Image from AVA H Street's Facebook page
DCmud has an update on Avalon Bay's project at 318 I Street. The Project, AVA H Street, is set for delivery of its 140 units in December. AVA is one of Avalon Bay's three product lines, and its target audience is young renters who inhabit urban areas. You can read more about Avalon Bay's strategy in this December 2011 Wall Street Journal article (includes a picture of a completed AVA building). According to the article AVA strives to be "high energy in sound and color."
TBD also weighs in on the matter.
25 comments:
Ugh. Just stop...
"That's one ugly building. What were they thinking back then" This is what people will say in 2050 like we say now when looking at the ugly creations (for example FBI, HUD bldg) from the 70s.
the marketing campaign for this this place is atrocious
that is one ugly building! but i guess their target demographic
(hipsters right??) will think it is "sick"!
do hipsters even move here anymore much less in a year from now?
or have hipsters become mainstream and young people just wear hipster clothes upon returning from their "9 to 5"
The term "hipster" is a dumb catch-all that has been overused. Beyond that, anyone who has spent anywhere with a substantial community that would be labelled "hipter" i.e. Bushwick, knows H St. is nothing like that. H St. is only "hipster" in that it has some residents that are less buttoned up and preppy than Capitol Hill. However, most of America is less buttoned up and preppy than Capitol Hill.
I actually like the look of the building. It won't look as cartoonish as the bad graphics show. It has a EYA Hyattsville feel.
Isn't hipster considered an insult? No one I know ever uses it fondly.
"Those hipsters at the table next to us were so polite and keep their conversation to themselves. I also noticed they tipped well."
Yeah- never gonna happen.
hopefully hipsters who don't have cars.
i like it. not perfect but ppl are always clamoring for something different and then complain when something is different.
What exactly is a Hipster?
NY Mag's What Was The Hipster?
In DC, "hipster" is coming increasingly to mean anyone under the age of forty who has pants that fit.
6 pages of reading I found no definition. I often hear the term as interchanable with white people (20-40 year olds) who adopt a urban life from being raised in the suburbs, or rural america, because urban life is chic. Some times it's just a lable, some times it's a parjoriative. I was interested in what it really meant, so I could tell who the target auidence of this apartment complex is. I still can't tell, because they seemed to have picked a term that is amorphous. I hope it isn't an attempt to appeal to only one racial segment of the population. At times Hispter is like "New People", and at its worst it can be a term akin to "interloper" (which is way over used). Mostlikely this developer is after middle class people who want to live in such a building, ugly or not.
I'm not sure people who reject commecialism would live in such a commerical place, flock to increasingly mainstream bars and over indulge in PBR.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hipster&defid=2705928
I think the target demographic is young ( mostly 20s/30s), probably tolerant of small/shared spaces (i.e. willing to have a roommate), interested in living close to a thriving entertainment/nightlife strip.
If you want more info on their target audience, check out the pages that AVA H Street likes on Facebook.
Thank you, It's kinda cool. We need more young people with vibrant energy to help further turn things around. While the building's not my taste we should embrace the change and work towards a more perfect union.
The article on their strategy says this segment of their product is aimed at 20-, 30-somethings more concerned about location and price than space and don't mind having roommates. Sounds like a college dorm.
Their ideal tenant certainly isn't worried about the appearance of the building. Geez, that's ugly.
The design cries cheap "boiler plate" design and slapdash construction. Something they can afford to demolish when the land becomes valuable enough to build one of their higher end properties.
"20-, 30-somethings more concerned about location and price than space and don't mind having roommates. Sounds like a college dorm.
Their ideal tenant certainly isn't worried about the appearance of the building."
I'm not sure I like your tone....
Except for a lucky few, virtually *all* 20somethings in the DC area are living with roommates.
Most of us aren't slum tenants. However, most of us *did* get screwed by the economic downturn, came to the DC area looking for work, and are squeaking by with low salaries, while paying outlandishly high rents.
Given the choice, I don't really know any 20-30 year olds who would choose to live in this building based on its appearance. A lot of us actually do want to live in nice homes, but are forced to deal with the economic realities of our time.
Would the complainers about the exterior of the building prefer the empty lot and abandoned building previously occupied by a group of trannie hookers? Some people will never be satisfied with any development.
"aimed at 20-, 30-somethings more concerned about location and price than space and don't mind having roommates."
I hope they price their units accordingly then. And we don't see more 1500$ studios (I'm looking at you Flats). This neighborhood is loosing affordable housing quickly.
@Anonymous Character said...
I prefer the smell of muffins baking.
"I hope they price their units accordingly then. And we don't see more 1500$ studios (I'm looking at you Flats). This neighborhood is loosing affordable housing quickly."
Which Flats? I assume you mean Flats at Atlas. I ask only because the studios at Flats 130 start at $1850. Studios at Loree Grand go for $1775 (and studios in new buildings almost anywhere else in town are even higher). The sad truth is that, with the cost of construction and land, a $1500 studio is about as affordable as it is possible to be in a new building without some sort of a public subsidy. So I wouldn't count on AVA H being any cheaper. I guess we'll have to keep living in older buildings with "character"
I'm not in my early twenties anymore, but the building exterior wasn't as important to me as where the apartment was located, how much the rent was and if it had a washer dryer.
I don't think that these will be cheaper than the Flats at Atlas since these are closer to the Metro.
@ anon 10:55:00, I think you missed my point but thank you for the clarification.
Can't wait to move in here with my bonga drums and have weekly jam sessions. Yeaaaahhhh
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