Plans Unveiled for McMillan Sand Filtration Site
The McMillan site at North Capitol Street and Michigan Avenue—Look familiar?
This Saturday, Vision McMillan Partners unveiled artistic renderings of their plans for the McMillan Sand Filtration site, located at Michigan Avenue and North Capitol Street Northwest. The 25-acre area has been inactive as a water filtration plant since the late 1980s. Here's what's planned for the site, according to the presentation shown this weekend:
- Eight acres of green, open, public space
- 1,000 to 1,200 units of mixed-income and multi-generational housing
- 400,000 square feet of job creating office space
- A boutique hotel.
- Potential for nursing home.
- 100,000 square feet of retail space.
More renderings below:
Aakash Thakkar is Vice President of Development at EYA, the lead company charged with coordinating the project. When I talked to Thakkar, he stressed that his team has worked to build as much "much concensus as we can" in the community, meeting with an advisory group of local leaders and holding two public feedback meetings. There will be another meeting with the community in January to present final concept plans. A date had not been chosen, but Thakkar said he would let me know as soon as possible.
One huge aspect of the project is historic preservation, according to ANC Commissioner Barrie Daneker, whose district includes the McMillan site. The filtration site has a number of towers or "silos" (which stored the sand used for filtration, according to Thakkar). Many of them would be incorporated in the overall design scheme, as you can see in the images above and below.
Underground, there are a number of cells with unreinforced concrete, which makes the land all the more difficult to dig up and build on, according to Daneker. Developers have to decide which cells they'll be keeping, and which ones will need to be destroyed for construction. In total, the group's presentation states that preservation, infrastructure and planning alone will cost upwards of $50 to $60 million.
I'd like to continue writing about this...so if anyone has any particular interests, feel free to write in the comments, or drop me a note at rsamuelson@washingtoncitypaper.com
3:31 pm
ruth: i live in the neighborhood and have been following this pretty extensively. community leaders announced that the next meeting would be held january 24th.
check out more here
3:56 pm
I asked Aakash Thakkar about Jan. 24. This was his response: "We are working to confirm that date, but it has not yet been confirmed."
5:34 pm
thanks for the update, ruth. i'll be sure to pass that along to the community.
2:04 pm
For lack of a better word, I find those silos creepy and calling them historic is indeed a long shot. The community would be much better served not having to look at them ever again. We don't need to explain to our kids how we used to filter water with sand stored in those ugly concrete things. Does anyone find any sense in keeping them (even if they are covered with lovely flowering vines?)
3:14 pm
Does anybody know if there is ever going to be another meeting? I would really like to attend. I'm for the development... just concerned about the subsidized housing that is part of the plan. I am sure this is a stupid questions, but are we talking about section 8 stuff?
2:10 pm
I am excited to see the McMillan Site redeveloped. As a mom in the neighborhood, I would love to see some of the open space used for a soccer field and a play ground.