RE A L ESTAT E
DC Rising: Up,
Up and
Away….
The DC Regions is growing up!
Central Place Residential Tower Photo Provided by JBG
The Washington, DC Metropolitan Region building boom continues. And, unless you’ve been asleep, it’s hard to miss all the building cranes dotting the skyline in DC, Arlington, Bethesda, Tysons and so many other areas. DC has suffered from the same problem that Los Angeles suffered from early on, the city grew out before it grew up. So first off, let me come clean, I’m a skyscraper fan, always have been and always will be. So, living in DC gives me a height complex. Whether you like it or not, change is coming and I for one, couldn’t be happier. Our area has some amazing architecture in the classic buildings that shape and form our city. However, most of K Street and other business corridors in DC have always suffered from boring buildings and big boxy structures.
42 | June 2014
I’ve never understood why world capitals that are considerably older than DC, like London, Paris, Berlin, and Beijing, can welcome and embrace change and we can’t. These cities struggle with population density issues just like us and the look for the best ways to maximize density. These cities are not afraid to mix the old with the new to create dynamic structures that live right next door to hundred year old ones. London welcomed the tallest building in the Europe Union in 2012 with The Shard. The Shard stands an impressive 87 stories and doesn’t compete with the skyline of London, it enhances it. I visited The Shard last October and WOW! It is truly stunning and has fostered a new building boom in London. So, while we don’t have buildings that tall yet, we are about to see an explosion of ever increasing tall buildings in our area.
It’s nice to see our area and the regional governments embrace DC’s ability to grow up. Here are few of the buildings coming to our region:
Capital One Tower Photo Provided by Capital One