Construction Maison

Nearly 1,100 new apartment units could be coming to Pentagon City as part of a major planned development of the 37- acre RiverHouse apartment complex . RiverHouse owner Vornado presented the initial development plans to largely skeptical members of the Arlington Ridge Civic Association last night. The plans call for 934 new market rate apartment units , to be added to the existing 1,670 units on the site across three buildings, which date back to the 1950s and 60s. Vornado is also proposing a 150 unit, stand-alone affordable apartment building , to be developed with a nonprofit affordable housing partner . The new market rate units will be built across three buildings, each about seven stories tall — half the height of the existing buildings — to preserve the views of condominium residents on Arlington Ridge . The first two buildings are to be built on what is currently a surface parking lot across from the Pentagon Row courtyard . Between the buildings will run a pedestrian co...

The Late Victorian period in the United States—roughly the last third of the 19th century—produced some of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the history of Western civilization . It also produced some of the most hopeless slums. In response to the crisis of industrial cities, the modern discipline of city planning emerged . The tools of this new profession helped clean up many unhealthy aspects of urban industry , but also stifled some of the best innovations of Late Victorian urbanism . By the 1920s, planners in the industrial world had established the legal authority to promulgate land-use regulations, and over the next generation, they succeeded at slowing the construction of slum housing and segregating noxious industries from incompatible activities, such as housing and office space. Through some of the same devices, however, planners curtailed some positive features of 19th- century urbanism , including the rich variety of free- form industrial development and the adaptiv...

Two years ago, developer Mike Harrah joined a bid to purchase the Orange County Register out of bankruptcy. The effort ultimately failed . But the flamboyant local construction magnate with a ZZ Top beard still acquired the Register’s Santa Ana real estate , currently vacant after the publication decamped to Anaheim this spring. With the Register gone, Harrah is now embarking on an ambitious $1-billion plan for the 20- acre Grand Avenue site , proposing to build Orange County ’s tallest buildings, more than 1,000 residences, a 171-room hotel, offices and retail shops. In all, Harrah’s Caribou Industries envisions a 2.3-million-square- foot development known as 625IVE that serves as a gateway to historic downtown Santa Ana , where hip restaurants and shops are opening just a mile away. And he’s signed up prominent architecture firm Gensler to work on it. Harrah, himself, has been credited with helping kick-start the revitalization early last decade after he acquired buildings in t...

We offer our predictions on communities that will rank among the city's most desirable in 2026. Plus a look at developers who are working to make those visions a reality. February 18, 2016 (page 7 of 7) 8 developers with insight who are rethinking our urban neighborhoods   BY DEBRA SMIT G reat neighborhoods — with ample green space , commerce and good housing stock — empower their residents to grow and prosper. Developers are key when it comes to weaving together the physical threads of a community, particularly in urban neighborhoods frayed by years of blight and decay. These are among the developers who are working to revitalize some of the city’s most challenged neighborhoods, striving to be restorers of streets in which to dwell. All have one eye, certainly, on the bottom line. Still, they are well aware of expectations that they give measured consideration to quality of life in the neighborhoods in which they build.   Wi...