West Heating Plant
1055 29th St NW, Washington, DC 20007.
The proposed project will transform the long vacant, contaminated, and blighted site bounded by 29th Street NW, the historic C&O Canal, Rock Creek, and K Street in Georgetown from an obsolete steam heat facility decommissioned in 2000 into a Four Seasons-managed residential condominium with an adjacent one-acre public park and bridge connecting Rock Creek Park with the Georgetown Waterfront.
The development team features the world-renowned architects David Adjaye and Laurie Olin. Adjaye Associates, the lead designer for the recently opened Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, as well as two award winning DC public libraries, has developed an exemplary design that preserves over 30% of the existing structure and is inspired by the existing structure’s materiality and proportionality. The residential building will have 60-70 residences and be managed by Four Seasons. There is no retail or commercial space proposed within the project.
Laurie Olin, founder of The OLIN Studio, is the project’s landscape architect. Olin is one of the most renowned landscape architects practicing today with notable projects ranging from The Washington Monument Grounds in Washington, DC to Bryant Park in New York City. Olin’s design opens the walled-off site to the community by introducing a grand stairway at the south end of the site that welcomes visitors to his lush promontory overlooking Rock Creek Park and the C&O Canal.
The project also includes a bridge providing a direct pedestrian and bicycle connection between Rock Creek Park, the Georgetown Waterfront Park, and the Crescent Trail and provides access to the waterfront and the refurbishment of the dilapidated seawall along Rock Creek.
