I’ve been noticing the progress of the property at 1740 New Jersey Ave NW. Can’t help but to notice it as I pass it often coming home or going to the metro. I will admit that I haven’t paid too much attention to the back and forth that went on before and during the start of the work on this formerly vacant house. Yet there are some things I see, that confuse me and make me wonder if they were some sort of concession made.
The first thing that confused me was eliminating the half circle driveway and making the two curb cuts, one on Rhode Island and the other on S Street. If you are new to this area of DC let me tell you, curb cuts are money. Most of the time you neighbors will not support your efforts to get one. So if there is not a curb cut there now, there is a snowball’s chance in Miami of getting one. Yes, there is the possibility of being annoyed by drivers who might try to use the curb cut as a short cut and I’d understand eliminating one point of entry, but both were made useless. Also in the past that half-circle has been used as a temporary parking spot, a very valuable asset.
The other odd thing was this doorway that appears to be turning into a wall. I could be seeing this wrong, but that just doesn’t look right. If I am right, that’s a waste of some perfectly good stairs and a walkway going towards this doorway.
Lastly, I’m confused this thing is calling itself an Urban Land Company project. I swear that ULC used to have a better sense of place then what the sign below would suggest. I thought we were past the days of calling this end of Shaw, “Logan Circle”. Logan Circle is about 5 blocks west. U Street is sorta kinda a couple blocks away, and Florida Avenue, just around the corner from this place turns into U Street, eventually, so I’ll give that a pass. Shaw is the only accurate thing. It is in Shaw. 
UPDATE- There is a door where the door is supposed to be.
This page contains a single entry by Mari published on April 8, 2016 7:07 PM.