Page 61 - Summer_2019

ArchDC Summer 2019.qxp_Spring 2019 5/22/19 3:02 PM Page 59

Main entrance to the Commons at Stanton Square,
with the Community of Hope wing at left and the
Martha’s Table wing at right.

All photos © Chris Ambridge, AIA
A Seat
Project: The Commons at Stanton Square,
A Seat 2375 Elvans Road, SE, Washington, DC
Architects/Interior Designers: cox graae + spack architects
Concept Design Architects: Perkins Eastman
at the
at the Table Landscape Architects: Landscape Architecture Bureau
Structural Engineers: Linton Engineering
MEP Engineers: James Posey Associates
Civil Engineers: Wiles Mensch Corporation
Food Service Consultants: Nyikos Associates
AV/IT/Acoustical Consultants: Polysonics Corporation
LEED Consultant: Dan Triman
Venerable Non-Profits Development/Financing Advisors: Rosewood Strategies
Owner’s Representative: Compass Design + Development
Find New Home Contractor: Whiting-Turner Contracting Company

by Peter James, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

The Commons at Stanton Square occupies a hilltop site the city’s stringent stormwater management requirements,
in Anacostia, with sweeping views of the surrounding and demonstrating good faith to surrounding communities
neighborhood and Washington’s monumental core that haven’t always shared in the District’s recent surge
beyond. The first component in a phased development of growth and prosperity.
plan that also includes mixed-income housing, the After a first attempt to build multifamily housing
Commons assembles an array of functions under one on the site stalled, HB, in partnership with the Horning
roof: community-serving daycare, after-school and Family Fund (HFF), took a new, community-based
young-adult training programs, a commercial kitchen, approach to developing the site. HFF, the Horning
counseling and social services, and administrative offices family’s charitable foundation, provides $1 million in
for two nonprofit organizations. grants annually to nonprofit organizations working to
The real estate developer Horning Brothers (HB) improve educational and economic outcomes for Ward
purchased the wooded, previously undeveloped eight- 8 children and families. In 2010, HFF kicked off the
acre site in 2005. The steep site—which slopes more than development effort with an extensive feasibility study,
80 feet from one edge to another—offered spectacular including interviews with community members and
views and a central location within Ward 8, but posed stakeholders in the adjacent neighborhoods of Fort
major challenges for development, including the need for Stanton and Hillsdale as well as Anacostia as a whole.
extensive regrading and structural retaining walls, meeting

A SEAT AT THE TABLE 59