Oct 7, 2013, 11:24am EDT
Michael Neibauer, Staff Reporter- Washington Business Journal
The
team behind the planned redevelopment of D.C.’s 25-acre McMillan Sand
Filtration Plant has released a revised set of blueprints for the controversial
Northwest Washington project.
The
redesign was submitted to the Historic Preservation Review Board late last
month, ahead of the scheduled Oct. 24 HPRB meeting. The last time the HPRB met
on the Vision McMillan Partners’ plan, members were not blown away, nor did
they write it off. It’s a process.
The
changes are technical, but noticeable. The building and street layouts have
been revised, setbacks increased, and designs refined “to shape a more cohesive
set of new buildings.”
VMP
consists of EYA, Jair Lynch Development Partners, Trammell Crow Company, WDG
Architecture, Shalom Baranes Associates and Lessard Design.
The
overall McMillan setup is comprised of three-prongs — VMP calls it the
“tripartite organization" — with the park and community center farthest
south, the multi-family and town homes in the center and medical office
buildings to the north.
The
decommissioned water treatment plant, bounded by Michigan Avenue, North
Capitol, Channing and First Streets, was designated a historic landmark in the
early 1990s. Plans for its redevelopment have run into some fierce, vocal
community opposition, led by Friends of McMillan Park, which hopes to preserve
most of the site as park lands.
The
Friends group has deemed VMP’s plan “destruction” of the area. Many others in
the community want the project to move forward now. Those two positions are on
display on the Bloomingdale neighborhood blog. The VMP website provides a
useful FAQ on the project, as well as the full HPRB submission.
And
check out some of the images from the revised VMP plan above.
1 comment:
Refined? This is the worst version yet. It just gets worse and worse. Let's have a real open solicitation and get someone with some better ideas. It's a waste of time with VMG. We want to see something on this land, but not this!
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