Capitol Hill residents say they’re still unsatisfied with changes made to a development near historic Eastern Market, calling the buildings “disturbing” and confusing. A city preservation panel was set to take up the development Thursday morning.
In a letter to the Historic Preservation Review Board, the Eastern Market Metro Community Association says the height of the building adjacent to the 8th Street rowhomes is their biggest concern. The development on the site of the old Hine Junior High School will take up slightly more than one square block on Pennsylvania Avenue between 7th and 8th streets, Northeast.
“We respectfully disagree with the staff report’s characterization of this building as more compatible,” the letter said. “It remains a six-story building, dwarfing its nearest residential dwellings, which are all two and three stories. The residential building should not exceed five stories.”
The more than 100 residents who approved the letter also noted the building near Pennsylvania Avenue and 8th Street “has a disturbing industrial quality. Simply put, this building is incompatible with itself. It, as well as the Pennsylvania Avenue Office Building, has been referred to as the ‘Gateway to Eastern Market.’ In its present design it serves to confuse rather than welcome visitors.”
