Page 69 - ArchDC_Spring 2020

The Banks as seen from 7th Street, SW.

From the instant that Phase I of the Wharf opened in 2018, it suburban in character, with a sizable surface parking lot and
has enjoyed great success, drawing thousands of patrons to landscaped setbacks from the sidewalks. Unfortunately, by 2015,
its entertainment venues, restaurants, ferries, and public park it had serious maintenance problems that were beyond the
spaces; tenants to its offices and rental apartments; buyers to its financial capabilities of its modest congregation. Fortunately, its
condominiums; and visitors to its hotels. Construction of Phase location—at the southern end of one of the longest north-south
II, accordingly, is currently under way. arteries of the city, Seventh Street/Georgia Avenue—provided
Yet even with Phase II on the horizon, the Wharf remains a solution.
a narrow, linear waterfront strip physically distinct from the The church struck a deal with Hoffman to redevelop the
surrounding neighborhood. In keeping with current-day urban site, providing a new church building on part of the site, along
design principles, it has a grid of cross streets intended to weave with an endowment intended to maintain the church’s financial
it into the existing cityscape. Upon the completion of Phase I, viability for at least 50 years. The strategy was to shift from the
however, there wasn’t much to connect to on the other side of low density that characterized the 1968 complex to a higher,
Maine Avenue: a couple of small office buildings, a church, and truly urban density, more like that of the Wharf.
some amorphous open space associated with the Southwest
Freeway and Banneker Circle, the terminus of the L’Enfant Project: The Banks,
Promenade. Typical of the postwar era in which they were 900 7th Street, SW, Washington, DC
constructed, these buildings offer a certain amount of architectural
interest, but deliberately disengage from the street and sidewalk. Architects: STUDIOS Architecture
Architects for Adjacent Church: GBR Architects
Hoffman & Associates, the lead developers of the Wharf, Interior Designers: STUDIOS Architecture; Hickok Cole
built a pedestrian connection to Banneker Circle and upgraded (model room staging only)
landscaping in the open spaces, but the Wharf remains a Landscape Architects: Landscape Architecture Bureau (LAB)
somewhat isolated island of activity. However, connections Lighting Designers: MCLA Architectural Lighting Design
are starting to be made. The first is the redevelopment of the Structural Engineers: Ehlert Bryan
MEP/FP Engineers: Jordan & Skala Engineers
Riverside Baptist Church site, at Maine Avenue and 7th Street, Civil Engineers: Wiles Mensch Corporation
SW, into a new church and the Banks, an apartment building by Code/Accessibility Consultants: AON (now Jensen Hughes)
STUDIOS Architecture. Traffic Consultants: Gorove/Slade
The site was part of the urban renewal program that Dry Utilities Consultants: Richter & Associates
transformed the “Near Southwest” neighborhood in the 1960s. Building Envelope Consultants: WSP
Vertical Transportation Consultants: Persohn/Hahn Associates Inc.
The Riverside Baptist Church of 1968 (which replaced a 1902 Parking Consultants: The Harman Group
building a few blocks away, razed as part of the urban renewal General Contractor: HITT Contracting Inc.
initiative) was a jaunty A-frame structure that was somewhat

BUILDING CONNECTIONS 67