Déjà Vu All Over Again: OGB Rejects Heating Plant Plans

On April 6, the Old Georgetown Board told those behind the reconstruction plans for the West Heating Plant at 1051-55 29th St. NW to redraw some plans due to historic preservation concerns.

The Georgetowner wrote the same kind of story last year, and now the developers of the West Heating Plant site as a condo project — Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the Levy Group and the Georgetown Company of New York — got another “incomplete” from the OGB.

In 2013, the group bought the two-acre property— situated between the C&O Canal, Rock Creek, 29th Street and K Street — from the federal government for $19.5 million. The high-end condos are to be managed by the Four Seasons, with half of the land becoming a public park.

Arguing that proposed building’s design does not quite honor Georgetown’s industrial past, and raising questions about the adjacent park, the OGB said developers should think more along the lines of rehabilitation and not just reconstruction. Plans call for an almost complete demolition of the structure.

Despite ample support for the plans from 29th Street neighbors and the Citizens Association of Georgetown, and majority approvals by the Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, members of the federal board found the designs lacking in historical sensitivity. Also cited were the additional windows on the planned structure.

A month earlier, on March 9, the development group, led by Richard Levy of the Levy Group, presented its latest plans to the community, showing off images of a six-story, 60-unit redevelopment of the former West Heating Plant. The design team includes British architect David Adjaye and landscape architect Laurie Olin. The meeting was described by The Georgetowner as “almost a love fest.”

In spite of the recent disappointment, Levy has publicly stated that he will not abandon the project.