Looks Like One Old Wall Will Remain at new Condos Coming to 460 New York Ave, NW

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by Prince Of Petworth January 7, 2014 at 4:00 pm 15 Comments

pre_demo_460_new_york_ave
Pre-demo – 460 New York Avenue, NW

Last month a reader wondered about the demo of the old warehouse at 5th and New York Ave, NW. Looks like one wall will remain:

Why it is worth keeping one wall remains unclear…

More photos after the jump.

Anonymous

What’s the point of keeping one crappy facade? Some sort of tax abatement for preservation?
- Ben
  
  Crazy kids and their zoning laws!
Anonymous

Those aren’t ‘new’ condos, but just a ‘renovation’ of the old warehouse. If they removed that wall they’d probably run afoul of setback restrictions.
- Prince Of Petworth
  
  Despite your flair for semantics – I’m gonna go ahead and continue to call these new condos.
- Anonymous
  
  Yessir. There’s definitely a reason they are spending a lot of money to hold up that one wall. I don’t know what it is exactly (set back requirements sounds logical), but it’s definitely there.
- Anonymous
  
  I’d hate to be the guy whose newly “renovated” apartment faced the historic wall!
Kcr

The plan for this project was to have the above ground brick structure house the parking garage component of the building (with one of those NYC style car elevators inside). The condos will be built on top of this, so there won’t be someone facing the wall. Of course it was also my understanding that the whole warehouse structure was going to be preserved (seemed dumb to keep it all, seems dumber to keep just one wall).
Anonymous

Anyone know if the new building will cover up the balconies of the building next door?
- annonny
  
  From the mock-ups on the banners, it appears so. Too bad for the folks with balconies. Wonder what they’ll do with that blocked-in space?
  - Anonymous
    
    I just talked to management in the building with the balconies and they said they’ll be covered so they’re turning them into breakfast nooks.
annonny

The elevation drawings on the website seem to show the red brick walls remaining. Perhaps the developer had to take down the north and south walls to make the new construction work? Maybe they’ll be rebuilding the “historic” walls with the old bricks.
Historic Preservation Board wrong again

I really wish the triangle had been allowed to develop as Mayor Williams original vision was with no historic preservation rules.

This building was considered historic by one staffer and they forced the “preservation” of this warehouse. And what an absolute farce its turning into.

This lot and the one next to it that is already developed where owned by two brothers. They could not agree on a price to make it one lot which is why you have two lots. The bigger development seems to have gambled that no one had enough money to develop the smaller lot and created those balconies.
- crin
  
  You’re wrong. This building is not in a historic district. This building is not a designated landmark. This building is not subject to the historic preservation law. This building did not require review by HPRB. This building did not get reviewed by HPRB. Here, look for yourself: http://propertyquest.dc.gov.
  
  The old warehouse was built before current zoning regs and occupied 100% of the lot. If they had razed the building completely the current zoning would apply and limit the new building to 80% lot coverage. By keeping the wall, they are “renovating” the old building and their 100% lot coverage allowance is grandfathered in. By keeping that wall, their project is 20% bigger.
  
  You can call it a zoning loophole if you want, but it has nothing to do with historic preservation.
  - Historic Preservation Board wrong again
    
    Its marked as an historic building. Read:
    
    http://www.mvtriangleblog.com/?p=2660
    and
    http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/01/04/199534/bringing-balance-to-historic-preservation/
    
    The information in the site you mentioned does not seem to be comprehensive.
Matt

OOOh wow. What a wall it is!

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