Old DC Convention Center Site

[tombarnes]

Old DC Convention Center Site- Hotel or New Library?

It looks as though Mayor Fenty has answered this question with his stamp of approval for a plan which would bring a 400 room hotel and retail space to this important downtown parcel. While the market could easily absorb 400 new hotel rooms at this time, I'm not sure about the long-term need for this. It could be said, however, that building another hotel here would make a lot of sense- it's right across the street from the new convention center. As for the burning question of the fate of the M.L.K. Library, there is little question that a new building is needed. While I would like to see the present building preserved in some way, its usefulness as a library is questionable. Years of deferred maintenance have left the building with a dispiriting quality that's almost hard to express in words. A new library (maybe something like Robert Stern's building in Nashville?) could do wonders for downtown Washington. Gallery Place is a good area for the library, but there must be other possibilities which haven't yet been discussed. Thoughts?

The Washington Post

[dgreco]

This is really disappointing to me that the main part of the project will now be a 400 room hotel instead of a bridge. For practical purposes I am sure the hotel will get much use than the library, but its tough to see that passed up. I have two renderings, one of where the hotel will be, and the other is of the overall project.

The Main parcel with hotel location:

the development overview:

[Jim856796]

I want the old DC Convention Centre site used for a hotel, offices and parking. The street grid needs to be restored to the situation before the old Convention Center was built.

[tombarnes]

I have yet to see any real proposals for the old convention center site. There have been any number of schemes, but nothing appears to have come of any of them.

[carolinagarnet]

Reopening this thread five years later, City Center is almost complete. While the article mainly focuses on the Qatari Foundation, it provides some new details:

 

 

Since construction began in 2011, the project has landed the law firm Covington & Burling as an anchor tenant and has begun selling condos, listed at prices ranging from $600,000 to $3.5 million and leasing the 458 apartments.

 

There is a lot of inventory coming on line in the District, but there seems to be an unending appetite for new construction. They also hinted at the type of retail they will solicit:

 

 

Executives at Hines, the Houston-based real estate giant managing the project, have said that sharia-compliance had little or no effect on their retail plans, which are focused on fashion concepts and high-end retailers, possibly including an Apple store.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/qatar-foundation-to-open-cultural-center-in-citycenterdc/2013/10/15/c5ff7192-359e-11e3-80c6-7e6dd8d22d8f_story.html