PROJECT UPDATE: McMillan Redevelopment

McMillan Redevelopment | Historic Aerial View

McMillan Redevelopment | Aerial View | Visualization by INTERFACE

The McMillan Sand Filtration Site project is one the most significant DC real estate development projects to be proposed in many decades.

MV+A has been commissioned by Jair Lynch as the architect for two separate parcels within the development. The buildings are part of a larger development on the site of the former water filtration plant built between 1902 and 1905.

Between 1907 and 1911 Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. designed a perimeter pedestrian path around the site that was open until the 1940s, when the site was closed to the public during World War II. The filtration plant closed operation in 1986 and the federal government sold the property to the city for redevelopment. MV+A is part of a team of architects and designers working on the Northwest Washington site’s development and is responsible for both parcels that are slated for mixed‑use retail and residential projects.

The final master plan to redevelop the property, approved by the DC City Council, preserves the existing service courts, sand bins, and regulator houses. It includes row houses, rental apartments, medical office space, an exciting retail mix, and a 6.25‑acre park with a community center and pool. It will also reintroduce Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.’s pedestrian path around the site.

Parcel 4 | View Looking Southwest | Visualization by INTERFACE

For Parcel 4, MV+A has designed a dynamic, mixed‑use building featuring a full‑service grocery store and five levels of market‑rate apartments and affordable senior housing. The project anchors North Capitol Street to the east and the North Court which connects the east and west sides of the site. The initial planning and entitlements phase for the Parcel 4 project was developed in collaboration with David Jameson Architect, Inc. For Parcel 2, MV+A has designed an elegant, seven-story building with 18,000 SF of mixed-retail and 236 rental apartments.

Both parcels are currently in the Design Development phase and each was recently reviewed by the DC Historic Preservation Review Board for design updates to the previously approved plans with no exceptions taken. Upon completion, the new McMillan Sand Filtration Site will invite the public to celebrate an exciting District resource that has been closed to the public for decades.

Parcel 4 | View Looking Southeast | Visualization by INTERFACEParcel 4 | View Looking Northeast | Visualization by INTERFACE

Parcel 2 | View Looking Southwest | Visualization by INTERFACEParcel 2 | Detail View of Bridge Connection | Visualization by INTERFACESite Excavation In Progress

DISPATCH FROM NAIROBI: Kalinda Gathinji

We travelled back to Kenya to spend Christmas with our family and had to get creative with our adventures due to Covid challenges. Our home base was Nairobi where we met with family and mingled with Omicron. After two weeks of quarantine and isolation, we escaped the city to the family tea farm outside of Nakuru which included a beautiful drive featuring an overlook of the Rift Valley, roadside fauna including zebra and baboons, and Lake Naivasha. Farm life suits me as I grew up on a farm in Idaho, so hiking in my irrigation boots around the lush rolling hills planted with tea and coffee, and views of the mountains made me feel quite at home. We enjoyed driving around the farm and the kids loved checking in on the cows, goats, pigs, and turkeys and epic games of hide and seek with the cousins.

As Omicron eliminated a trip to the beach, the consolation prize was a stay at Giraffe Manor outside of Nairobi. Giraffe Manor was a house built in the 1930’s on the edge of a wildlife conservation area that was later turned into a small boutique hotel featuring giraffe interactions. The interiors are themed after the giraffes with each room named for a local giraffe and giraffe patterned tile, wallpaper, stained glass, and giraffe shaped topiaries all contribute to the ambiance. We swam in the pool where the giraffes came to drink, we had high tea and fed the giraffes, and in the morning the giraffes came to our balcony, munching on the vines growing up the side of the house and eating pellets out of our hands. Then at breakfast, our very tall guests poked their heads through the windows and ate pellets off of their plates and table. For someone who loves giraffes, this was living in a dream. For parents, in the times of Covid, this was just what the doctor ordered.