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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is not about GDS for me. DC is losing it on allowing buildings that are too to tall and/or too close to the sidewalk. Examples imclude the condos at Wisconsin and Calvert. The Home Depot at Irving and 14th and Carhedral commons. I fully support dc becoming denser but we need to keep a close eye on the architecture.  This is a city with modest buildings and many of the new projects are ugly and way too big.[/quote]

+ 1.  Cathedral Commons (what a name, by I digress) is the above example closest to GDS.  I am disappointed at how stark and frankly ugly it looks.  It also appears like it was built on the cheap.  There's so much exposed concrete and what was once a pleasant walk on Wisconsin Ave. now is cast in dark shadow much of the day.  The Tenleytown residents and even GDS should pay attention to what happened at C-C and insist on project design that is scaled appropriately and more respectful of the surrounding context.[/quote]

Ummm... So you don't like the concrete of Cathedral Commons? Do you recall what was on Wisconsin before? One word: concrete. Cleveland Park has the toughest historical society and zoning board. Cathedral Commons was 30 plus years in the making. Whether you like it or not, you have to remember the concrete GC Murphy & co. Giant and Giant Pharmacy (People's drugs) which was there before. Not saying Cathedral Commons (which is not completely finished) is beautiful but had to adhere to a similar appearance as the buildings it replaced. [/quote]

I wasn't thinking of the block where Giant is (and was), although that will certainly win no architectural awards.  Also the project was outside of the Cleveland Park boundaries so HPRB and the local architectural review board had zero say in the matter.  I'm thinking of the other CathCom block to the north where they built the large and ugly higher-rise building.  That block used to contain Sullivan's and other great stores, and the size of the buildings related well to pedestrian scale.  There was a lot more light and some big mature canopy trees, all of which were cut down.  The faux-balconies on this building look like they are made out of aluminum and the block-long facade seems so flat.   The design is cheap, harsh and dark.  Just saying that this is a cautionary tale as GDS proposes to build structures that are 20-30 taller.[/quote]

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