Letter
Dear Mr. Carr:
In its meeting of 17 November, the Commission of Fine Arts reviewed a final design submission for a new eight–story office building at 1700 New York Avenue, NW (case number SL 11-051), to be located on the undeveloped portion of the Corcoran Gallery of Art property. The Commission approved the final submission conditional upon the staff's review and approval of the final construction documents to address the following comments.
The Commission members noted the positive development of many details of the building's exterior systems but commented that the particular conditions of how the building meets its neighbors–the landmark Corcoran Gallery addition on the east and the United Unions building to the west–are not fully resolved. Overall, they expressed a continuing concern that the building appears excessively large for its site and suggested consideration of reducing the length of the building along New York Avenue. They also recommended refinement of the public space in the building yard along the street–including the treatment of the areaway and its railing, the extent of paving at the parking entrance, the use of lighting at the ground floor, and the design of the landscape–to relieve what appears to be an impenetrable quality of the architecture as it would be experienced by the pedestrian.
The Commission delegated final review of these issues to the staff in coordination with the ongoing review processes of the D.C. Historic Preservation Office and the D.C. Public Space Committee. As always, the staff is available to assist you.
Sincerely,
/s/Thomas E. Luebke, FAIA
Secretary
Robert Carr, Managing Partner
Carr Development
1776 Eye Street, NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20006
cc: Andrew Rollman, SmithGroupJJR
Lauren Garcia, Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design
David Maloney, D.C. Historic Preservation Office