Lisa WiseFriday, March 14, 2014 7:42:00 AM
I'm the owner of the building and happy to offer a few updates on what is coming to the space. We'll be opening offices there for a small DC company. We have a young, friendly, urban staff who love and live in the area or in nearby neighborhoods. We promise to be good neighbors and we're VERY committed to the community. I apologize for not openly sharing our name (since we haven't yet coordinated our move and announced that we're moving and because our timeline is still dependent upon when work to the building is done and the permitting timeline - we won't very openly share our name yet).
Sorry there won't be a wine bar (we would love one too) but we have additional exterior plans for the building to add even more visual appeal including new windows on the main floor, and glass/wood exterior door, new fencing, iron work and permanent landscaping on the south side of the building, planters to the west and new lighting. It will also be ADA accessible through a new rear entrance and ramp that is going in the back (even though we don't serve the public). Before the exterior stucco was done, the building was waterproofed and re-pointed where the severe cracking happened. We are certainly bummed to hear that some folks think it's hideous. But we're gonna try not to take it personally. To reply to some of the comments here - the building was structurally assessed by several engineers. It has been badly abused over the last century and we're doing all we can and spending all we can afford to preserve it. The exterior brick was NOT salvagable and our only option was to work with stucco to give the exterior a much needed facelift. The interior work and remainder of the exterior work will be done over the summer once the remaining permits are done and then we hope to enjoy being everyone's neighbor! When we're open, we'll be having an open house to invite folks to see what we did. We do hope to be value add!
Sorry there won't be a wine bar (we would love one too) but we have additional exterior plans for the building to add even more visual appeal including new windows on the main floor, and glass/wood exterior door, new fencing, iron work and permanent landscaping on the south side of the building, planters to the west and new lighting. It will also be ADA accessible through a new rear entrance and ramp that is going in the back (even though we don't serve the public). Before the exterior stucco was done, the building was waterproofed and re-pointed where the severe cracking happened. We are certainly bummed to hear that some folks think it's hideous. But we're gonna try not to take it personally. To reply to some of the comments here - the building was structurally assessed by several engineers. It has been badly abused over the last century and we're doing all we can and spending all we can afford to preserve it. The exterior brick was NOT salvagable and our only option was to work with stucco to give the exterior a much needed facelift. The interior work and remainder of the exterior work will be done over the summer once the remaining permits are done and then we hope to enjoy being everyone's neighbor! When we're open, we'll be having an open house to invite folks to see what we did. We do hope to be value add!
