Page 47 - Summer_2019

ArchDC Summer 2019.qxp_Spring 2019 5/22/19 2:58 PM Page 45
Photo © Thomas Holdsworth
The former Oyster Shed in the foreground,
with the former Lunch Room in the right background,
before renovation.
View through the sliver building
to the main plaza in the revitalized
fish market.
Photo © Thomas Holdsworth
The Southwest Waterfront remained an underutilized and
under-appreciated civic asset until the fall of 2017, when the first
phase of the ambitious District Wharf redevelopment opened.
Co-developers PN Hoffman and Madison Marquette replaced a
row of banal, low-rise motels and other unexceptional structures
with mid-rise buildings containing a mix of apartments, offices,
restaurants, bars, and a large music hall called the Anthem. A new
waterfront promenade, lined with outdoor cafes and punctuated
by piers containing various public amenities, linked the complex.
It was an immediate success.
In conjunction with these larger-scale projects, the developers
commissioned StudioMB, which had designed the renovation of the
Wharf’s Pier 4 [featured in the Fall 2018 issue of ARCHITECTUREDC],
to oversee a transformation of the historic fish market. The program
included five new structures, as well as the restoration of the Lunch
Room and Oyster Shed. The goal was to provide facilities for a
cluster of new restaurants that would complement, rather than
compete with, the existing fish vendors. The cluster would also
serve as the northwestern anchor of the entire District Wharf
development, which is soon to include a second phase at the
southeastern end of the waterfront.
“In [developer Monty] Hoffman’s mind, this was always to be
a separate and distinct precinct,” explained David C. Bagnoli, AIA,
LEED AP, BD+C, a principal at StudioMB. “The fish market has a
funky character. While making the historic building the jewel of
the development, we wanted to maintain that honky-tonk quality,
but interpret it in a more sophisticated way.”
“We also wanted to take the opportunity to make a connection
from Maine Avenue,” added principal Adam McGraw, AIA. “The
rest of the Wharf has a uniform street presence. We saw an
opportunity to attract people as they come under the [highway]
bridge, in terms of how we present the project graphically and
through building massing.”
The site plan includes six major structures—the restored Lunch
Room/Oyster Shed plus five new buildings—on a wedge-shaped
site immediately adjacent to the piers lined with vendors’ barges.
The historic structure, which now, appropriately enough, houses
an oyster bar, stands roughly at the center of the site. It is joined by
three of the new buildings—accommodating a distillery and several
other restaurants—to define an irregularly shaped plaza. A fourth
new building, containing a coffee house and a doughnut shop,
stands at the southeastern edge of the site, closest to the main
Photo courtesy of StudioMB
FRESHENED FISH MARKET 45