Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Roll Call on Uline
Somebody sent me an article (subscription only) from Roll Call on the Douglas Development condos being built at the Uline Arena. It looks like the Harris Teeter logo on the drawing is just for image. Although the developer is talking to Harris Teeter, there is no agreement. Douglas Development says it would like to put a grocery store into the arena.
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9 comments:
ABDO is putting up high-end condos next to the train tracks on H street, and more high-end condos are going into the Uline arena, which is also next to the train tracks. Does this strike anyone else as odd? Trains are loud. Several years ago, I lived in a house which was separated by about 80 yards of park/trees from a train-track. Most evenings (10-11 p.m.) a long train carrying coal would rumble on through. I could hear it clearly in the house even with the windows closed (admittedly, they were old windows) and you could also feel the vibration. I didn't mind - I'm a sound sleeper, and when I was awake listening to the train always put me in a thoughtful mood. My girlfriend, however, always hated the noise which invariably woke her up. Anyway, the tracks, and the noise they create, are right next to these developments. Are they sound-proofing? Are trains back in vogue? Or is it just something that the developers feel people with deal with because of the other nice features of the condos?
I live on 3rd and with the exception of the occasional horns that you hear all over the Hill anyways, I don't hear the trains at all or feel any vibration. There's no special soundproofing or anything. I think this would be more of an issue for Uline than Abdo. The trains are going so slow through that stretch up to the station that maybe that reduces the noise that would otherwise be there.
Don't forget that the tracks from H to K St. are eventually going to be decked over, with office buildings on top. (See here and here.) So the Abdo folks, at least, will be less exposed to train noise.
Thanks. I hadn't realized before that the Burnham Place development was on both sides of H Street as it appears to be from that press release.
Mark - thanks for posting the information about the development over the tracks north of H street. I had no idea. It sounds like a huge project. Does anyone have any idea what the schedule is? I don't recall seeing construction in that area, but perhaps I wasn't looking close enough. I'd also be interested if anyone knew what kind of retail it was supposed to contain.
All you need are really good windows. In Portland I was in a building--an adaptive reuse of a warehouse into condominiums--that literally abutted right on to I-405. Unless you were on the patio you couldn't hear a thing. www.marshall-wells.com
Plus I don't think trains are as loud as you think. First, as someone else pointed out, throughout greater Capitol Hill you can hear the train whistles (not just from the Union Station yard).
And I spend a fair amount of time in Brookland, in a building that backs onto the CSX line, and I am surprised at how many trains come through, and how relatively quiet they are, considering this building is less than 100 feet from the train track.
Re: Burnham Place
Don't get your hopes up too high on Burnham Place. I have been watching for news on this proposed $750,000,000 project for the past several years.
In a recent discussion with a friend, who is a historic preservationist and one of the architects working on the Abdo project, he told me that Akridge had let the air rights expire (or something to that effect).
Basically, they had purchased the air rights above the tracks some years ago and needed to renew it, but didn't.
Sorry for the inexact terms, this is not really my forte.
Kenny, I think your friend has given you bad info. The air rights weren't even awarded until late 2002. And just yesterday I got an email report on the Akridge presentation at the recent CHAMPS economic development meeting.
Akridge will be filing a PUD application with BZA, and (assuming approval) expects to spend 3 years just doing the concrete pour for the decking. Projected retail/resid/hotel/office space is 2.6m sq ft on either side of H. They want to build 9-10 stories high (pfui -- that's all above the level of the H St bridge), and project 10 years for completion.
For what it's worth, here's my experience with living on those train tracks...
I went to college at Catholic U, which is right on the tracks. One of my dorm rooms was right on the tracks so the trains were just 10-20 yards away. The noise was awful. But another dorm room was across the streets from the tracks with no buildings in between. It was just fine.
Richard's point is probably right. It's all about the soundproofing.
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