RSS FeedSunday Reading: All About The Gold Leaf Studio Building (443 Eye St NW)
Wonder what is in that building on Eye Street next to the empty lot at 5th Street with Gold Leaf Studio painted above one of the garage entrances? We’ve heard about Durkl, the streetwear clothing company located inside Gold Leaf (as we’ll call it) that makes fashion forward tops, bottoms, tees, hats and shades. Gold Leaf also had an open house this summer but we didn’t know the full scope of the story. You can fill in your downtown neighborhood knowledge with this WP (WaPo) Magazine story about a local creative community that keeps the entrepreneurial artistic spirit alive and prevents DC from being a 100% government town.
Art@Work (Subcaption: In a building in Chinatown, area artists come together each day to create. And the sense of community there has proven to be its own thing of beauty.) [WP Magazine]
Audio gallery and slideshow [WP Magazine]
Chinatown Gateway Arch Night Action
The Chinatown Gateway Arch on H Street at 7th Street NW was recently restored and unveiled. PQ Living reader Si captured this action shot on a Friday night and sent it in noting the rope light trim on the upper roofs. How does the Arch look now?
Of Sidewalks and Segways
The Washington Examiner ran a story today by Michael Neibauer noting that disabled persons may now ride their segways on city sidewalks inside the Central Business District. We agree with the DC Counsel on that and we’re glad they made the change.
What was striking to us about this article was the fact that segways are illegal in the Central Business District (most of downtown DC) and that riders have been warned off. Individual owners/riders of segways have never been a problem for us, perhaps because there are so few of them. But the segway tour companies have ruled the downtown sidewalks since inception. While we have seen the segway tour groups in the streets on occasion (does the crosswalk count?) the majority of the time we see them riding up and down the sidewalks. We’ve definitely never seen the entire tour being conducted on the streets as the manager of one segway tour company claims in Neibauer’s article.
Has there been a change recently that we’re not aware of in the behavior of the segway tour companies? With the end of summer we’ve seen fewer tours going on; is that due to the reduced tourist population or are the routes now completely different to keep the tours on the city streets?
Ashton Judiciary Square Turns On The Lights
In this period of commercial construction financing interrupted, the opening of a brand new residential apartment building in our neighborhood is a welcome sight. In this case, we’re talking about the Ashton Judiciary Square apartment building at 750 3rd Street, NW which is now open for leasing and has its initial batch of tenants moved in. We had the opportunity to take a tour of Ashton Judiciary Square and can honestly say that our neighborhood now has a new and more elevated standard of luxury apartments to figure into the rental real estate equation.
The edifice hosts 49 apartments on 12 levels with a two level dedicated parking garage for cars and bicycles. Unit types include one, two and three bedroom layouts, many with unobstructed views to the east and/or the south and some with balconies. A couple of characteristics stood out to us:
1) Unit sizes are larger than average…the one bedroom and dens, the smallest, are approximately 1200 square feet. In many PQ buildings, that’s the size of a two bedroom unit. Two bedroom units are between 1520 and 1826 square feet. Three bedroom units are in the 2600 square foot range.
2) The finishing details such as stone frames around the elevator doors, wood and stone paneled doorway frames and built-ins like bookshelves, desk nooks and walk-in laundry rooms in varied apartments demonstrate attention to detail. Travertine and/or hardwood can be found in each apartment.
3) Large bathrooms, spacious closets and kitchens designed for entertaining complement nice apartment layouts and construction quality. Amenities available for residents include a modern conference room, a handsome entertaining room with gourmet kitchen, and a guest apartment suite.
Ashton Judiciary Square is The Hanover Company’s first entrant into the DC real estate market. Factors contributing to this Houston company opening a property in this neighborhood include robust business fundamentals in the DC market compared to other markets, a Penn Quarter location on a less trafficked street and the proximity of the building to the Judiciary Square Metro. One additional benefit we saw is that the owner of the neighboring historic apartment building at 3rd and G Streets, NW, cleaned up their premises making it look as presentable as a building awaiting redevelopment can possibly look.
PQ Living has followed this part of the neighborhood since it was owned by Abdo Development and a level lot. The translation from fallow land to productive use is another piece of the neighborhood’s development puzzle snapping into place. What do we like best of all? More residents will be moving downtown.
Ashton Judiciary Square
750 3rd Street, NW
866-980-0268
www.ashtonjs.com
Rents: Starting at $4332 (no incentive) or $3971 (with incentive for leases beginning October 1) monthly
Lease Terms: 3 months to 13 months – furnished or unfurnished
Photos courtesy of The Hanover Company