2700 16th Street, NW
“Dear PoPville,
Do we know what’s going on with this building, on 16th St just south of Harvard? It’s been vacant for a while and just this past week I’ve started seeing some activity and trash removal from indoors.”
From the Historic Preservation Office
Landmarks, Italian Embassy, 2700 16th Street, NW:
“The project includes conversion of the mansion to apartments, construction of a three- story addition in the north side yard, and construction of an eight-story apartment building at the rear of the site.
You can read the full report here:
Italian Embassy Plans (PDF)
From Trout Design (renderings here too):
“IL PALAZZO, Washington, DC
The former Embassy of Italy is the crown of historic “Embassy Row” in the nations capitol, located 20 blocks north of the White House, at the precipice of Meridian Hill in the heart of Washington’s hottest renaissance neighborhood of Adams Morgan-Columbia Heights. The site is 4 blocks west of the new Columbia Heights Metro and directly on the main north-south bus and automobile transportation route in and out of the city, 16th Street, N.W.
The project we designed will fully restore the exterior of the historic landmark building and the main interior monumental rooms, we converted the remainder of the mansion into luxury apartments and created a new 8 storey , L shaped condominium tower in the northwest corner of the site with a 5 storey condominium element at the south west corner. This low tower creates a harmonious contextual relationship with the existing apartment buildings at the adjacent corners to the south and south west while complementing the existing historic landmark in scale, style and detail. A new low, 3 storey north wing was designed as a spare contemporary element with a custom glass and steel curtain wall framed by stucco and masonry massing that tie this element to the landmark across a new “streetscape” along the north side of the property via a new “glass bridge”. (more…)
