5 Of The Best-Designed Projects In The DC Pipeline

The cherry blossoms have sprung, so it’s hard for any of DC’s palatial buildings not to look magical this time of year. Still, the area has some fascinating structures and renovations on tap. Here are five of the projects we're looking forward to the most.

Planned Washington Football Stadium

Where: DC Metropolitan Area - TBA
Who: Bjarke Ingels Group/BuroHappold Engineering
Size: 1.4M SF

The days of watching a Washington Redskins home game at FedEx Field in Landover, MD, are numbered. Owner Dan Snyder made an important recruit last year when commissioning Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group to design a brand-new stadium that will accommodate roughly 100,000 attendees. The traditional football field will sit below a modernized space for football fans—a drive-in grassy, stepped amphitheater, so the design of the stadium is just as much about the spectator experience as it is about the players on the field.

Appropriately, one of the Redskin colors, golden mesh, will encase the stadium and parking areas. The space not designated for the stadium is for a Redskins Museum, a public park, a concert venue and more for the offseason. We should see visible progress soon, as the team’s current lease at FedEx Field is up in 2027.

John and Jill Ker Conway Residences

Where: 1005 North Capitol St NE
Who: Sorg Architects
Size: 124 units

A mixed-use residential community in the heart of NoMa, this 14-story project not only boasts a unique design that maximizes its views of the Capitol on one side and monuments on the other, but it also provides a solution for an important local population in need: DC’s homeless and low-income veterans. The upper 12 floors will serve as micro studio rentals—ranging in from 330 to 405 SF. The plan is for 60 of the units to serve as permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless veterans, and the remaining will be affordable rentals for low-income veterans.

There will also be on-site behavioral, medical and social services for tenants. The first two floors of the building are for offices, a fitness center, a conference center and ground-floor retail. The project should be complete this year.

American Geophysical Union's HQ

Where: 2000 Florida Ave NW
Who: Hickok Cole Architects
Size: 62k SF

Since 1994, the AGU Headquarters building in Dupont Circle has been symbolic. An incredibly energy-efficient structure, its architecture was consistent with a significant part of the AGU mission: the ongoing search for a better environment and more sustainable future. Following a study in 2013 that showed the 62k SF, five-story, 20-year-old building was in need of repairs and upgrades to existing systems, the union's board is considering a renovation.

The renovation, as proposed and designed by Hickok Cole, would include innovative engineering, architecture and construction to strive for a net zero footprint through energy, water and waste reductions—perhaps even returning energy to the grid. If all goes as planned, the project will be approved in the fall of this year and the 18-month project should break ground in early 2017.

DC Water's HQ

Where: O Street SE, Navy Yard
Who: SmithGroupJJR
Size: 151k SF

The Navy Yard (now the Capitol Riverfront) has had one of the biggest neighborhood transformations the District has seen over the past decade. With the 2008 opening of Nationals Park came even more transformation, and today, DC Water is just one group building their headquarters in the sprouting Southeast community.

The six-story Class-A, LEED Platinum building will house 350 of DC Water’s employees along the waterfront of the Anacostia River. The shiny new campus will surround an existing sewage pump station, so on top of improving the environment by using technologies to reuse and conserve water, the glass structure will also bring aesthetic value to the area. Construction is underway and should be complete in 2018.

Wardman Tower's Transformation

Where: 2818 Connecticut Ave NW
Who: Deborah Berke Partners interior/ACG Architects exterior
Size: 128k SF

Since it was built in 1928, Wardman Tower has always brought a certain panache to Woodley Park. The former ritzy apartment complex with its accompanying hotel for VIP guests was built by Harry Wardman, one of DC’s biggest developers of the time, and has boasted famous residents like presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson and Herbert Hoover. Now, the building is undergoing renovations, the interior design by Deborah Berke Partners, who based its part of the project on “how we live today,” as senior principal Stephen Brockman told Bisnow, with more practical room sizes, etc.

While the Marriott kept the first two floors of the tower, Deborah Berke is converting the third through eighth floors into 32 luxury condos. Wardman Tower remains cruciform in shape, and renovations ensure that residents will have fabulous views that the buildings unique "X" shape provides. While the third through six floors will each contain six units, the top two floors will each only have four. The units range from 2,541 SF to 4,4648 SF, and will sell for between $2M and $9M. 24/7 concierge services and amenities to boot are also guaranteed. You can expect to see this project complete by this fall.