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Near Southeast DC Past News Items: Capper Senior Apt Bldgs
See JDLand's Capper Senior Apt Bldgs Project Page
for Photos, History, and Details
In the Pipeline
25 M
Yards/Parcel I
Chiller Site Condos
Yards/Parcel A
1333 M St.
More Capper Apts.
Yards/DC Water site
New Marine Barracks
Nat'l Community Church
Factory 202/Yards
SC1100
Completed
Thompson Hotel ('20)
West Half ('19)
Novel South Capitol ('19)
Yards/Guild Apts. ('19)
Capper/The Harlow ('19)
New DC Water HQ ('19)
Yards/Bower Condos ('19)
Virginia Ave. Tunnel ('19)
99 M ('18)
Agora ('18)
1221 Van ('18)
District Winery ('17)
Insignia on M ('17)
F1rst/Residence Inn ('17)
One Hill South ('17)
Homewood Suites ('16)
ORE 82 ('16)
The Bixby ('16)
Dock 79 ('16)
Community Center ('16)
The Brig ('16)
Park Chelsea ('16)
Yards/Arris ('16)
Hampton Inn ('15)
Southeast Blvd. ('15)
11th St. Bridges ('15)
Parc Riverside ('14)
Twelve12/Yards ('14)
Lumber Shed ('13)
Boilermaker Shops ('13)
Camden South Cap. ('13)
Canal Park ('12)
Capitol Quarter ('12)
225 Virginia/200 I ('12)
Foundry Lofts ('12)
1015 Half Street ('10)
Yards Park ('10)
Velocity Condos ('09)
Teague Park ('09)
909 New Jersey Ave. ('09)
55 M ('09)
100 M ('08)
Onyx ('08)
70/100 I ('08)
Nationals Park ('08)
Seniors Bldg Demo ('07)
400 M ('07)
Douglass Bridge Fix ('07)
US DOT HQ ('07)
20 M ('07)
Capper Seniors 1 ('06)
Capitol Hill Tower ('06)
Courtyard/Marriott ('06)
Marine Barracks ('04)
 
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78 Blog Posts Since 2003
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Updated Capper Senior Demolition Photos
During the five minutes it was sunny this afternoon, I managed to get some updated photos of the demolition at old Capper Seniors, where the work is still concentrated on the western side of the building. Within the past day or two the wrecking ball has sliced a hole in the main portion of the building, leaving the old southwest wing standing alone and temporarily making the tower into two buildings. Soon they'll be starting on the still-bricked elevator shaft in the center of the building on the north side. (I wouldn't park my car too close to there for the next few days.) Check the Expanded Project Archive if you want more angles of the progress, though they didn't all get updated today. And remember to click on the Click to see all available photos of this location. icon to see all the photos in the archive from a vantage point--the progression of shots looking south at the building from across L Street are pretty intriguing. They've gotten a lot done in eight days....
More posts: 600 M/Square 882/Old Capper Seniors, The Bixby, Capper, Capper Senior Apt Bldgs, The Bixby
 

Ridiculous Number of New Photos
It started innocently enough. On Sunday morning, when I woke up to find such a brilliant sunny day, I decided to go take a new batch of photos of the demolition at old Capper Seniors to replace the dreary ones from Saturday. Then I started moving away a few blocks, to catch more distant views of the building. Then I decided that there were a bunch of locations where 70/100 I and Onyx on First were changing the skyline that I hadn't captured. Then I realized that it had been a long time since I had taken a complete set of photos of the western side of South Capitol Street at O and P streets, to show the changes since the demolition of the viaduct and all the streetscape improvements. And then of course, while I was there, I had to take a set of shots of the ballpark's western facade. Then there were more shots needed of the changes along M Street thanks to 55 M and 100 M. By the time I was done, I had a ridiculous number of new images up on the site, which you can see all on one page; you can also see most of them paired with past shots by clicking on the "Photo Archive Before-and-Afters" links at the top of that page, like the "South Capitol Street Makeover", which shows the new photos from both sides of the street (along with some older angles I didn't update). After a while they all run together, I know. But they make for some spiffy before-and-afters!
 

Wrecking Ball Starts at Old Capper Seniors
After a few days of knocking out the exterior brick walls and windows from the inside by driving Bobcats into them over and over, the showy demolition began at old Capper Seniors this morning, as the wrecking ball started bringing down the western wing of the building. Not the prettiest morning for pictures, but maybe the glum light is apropos. You can look at my main old Capper Seniors page for the basics, or the Expanded Project Archive for photos of the demolition from considerably more angles. (And don't forget to click on the Click to see all available photos of this location. on any of these pages if you want to see the images in between the first and last ones.) It's going to be a slow process, and the demolition is not expected to be finished until the end of December.
The 238-unit building originally opened in 1958 as one of the multiple new high-rises at the Arthur Capper public housing project; but by the early 1970s, crime and drug use and government neglect had already turned the building into such a wasteland that even the then-director of public housing for the city later described it as a "fearsome place" where "there was danger to life and limb to any ordinary citizen who wanted to live there." In 1973, it was finally boarded up, and plans were announced to renovate it into a 292-unit building for elderly tenants, with reopening planned for 1976.
But the renovation plans went awry as well, thanks to battles between the city and the Department of Housing and Urban Development over plans for a health clinic within the new building, along with escalating cost estimates, and fights over the bids on the project. Construction finally began in November 1978, scheduled to take 14 months but eventually stretching to three years as incomplete construction documents and a lack of project oversight by the housing authority brought delays, firings, and lawsuits. In late 1981, it finally reopened, but crime was never eradicated, especially as non-seniors began living in the building. The last of the tenants were moved out early this year, with some choosing to move to the new Capper Seniors #1 a few blocks away at Fifth and Virginia.
While this seniors building at 601 L Street was a home to many people for many years, I'm not sure it's a building to be mourned. It's also now the last remnant of what were once the sprawling Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg projects that stretched from 2nd Street to 7th and from Virginia to L. It's taken seven years, but with this demolition, all Capper/Carrollsburg buildings will be gone.
(As for the other impending demolition, I took a quick spin past 1345 South Capitol this morning and didn't see any action, though some construction equipment has been put in place.)
More posts: 600 M/Square 882/Old Capper Seniors, The Bixby, Capper, Capper Senior Apt Bldgs, crime, The Bixby
 

Old Capper Seniors Demolition Underway; First Photos
On Wednesday morning at 11 am, demolition began at the old Capper Seniors building at 601 L Street, SE. And, 24 hours later, a lot of progress has already been made on getting rid of the exterior windows and walls. I was amazed to see that, instead of swinging the wrecking ball, workers are actually working inside the building, driving Bobcats into the brick exterior walls over and over to punch them out, turning the building into a skeleton before the actual bringing down of the skeleton begins. (Don't hit the gas instead of the brake, boys!) I've created an Extended Project Archive for this building, to see the before-and-afters from lots of different angles beyond the basics on the main old Capper Seniors page (which also has some photos taken from the interior of the building last week) so take a look at today's photos to see how the work is progressing.
(And speaking of demolition, fences have now gone up at 1345 South Capitol, and workers there are telling neighbors that demolition could begin tomorrow [Nov. 9]. We'll see!)
More posts: 600 M/Square 882/Old Capper Seniors, The Bixby, Capper, Capper Senior Apt Bldgs, The Bixby
 

Old Capper Seniors Demolition
You can't tell from the street, but there is some demolition-like work underway today on the roof of the old Capper Seniors building at 7th and M. However, the showy stuff with a wrecking ball will probably start later in the week, perhaps on Wednesday. It would be fab if folks who have a birds-eye view of the building could drop me a line if you see the wrecking-ball-crane getting into place, since the building is out of range of any handy web cams.
More posts: 600 M/Square 882/Old Capper Seniors, The Bixby, Capper, Capper Senior Apt Bldgs, The Bixby
 

The Last Days of Old Capper Seniors (With Views from the Roof)
As I posted a few days back, the old Capper Seniors building across from the Navy Yard is in its last days, and with hazmat abatement having been completed, the Housing Authority is on schedule to start demolition on Monday. And while I'm sure they had far better things to do, the powers that be were nice enough to escort me up to the roof for a few minutes of camera time to document the skyline from that vantage point. I also took a walk around the block for some last shots of the building, which has stood in this location since the 1950s.
You can see all of the day's photos here, with the overhead shots starting about a third of the way down the page. Remember as always that I use a somewhat wide-angle lens (a Canon Digital Rebel XT with an 18-55 lens for you shutterbugs), so you get to see more in the images at the expense of everything looking smaller and farther away than it really is.
After the demolition is done--it's expected to take two months--there will be a temporary surface parking lot installed. Eventually a 500,000-sq-ft office building by Forest City will rise on the southern half of the site, and hopefully they'll be nice enough to let me go up on that roof when it's done.
(And I must say that all these roof sojourns are wonderfully ironic, given that my legs go gooey if I even try to walk down stairs that don't have a handrail. So be assured I'm never as close to the roof's edge as it might look in some of these shots. I'm a total chicken.)
More posts: 600 M/Square 882/Old Capper Seniors, The Bixby, Capper, Capper Senior Apt Bldgs, The Bixby
 

Capper Apartments: Out with the Old, In With the New
After being vacant since the beginning of the year, the old Capper Seniors building at 601 L Street is in its final days, with demolition scheduled to begin the first week in November. Once the hazmat cleanup that's been going on is finished, the building, which opened in the late 1950s, will be brought down floor-by-floor (no Vegas-style implosion). I was inside the fences yesterday and between the raindrops got a few pictures of this building, though I hope to get some more before the final curtain.
At the same time the old building is coming down, the 139-unit new Capper Building #2 at 400 M Street is going to be opening its doors to residents. Originally designed as a building for low-income seniors, its profile has been expanded to also include renters who earn up to 60 percent of the area median income (from $38,000 for one person to $54,000 for a family of four). I was given a tour yesterday and got photos of the inside; the first floor has a community room with kitchenette, and laundry, computer, fitness, and conference rooms, and the landscaped interior courtyard also serves as a stormwater management system. The two-bedroom corner units at Fourth and M have some pretty nice views of The Yards and DOT (but I think they're all already spoken for). Twenty of the one-bedrooms and one of the two-bedrooms are for the mobility-impaired. A web site for the building will be launched soon, and there will be a rental office on-site. With Building 2's opening, there are 300 new affordable housing units now available in the Capper Hope VI redevelopment (with Capper Seniors #1 having opened late in 2006), with another 400 to come as mixed-income Capitol Quarter gets underway early next year, and the other mixed-income Capper apartment buildings planned for Second Street loom farther at some unannounced date in the future.
 

This Week's Ballpark and Beyond Column
My Ballpark and Beyond column in today's District Extra of the Post covers the recent departure of AnA Towing to make way for DRI's Square 696 development; the raze permits for the old Capper Seniors complex and the buildings just north of the stadium along First and N streets; and the planned opening in September of the new Spay and Neuter Center at 1001 L Street. (I can't believe I made it through a column without a single piece about parking!)
 

New Photos and News
After a week of days that were either overcast and drizzly or ridiculously hot and humid, today's sunny-and-warm profile gave me no choice but to venture out for a reconaissance mission. My report:
The masses of workers and the well-positioned fences make it nearly impossible to take photos of the current state of South Capitol Street, but I have added a decent photo to my Douglass Bridge makeover page showing the new South Capitol and Potomac intersection, which appears very close to being ready for traffic. Streetlights are in place, curbs have been built, paving has begun, and the historic globe streetlamps are installed all along the length of the bridge.
I also snuck a peek into the huge hole where Monument Realty's Half Street project is underway, and from N Street you can see what appears to be vertical construction is already underway at the bottom of the hole. It's along the M Street portion of the site, which will be home to the 55 M Street office building, which itself will contain the expanded entrance to the Navy Yard Metro station. Because that Metro work must be completed by Opening Day 2008, I guess it shouldn't be surprising that they're already pouring concrete and working upward, eight months into construction. The office building itself and the rest of the Half Street Phase I won't be completed until 2009.
And I unexpectedly found Demolished Building entry #138, as the beige garage that has long sat on the northeast side of the Half and I Street intersection bit the dust today, which I'm sure JPI is happy to see, given that 70/100 I Street is growing like a weed right next door.
Speaking of 70/100 I, it got updated photos today, along with Onyx on First and 100 M Street. You can look at those project pages (and their accompanying expanded archives), or you can browse this page showing all photos I've posted from today, which includes a few new shots of Capper Building #2, which I believe is just minutes from opening. And I even finally added a photo of the "Starbucks Coming Soon" sign out in front of the DOT HQ, for the caffeine-deprived.
 

Raze Application Underway for Old Capper Seniors
Along with the Square 701 buildings mentioned yesterday, there are still a few buildings to be razed in Near Southeast (though not many, with 136 of them having already been demolished in the past four-plus years). None of them, however, are as big as the old Capper Seniors building at 601 L Street. All of its former residents have been moved out, and preparations are being made to bring down this building late this year, which will certainly be the most striking of all the demolitions I've watched. In the meantime, as you can see from the latest Approved Building Permit, interior demolition will be starting soon so that asbestos abatement can be taken care of before the building itself can be demolished. In its place there will eventually be a 500,000-sq-ft office building by Forest City, though no timeline has been announced; you can see a rendering of it on my old Capper Seniors page. In the interim, look for a surface parking lot to help ease the Nationals ballpark parking crunch. (Oh, and check out the new photo on that Stadium Transportation and Parking page. I just couldn't resist. I'm sorry.)
More posts: 600 M/Square 882/Old Capper Seniors, The Bixby, Capper, Capper Senior Apt Bldgs, The Bixby, parking
 
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