Atlantic Plumbing site breeds grittiness, controversy

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The AtlanticPlumbing site, which is being redeveloped by JBG and NewYork architect Morris Adjmi, currently stands as a fairly dilapidated set of abandoned buildings surrounded by residential pockets and, ofcourse, the 9:30 Club. But the developers expect to begin demolitionand have prepared concept-designs later this summer and to have finished the developmentcompletely by early 2015, according to the project manager, JBG's James Nozar.

Thearea is split into three parcels, not-so-confusingly denoted as A, B and C.Parcel C is north of Florida, include a “burned out shell of a church, awarehouse and a parking lot,” but this site is on hold at the moment.

Parcel A is nextto the 9:30 Club, on the northwest corner of 8th and V streets. It’s abandoned save for the small bit the 9:30 Club uses as storage. The inconspicuous collection of buildings will be replaced by a 10-storybuilding, and will be the first to start construction.

Parcel B is to the south and is essentially a 13,000 s.f. square (redundant as a squarefoot square is). A 6-story building - shorter because it falls within the arts overlay while Parcel A does not - is slated to pop up here.

The site wasoriginally subject to a PUD obtained by Broadway Development in a joint venture with Walton Street Capital. JBG bought the property at auction, though Walton Street Capital remains a joint venture partner.  The PUD has since expired.Nozar expects the new development to span 350,000 s.f. and include 350 units over a floor ortwo of 5,000 to 15,000 s.f. of retail and for Parcels A and B to be underconstruction by next spring or summer.

“Our plan is togo in under the current zoning and move forward with that without asking forany zoning release,” Nozar said. He hopes the newretail will feed off the existing retail, especially the large crowds drawnalmost nightly by the 9:30 Club’s concerts.

“We really wantto engage existing retail that’s there,” Nozar said. “We want to take advantageof the activity that’s there on the street. The 9:30 Club is always going to bethere. There’s always going to be people on the street.”

With the purpose of having the site retain a “grittier, more arts and cultural oriented” feel,JBG hired New Orleans native Morris Adjmi as its architect based on designs the development team had seen in Brooklyn (see photos above). With Adjmi, JBG felt it could create contemporary design while being true to the neighborhood.

“We thought thearea has a grittier, edgier feel. It kind of has a Brooklyn kind of vibe, atleast as far D.C. has that,” Nozar said. “We want the building to feel like its alwaysbeen part of the neighborhood."  Adjmi said hewants to draw on the “context of what is there now: a mix of industrial formsand … vines and plants overtaking some of the buildings.”

“I like thisidea of mixing in the industrial landscape and combining that with some reallynatural green elements,” Adjmi said. “I think those together will fit into thesite and be really interesting architecturally.”

Adjmi has aninterest not just in making the buildings seem like they’ve always belonged, but in making them seem like they’ve always been there.

 “I grew up inNew Orleans, and I was always fascinated by two things: the incrediblearchitecture but the fact that that architecture almost looks better in itsarrested and decaying state,” he said. “It’s possible to build architecturethat relates to both history and the context of the place but transcends thesimple mimicking of forms.”


Presumablyreferring to a Washington City Paper article,Nozar said JBG has “gotten some flak from reporters from bringing in architectswho aren’t in D.C., but we did that on purpose.” Lydia Depillis of the CityPaper, in an update on that post, calls the headline “a mildly sarcasticindignation over a New York architect coming to Washington,” but many of thecommenters seem earnestly peeved about the out-of-towner. 


Adjmi said he has no intentions of making the building look like a "New York Building." “I don’twant this building to look like it flew in from New York. I want it to looklike it belongs there,” he said. “Nobody’s going to know where I’m from whenthey see the buildings.” 

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