I’m all for increasing density, but not at the expense of terrible aesthetics. I live a block from this place and it’s a total eyesore. While the new condo building next door might be a bit boring, at least it blends cohesively with the other recent condo developments in this area.

Anonymous

SO AWFUL!!!

Art Vandalay

I sure hope this prompts the local community to seek historic designation for the area north of U street. I think this would not have happened if that existed. In the absence of that, there should be some sort of zoning to prevent buildings like this from being built that are so out of scale. It is just butt ugly. Hope we don’t get any more earthquakes…

Anonymous

Everyone hated the Eiffel Tower when it was first built… I kind of like seeing this odd house. It adds character to the neighborhood. Whats unattractive is the apartment/condo building to the left.

soozles

I just hope the wind doesn’t blow too hard or this thing is going OVERRRRRRRrrrrr…..!

brookland_rez

Still ugly.

Anonymous

I guess I’m in the minority here but I think it looks better painted. Still grossly out of place but somewhat better?

crin

This group has already established that that’s not a porthole. It’s a gloryhole.

AnonRant

Rant rant rant rant rant … so ugly … rant rant rant rant rant … height act … rant rant rant rant rant … wtf … rant rant rant rant rant …

Anonymous

Jesus.

Anonymous

@ Art Vandelay: as a current resident of north U Street, I can say that this area will never get a historic designation; that ship has already left the harbor. There’s too many modern buildings in the area – what’s left to preserve? That said, we really need some zoning restrictions so something like this doesn’t happen again.
I’m all for modern building and unique aesthetics (e.g. the house with cantilevers at 11th & W, modern townhouses on 10th between V and W, the Lacey at 11th & Florida), but there needs to be some element of planning and oversight. “By right” doesn’t cut it – we are depending on slipshod, profit-driven developers who don’t live in the neighborhood to actually exercise good taste. I doubt they’d want to see this across the street from their garish house in McLean or Potomac.

Anonymous

Seriously? That looks like complete shit… The owner of Diego must be in charge of this too.

Luke

Literally putting lipstick on the pig.

An Interesting Twist

The developer managed to get all information scrubbed about 1013 V Street NW from the city’s publicly viewable “Real Property Assessment Database”. All the surrounding neighbors’ information is in the database – transaction records, price, annual property taxes, etc.
How did he manage to get all records from 1013 V Street erased? Super fishy. His information was listed in there many months ago when we first started ranting about this property.

jim_ed

Eh, PIVS still lists the LLC for the property, which is registered to a house in Leesburg, which is owned by a couple who do real estate investments. Its not too hard to find.

Sully

These are the new spite houses of DC. Makes me dizzy looking at it.

Jake

While it’s undeniably ugly, there’s something appealing about it now that it nears completion. It seems silly, and playful in its disregard for convention. As if to say, “well, I’ve got a 15 foot wide lot, but I’m allowed to build up as high as I can, so why not go for it …”

Anonymous

It’s not the height that bothers me, it’s the ugliness.

Alan

Wow I’m all for development, but this is just wrong.

Anonymous

simply awful

Anonymous

I bet they only stopped at six floors, because with more than that, building code would likely require an elevator.

EM

and the developer of the condo next door might just have lost a few 100ks, as the probably nice views on one whole side of the building are now brick wall views.

andy2

The porthole makes no sense and is a bit small. I agree with 4:29 pm Anonymous it looks so much better in grey.

JS

No, they stopped at that height because it’s the max allowed by zoning without a variance.

h st ll

Ugly right now for sure. If it didn’t protrude further out it would be much better. Will be interesting to see what happens, how it looks, once it is finished.

BTW started a blog on Pop-Ups

TVC

And the windows…could they have gone with anything cheaper? Beyond the incomprehensible ugly factor… this building shouts how cheaply it is built by just looking at it….and frankly I wouldn’t want to be living on that top floor in a stiff breeze.

Finally, for everyone that see this as an interesting novelty… how many of you would like that novelty built right next to YOUR rowhouse that you spent upwards of 500K to purchase? I hope the owner also owns the adjacent houses otherwise, those poor devils just lost a hundred thousand dollars in equity. So deeply inconsiderate.

annonny

This building is seriously out of place, but I also kind of like it since I don’t live next door. Reminds me a bit of the towers of San Gimianio. http://www.margotsnow.com/assets/Farmhouse/san-gimignano.jpg

Boris S. Wort

Hahahaha, comparing this to the Eiffel Tower. That’s good one! Oh wait, you’re serious . . . .

Eheheh

Sometimes an architects plans/renderings look pretty decent on paper, but then the final structure does not live up to the vision. In this case, It looks like there were never any plans or renderings or an architect for that matter. I’d be interested in knowing more about who designed this thing. It had to be the developers cousin that is working on his 6-month drafting certificate. I’d be pissed if I owned a building next to this thing, not just because of the height, but because every about this place is wrong.

anon

you’d rather leave it white? this looks way better!

rockcreekrunner

am i the only one who thinks that ugly fake rock on all the other houses looks worse, especially the puke-green one on the left? plus, the other 4 houses can build up too right? what’s the big deal?

pqresident

this is not a judgment…it looks like one of those periscopes you can use to see above crowds.

Anonymous

Wayside Stories from the V Street Pop-Up

The story is…

It tuns out the owner of the V pop up house is divorced and his ex wife lives in the new condo to the right.. She would always call him and tell him how beautiful her top right side view was. This really got to Mr. pop up and he decided to build this monstrosity without windows ensuring her view would be just blue.

victoria

OOOh ! Delicious soap opera chatter! But seriously – do you think anyone is going to believe anything you say here?
zero_sum

Settle down, Francis.

cspk

I wish this was a joke. It’s butt ugly. Who approves these things?

ooh!

There are two kinds of people in this world.

Anonymous

Mark my words, this isn’t so bad. Some of the other units will also do something similar, but not exactly the same so the block will end up featuring a unique set of row houses.

DC20009

Anyone who buys real estate thinking the existing view will never change is setting thenselves up for disappointment. Once agin, it would be on the condo buyer to find out what heights are permitted in the area, and plan for change accordingly. With very few exceptions, no one’s view is garanteed.

Jeff G.

I’m in the minority but I think it looks better… not good, but better than it did.

All I can say is thank god they didn’t go with vinyl siding.

AW

We live next door and from my most recent conversation with the construction guys, it sounds like the back and sides will be the grey shown here. At one point in the past they were discussing stuccoing the cinderblock, but I think now all we’re getting is the lovely paint job you see here.. Apparently the front is going to be an even darker grey/black — they’re going for some sort of “modern” look. (Who’s definition of modern is anyone’s guess…)

I don’t even know why the bother priming the damn thing considering the grey isn’t much different from the original cinderblock color. Having watched them build this for the past six months, I wouldn’t go near it with a ten foot pole. This whole project has been two steps forward, 1.5 steps back. Constantly ripping walls open after they seemingly finish them, putting doors on and then ripping them off and replacing them, etc. Stairs aside, the top unit has a nice view… but considering how this taped together this thing is I’d never spend half a million+ on it…

zero_sum

Did the construction guys take you inside? How are the interiors coming along?

From the sidewalk, I’ve been able to peer inside. The apartments look ridiculously dark, considering that there’s no side windows. I imagine that all bedrooms and bathrooms will be windowless. Yes, there will be a lot of square footage in these places, but very little natural light.

ExWalbridgeGuy

I really think this analysis is flawed. The neighbors almost surely have the option to sell their homes for development into five and six-floor towers as well, and now that one house has already done it, I think it may actually be less hideous if its immediate neighbors did the same.

Anonymous

is that Wayside School is Falling Down? 😉

Anonymous

While it looks odd, I don’t hate it, and I’m actually very excited to see this row when all of the surrounding houses do that same thing. Just imagine a block of skinny, unique 5/6 story buildings… it could end up being one of the coolest looking blocks in the district

T Mosby

You mean Figuratively!!!

Anonymous

I may be in the minority of the peanut gallery here, but when I see it in person, i think it looks okay. It would be great if the neighbors sold and a developer was able to do the whole block at a similar height, but when I walk by this in person, it doesn’t offend me in the least.

Anonymous

Wow, that is disgusting.

zero_sum

“Hey neighbors, you should all change your way of life and develop your property so that it matches the monstrosity that we just built! I’ll give you the number of my architect, so it all looks similar!”

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

bb

You sunk my battleship!

Angry Parakeet

Or the front of a washing machine.

Anonymous

Within 5 years, when the owners of the neighboring houses will see how much value was added to this property they will do the same exact thing no matter what they say now (and who can blame them) and this will no longer standout.

Me

Well – I guess PoP better keep on going for the next 5 years so we can revisit this ….

Anonymous

I kind of think the other houses look out of place now. Why are they so short?

Curious

Someone has GOT to continue this series by interviewing the buyers. I truly want to understand the person that purchases one of these… Madness.

ExWalbridgeGuy

My comments are not threading correctly for some reason so it’s not clear who I was responding to above. I agree it’s ugly but I’m objecting to the notion that this is a tortious structure that will decrease the property value for the neighboring homeowners.

Anonymous

Libertarian who’d happily do what they’re suggesting but would never live their. The “value” will be that the surrounding properties will be more difficult to sell.

Francis

It looks a lot like an xbox 360 turned on it’s side. Terrible.

VA

I was so depressed when I saw this. How can this be legal? It ruins the entire block.

Jessica

I like it, and I like that it’s different. I don’t know why people are so afraid of modern, residential architecture. This is so refreshing compared to the ugly, cookie-cutter Ryan homes that have popped up in my neighborhood.

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