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The Ridge Road Community Center replaces a dilapidated facility dating to the 1950’s with a new neighborhood center providing critical health and wellness programs to the underserved population of Washington, DC’s Ward 7. Several acres of land with athletic fields, an outdoor public pool, basketball courts, a wooded nature area, and two small buildings previously served the recreational needs of hundreds of users. However well loved, portions of these facilities were out-of-date and required immediate improvement and replacement. In 2012, the District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of General Services initiated efforts to bring a new LEED certified facility and extend a welcoming hand to a broad cross-section of community stakeholders.
CGS Architects was commissioned to collaborate with District agencies and neighborhood stakeholders to design and administer construction on a new community recreation facility with extensive site redevelopment. Through active engagement and research of modern recreation facilities, CGS Architects refined the program of spaces to be accommodated within a new building serving both athletic and community functions for facility users. Specifically, a multi-purpose room for classes, meetings, and community functions; a full-size indoor basketball court with alternative striping and embeds for half-court practice play and volleyball; fitness rooms; and spaces tailored to serve teens and seniors were included. The Center has quickly become a valuable asset to its surrounding community, thriving as a hub of activity for youth, families, senior citizens, and civic organizations. It has had a stabilizing effect on the lives of neighborhood youth by providing safe and appropriately equipped spaces for physical activities that instill discipline, healthy exercise habits, and teamwork. Moreover, it has become an inclusive environment where after school programs provide a refuge for at-risk adolescents, ensuring they have a healthy outlet for their creativity and energy as an important step towards long-term neighborhood improvement.
George Washington University (GWU) and DC Public Schools (DCPS) joined in a unique public / private partnership to develop land through a joint development project. DCPS’ School Without Walls shares a common wall with the site that GWU was wanting to develop. Ultimately, the Agreement allowed for property re-zoning that gave the site more allowable square-footage. GWU was also seeking to increase their student housing offering but in an unusual apartment configuration, addressing current market demand with atypical units offering four bedrooms, open plan living, dining and kitchen, laundry and two full bathrooms. This arrangement allowed GWU to rent-out apartments to the community rather than use the urban site for students housing only.
As part of a joint venture, CGS Architects provided the architectural services for this new 10-story, 116-apartment undergraduate student residence hall. Building amenities include student lounge space, meeting and study rooms, a Community Director’s Suite, and outdoor activity area, in addition to approximately 178 below-grade parking spaces. The building planning and design are highly sensitive and responsive to the urban campus within the context of a multi-scaled institutional and residential neighborhood. The complex review process included significant and wide-reaching stakeholder outreach, yielding project support from DC Office of Planning, DC Department of Transportation, and many local residents.
The Catholic University of America’s on-campus bookstore was relocated, creating a two-story space to house a new student center. At the same time, a former CUA student had remembered a beloved pub on the campus and proposed that it should make a comeback. After consideration, CUA administrators agreed and moved to bring a restaurant and drinking establishment into the lower level with the Student Center above, fronting a pedestrian walkway. Pubs have been a common part of campus life for many universities and colleges until the drinking age was moved to 21. Recently, the trend is changing. Based on considerable experience with spaces that foster community and enhance social gathering, CGS Architects was asked to develop appropriate designs for these new spaces.
Convivum is Latin for bringing people and food/beverage together, a feast. This concept led the programming and design for the Student Center and Murphy’s Grill. Located in the west wing of the Pryzbyla University Center building, the student space includes two small study and lounge rooms, booths along the northern wall, informal seating areas throughout, and a new dedicated entrance which leads directly outdoors to an existing plaza. On the main level, the brick wall that separated the old bookstore and the plaza was removed and replaced with glass, making the space transparent and more open to the public walkway. The main level lounge includes an informal lounge area with a central gas fireplace and televisions. A new entrance from the existing plaza was added for convenient access to the lower companion space, Murphy’s Grill. CGS Architects worked closely with Murphy’s Grill to create an open and engaging space for students to study, play, and eat. A variety of informal seating clusters complement the loose tables and banquette seating, keeping the space flexible for various events. Drink rails round out guest accommodations along with a natural gas fireplace, televisions, and an integrated AV/It and lighting system for performances. Throughout Murphy’s, furnishing and upholstery provide a pop of color against the palette of understated neutral finishes and clean, contemporary detailing. These design motifs are repeated throughout the upper and lower levels to make the two spaces feel like one. The Student Center and Murphy’s Pub are little known gems of the CUA campus, open to anyone wanting a space for fellowship and learning over good food and drink.
Founded in 1789, Georgetown Preparatory School was the vision of John Carroll, the first bishop of Baltimore. The boarding and day school for boys in grades nine through twelve was originally part of the Georgetown University campus. In 1921, Georgetown Prep moved to its current location on 93-acres in North Bethesda, Maryland. In conjunction with a comprehensive campus Master Plan that created significant new physical education and athletic space, the School sought to re-purpose their existing gymnasium into a new Learning Commons with new and contiguous communal student space.
The new George Center is a unique, multi-function, academic building that adapts the 1950’s era former gymnasium into a dynamic campus hub and student gathering place. The building consists of two elements separated by a glass-roofed gallery: the completely reconfigured old gymnasium and a new and contemporary three level addition. The new program area is a strong counterpoint with a spacious, skylit atrium. Comfortable student lounges and a full-service café provide social space for students, allowing them to relax, socialize, eat, study, or attend classes all in the same building. Fronting the school’s academic quadrangle, the old gym building’s original basketball court floor was converted into a dramatic new, 9,250 SF library with a 25-foot-high reading room. The facility features 14,000 literary volumes, a computer research center, a smart classroom and conference room, private study rooms, faculty offices, and a tutoring suite. Below the reading room floor, 8 full-sized academic classrooms replace the original locker and shower rooms.
The Potomac School in McLean, VA is co-ed K-12 private school for over 1,000 students situated on a 90-acre campus within a natural setting that includes forest, streams, and fields. CGS Architects was commissioned to undertake a comprehensive campus master planning effort intended to become a resource for evaluating the needs for facility improvement and campus growth while providing a vehicle for matching construction opportunities with available funding. Implementation of the master plan began with the renovation of / addition to the Upper School, creating an environmentally sensitive 21st century education building that extends teaching spaces from the classroom to the outdoors. A new Lower School was the second phase of this plan, expressing the school’s mission to teach environmental stewardship beginning with their youngest students. The Intermediate School project was subsequently completed, becoming the sixth building facility that CGS Architects designed on the Potomac campus.
The Upper School project included the renovation of its existing building and the construction of two new wings, the East Building and the Tundra Building. A glass-enclosed pedestrian bridge spanning the width of a new exterior quadrangle connects the new construction. Central to the buildings - and to the students’ school day - is the ‘Crosswords’, a three-level social gathering space positioned between the new Tundra Building and the existing Upper School. In addition to greatly improved classrooms, the new complex includes a 125-seat tiered classroom, a black box theater, a library, a dining room with floor-to-ceiling glass, and balconies that open to expansive views of the campus. The Potomac School’s new Lower School was the second phase of their multi-phased expansion. The project takes advantage of bucolic rolling hills on the northwest side of the campus such that each classroom is directly connected to outdoor teaching areas in an intimate courtyard. In addition to thirteen classrooms, the Lower School Building includes separate science, art, music, and computer spaces. The Intermediate School project reflects the school’s mission to create an environmentally sensitive 21st century school that extends teaching spaces from the classroom to the outdoors.
The Intermediate School houses six classrooms, a new main office, three breakout areas for students, new bathrooms, and a two-story Commons. Two new outdoor learning spaces, including an amphitheater in the Pingree Garden and a second-floor deck, were also incorporated into the design. The school’s new two-story Commons, which opens onto the amphitheater, is the Intermediate school’s ‘Heart’ ; an important focal point of the design that is used for community meetings and student gatherings.
The ca. 1957 Flora Hendley Elementary School, located in the District of Columbia’s Ward 8, was sorely in need of facility modernization and upgrades to align their program with current DC Public Schools Educational Specifications criteria. To meet these needs, the project became part of an aggressive plan to modernize six DC elementary schools over a short summer recess.
A full renovation of the building’s entry, academic, administrative, and support spaces was needed. The existing structure was built with a concrete frame and had a four-story classroom wing with a one-story lobby and an adjacent two-story lunchroom / auditorium wing. In 1964, a two-story classroom wing, called the Annex, was built at the south side of the site and five years later a one-story kitchen addition was completed.
The entire demolition and renovation of the building occurred in only eight weeks of summer, an extremely aggressive schedule. As a result, everything needed to be designed, procured and ready to commence the hour school recessed for the summer. To this end, CGS Architects worked diligently with the Contractor to coordinate the successful execution plan.
The project focused on right-sizing academic spaces to align with current class size standards and needs. This also included replacing the entire HVAC system, creating new restrooms, all new finishes, and replacing deteriorating windows. The most significant, and most sorely needed change, was transformation of the school’s main entrance. Safety was of paramount importance to stakeholders at the school. Their original lobby was very closed-off, fortified and opaque, manifesting antiquated ideas of security. Through application of ‘Crime Prevention Through Design’ principals, the design solution created a safe space while maintaining a welcoming, transparent, open, and light-filled entrance expression of school pride and the joy of learning, playfulness and delight.
HD Woodson STEM High School is located in a predominately African American neighborhood rich in cultural history. Despite its proximity to the most powerful government in the world, the community has historically struggled with social and economic issues that afflict many underserved urban neighborhoods, including the highest rate of illiteracy among all the wards in the District of Columbia. The new HD Woodson STEM High School replaces an original seven-story educational tower that first opened on the site in 1972, affectionately referred to as the “Tower of Power.” The school served as a source of community pride for nearly 30 years but eventually, through lack of adequate funding and deferred maintenance, the tower that loomed over the neighborhood became an outsized symbol of the District of Columbia’s dysfunctional governance.
CGS architects led an initiative to replace the crumbling existing building with the first new ground-up high school STEM educational facility in the mid-Atlantic region. Designed around core principles of integrated learning, transparency and flexibility, the building redefines academic models for collaboration and project-based learning. In addition, the facility was designed to become a cultural center for neighborhood programs. Listening carefully to the broader community through an intensive engagement process, CGS defined a model for community amenities, including library spaces, recreation facilities and cultural arts venues that are separately accessed and operated beyond educational spaces and outside of the traditional academic day. The LEED Gold HD Woodson STEM High School has become a stimulus for improved learning outcomes and a fulcrum for the community. Previously lagging enrollment numbers soared in the school’s first years as disenfranchised families returned to this “learning machine”; a physical manifestation of the District of Columbia’s commitment to 21st century educational models and improved academic outcomes. Similarly, the community-centric design is a template for broadening the role of neighborhood schools by providing access to cultural and recreational facilities previously lacking, fostering connections and great neighborhood pride.
Eaton Elementary School is located in Washington DC’s Cleveland Park Historic District, in the shadow of the National Cathedral. Founded with just 20 students in the early 1900s, it now serves a community of over 500 hailing from all 4 quadrants of the District. Over the years, the building has incrementally evolved with additions to its four existing buildings; the original and charming 1910 pavilion, a second matching pavilion from the 1920s, a 1930s multipurpose building, and finally a 1980s brutalist entry addition. In 2018, DC Public Schools sought to update the aging facility and expand the current program areas by 50% to meet modern education standards. The site is extremely tight and exterior space was identified by the school as “especially precious for outdoor play and learning.”
In 2019, CGS Architects began designs to modernize Eaton. The evolution of the design was heavily influenced by the School’s historic buildings and its Cleveland Park Historic District context. The finished exterior marries new and old, using infill construction to knit historic elements into a dynamic architectural expression. Eaton’s Many Cultures, One Community motto became the genesis of the new interior design theme. The School’s international culture is celebrated by associating the building floor levels with continental land masses and associated dominant colors. World language scripts, physical geography maps, and internationally themed art installations give each floor a distinct regional identity and provide a sense of orientation within the building. The design effort required careful assessment of existing, historic structures to balance the addition of increased program space while maintaining heavily-used outdoor space. Ultimately, removing one of the existing aged structures afforded space for expansion but triggered an arduous DC Mayor’s Agent approval process. Through careful planning and engagement with government regulatory agencies, all approvals were received successfully in the context of an extremely aggressive schedule.
The Arlington National Cemetery is a final resting place for those in the military who have served our Nation and provides a haven of beauty and reverence for more than three million annual visitors. The 639-acre grounds are comprised of land once owned by George Washington Parke Curtis, grandson of Martha and George Washington, and later occupied by Confederate General Robert E. Lee. In 1864, the property became a Civil War burial site when the War Department officially set aside approximately 200-acres for use as a military cemetery. Since then, the Arlington National Cemetery has evolved into a sacred national shrine and a gravesite for more that 400,000 men and women who have honorably sacrificed their lives. As the cemetery grew and evolved over time, there came need for a consolidated facility for burial operations, grounds maintenance, and vehicle storage. Recognizing the sacred natural of the site, the facility needed to adequately house these utility functions while screening operations and providing an appropriate backdrop for ceremonial processions and funerals.
The Arlington National Cemetery is a final resting place for those in the military who have served our Nation and provides a haven of beauty and reverence for more than three million annual visitors. The 639-acre grounds are comprised of land once owned by George Washington Parke Curtis, grandson of Martha and George Washington, and later occupied by Confederate General Robert E. Lee. In 1864, the property became a Civil War burial site when the War Department officially set aside approximately 200-acres for use as a military cemetery. Since then, the Arlington National Cemetery has evolved into a sacred national shrine and a gravesite for more that 400,000 men and women who have honorably sacrificed their lives. As the cemetery grew and evolved over time, there came need for a consolidated facility for burial operations, grounds maintenance, and vehicle storage. Recognizing the sacred natural of the site, the facility needed to adequately house these utility functions while screening operations and providing an appropriate backdrop for ceremonial processions and funerals.
Originally opened in December of 1961, the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge is a bascule bridge that spans the Potomac River between the city of Alexandria, Virginia and Prince George's County, Maryland. The original bridge was one of only a handful of drawbridges in the U.S. Interstate Highway System and was designed to carry up to 75,000 vehicles a day. This design volume was elapsed in just eight years and ultimately almost 200,000 vehicles crossed the bridge on a daily basis, creating one of the worst bottlenecks in the eastern US. Planning for a new $2.4 billion replacement began in the 1980’s and the project was fully completed in 2015. In conjunction the new bridge span, the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge needed an Operator’s Control House to house engineers who oversee and manage all communications and operations related to the function of the drawbridge and its approaches. The structure needed to be narrow to fit between the Inner and Outer loop of the 495-Beltway around Washington, DC. and the material needed to handle not only the heavy car traffic but be able to live in a marine environment. CGS Architects was commissioned by the transportation engineers to design an inspiring and innovative solution.
The Operator’s Control House acts as a gateway marker for the approach to the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge. The slender, 6-story structure grows out of a concrete support shaft extending from one of the monumental V-pier supports. The requirements of the support structure and the shape of the repetitive bridge piers precisely determine the geometry of the tower. CGS Architects utilized ship and automotive archetypes to develop the wind shaped, streamlined form. The front served as the prow of a ship; the round piece mimicked a tugboat’s wheelhouse. The observation level is completely enclosed in flush, radiused glass to permit a full 360-degree visual sweep of the highway approaches. The tower is inclined outward toward the navigation channel to give unobstructed views of the river when the drawbridge spans are lifted. A steel armature cantilevered from the concrete shaft supports a series of freestanding, panelized stainless-steel screen walls containing access catwalks.