Yet another huge condo building coming to 14th Street

Back in March, we wrote a post that took a look at all of the development projects currently ongoing around the 14th and U Street corridors and noted that it felt like a return to the middle part of the last decade, when development was going like gangbusters throughout the neighborhood.

Since that time, real estate development tycoons PN Hoffman announced plans to convert the Verizon building at 14th and R into a residential building with ground level retail. And today, courtesy of the City Paper's Lydia DePillis, we learn of yet another project for 14th Street: the eastern side of 14th near the intersection of Wallach Place (between T and U), which is currently the T Street post office (oh, you didn't know the Post Office was closing?), a furniture store and a Yum's carryout, is set to become a seven story condo building replete with ground level retail.


Image courtesy ofthe City Paper

The project, which is being developed by Level2 Development (of View 14 fame) and is designed by Eric Colbert and Associates, will house 126 residential units in addition to the aformentioned retail.

As you can see from the rendering above, it looks pretty much like...well, it looks pretty much like all of the cookie-cutter condo boxes that have been springing up around town recently. I sometimes wonder if we'll look back at this time in the city's development 30-40 years from now and view these buildings the way the brutalist SW federal center is viewed today: products of their time that have not aged particularly well.

No matter--progress is progress, right? A potentially greater issue than mundane architecture was raised on the Twitters today: namely, is DC starting to run out of Yums? With the loss of this location, and the anticipated loss of the one between Rhode Island and P street when that section of the block gets redeveloped, one does have to wonder: have we reached Peak Yums, and are venturing along the beginnings of a downhill slide from which we may never recover? Heaven help us.

Closing: Pasha Bistro and...the Post Office?

We frequently write about the opening of new businesses and restaurants, so it's only fitting that we occasionally write about some closings as well.



Borderstan reports--and a subsequent walk-by confirms--that Pasha Bistro, the 17th Street Turkish cafe, has closed its doors. In its place will be "Pizza No. 17," opening on March 1. According to owner Payam Yadzani, Pizza No. 17 will offer "organic, wood-fired pizzas." For the 14thandyous, this is dreadful news. Pasha's gyros, grape leaves and cigar borek served us well on many a weekday evening when we were either unwilling or unable to cook. As recently as two weeks ago, we were sitting in their dining room making use of our recently purchased Groupon.

I wish I could say that I was excited about the prospect of wood-fired pizzas, but anymore it seems that half of the restaurants in DC are offering some variation of "wood-fired pizzas." For those nights when you can't get a seat at Coppi's, perhaps Pizza No. 17 will fit the bill.

* * * * * *

On a slightly different note, those of you who have shaken your fists (or considered acts of violence) at the patron-disdaining clerks of the 14th and T Post Office may not have to shake your fists much longer. Seems that location is on the USPS's short list of post offices to close as part of a cost-saving measure.

While I will be the first to admit that it's very beneficial to have a post office conveniently located in the neighborhood, going there often felt like entering a dilapidated convenience store where the clerks all yell at you from behind bulletproof glass, and your feet stick to the floor in a way that reminds you of your worst college dive bar experiences.

According to DCist, the USPS plans to shutter 2,000 post offices across the country, and the 14th and T location--having been on a planned 2010 closure list, but somehow having survived it--seems destined to go. The office does seem to be heavily used, and so I can only wonder what criteria was used by the USPS when selecting offices for closure. But I don't think too many people will miss being greeted at the door by a shrieking clerk at 12:55 on a Saturday because they want to close five minutes early.