Comments on: Fixing Mount Vernon Square

By: Paul Corsi

Paul Corsi — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:04:46 +0000

I’m trying to locate any other City Vista L residents to be if you are as sick and tired and fed up with the frustration on waiting to get into your unit–Has anyone directly heard from City Vista, Mayhood or Lowe Enterprise–Remember that they said we were supposed to get first phase delivery spring of 2007 1Q–Wow it’s already August-The L building is ready to go as I was told and here we are still waiting–with no word–Maybe the end of August??? Has anyone heard? If there’s anyone esle out there waitng we need to band together to demand answers-What rights do we have? Why is this taking so long? I myself have been put into a bad situation-I sold my house the end of May going by what I was last told, that they were looking at May 15-June 15th and then it was pushed back further and further—The only reason I knew that was because I kept asking questions and calling NOT once did City Vista extend an email, call, or letter notifing us of the delay–I have now been in three differant and expensive furnished rentals and Lowe Enterprise will NOT even consider helping with compensation or even paying a part of my closing cost to help me out-I’m losing faith in this whole project and City Vista has put a very sour taste in my mouth after paying all this money now and in the future and what do we get nothing………Poor Customer Service, if this is how we are treated now I can hardly wait till I sign on the dotted line-Something I now am not looking forward to!

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 07 May 2007 04:12:29 +0000

Hmm, aside from filling in some much-needed mass in that part of town, the MVS projects will certainly inject additional users. For the square itself, I think the northeast parcel is the most imporant to improve its definition.

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 07 May 2007 01:53:19 +0000

Lots of negative space, but looks like the mega Safeway (50K sq. ft??), Results Gym and coming retail outlets in CityVista might ameliorate that. Any comments on what that will do to the MVS neighborhood, Rob?

By: Si Kailian

Si Kailian — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:43:28 +0000

i would prefer 8th st to the south of MVSQ remaining pedestrian only but with ground level retail infill. Right now its such a void of tech world tinted glass & most of the meager retail is underground (or you cant see in the windows!). Also it is truly a shame that this big shiny new convention center came with no retail. And now, years later it trickles in to the few spaces they allotted in the huge battleship. Dont forget that most of MVSQ’s surrounding buildings are either empty of severely underutilized. Sometimes I feel like everyone is waiting for someone else to do something first and the few people who hang in there are doomed to fail. look at whats happening to Warehouse.

By: Chris Loos

Chris Loos — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:29:30 +0000

Great post. I walk through Mt. Vernon Square daily, and often think about how underutilized it is (besides by the homeless, of course).

I agree with our point about the voids along the parks boundaries detracting from its sense of urban space. On a positive note, many of your suggested massing stands to become reality. The old convention center site at the southwest corner of the square breaks ground next year. The new convention center hotel at the northwest corner is in the works also. The parking lot on the northeast corner will undoubtedly be redeveloped at some point as well, given the rate that other property in Mt Vernon Triangle is being sold and redeveloped. Even AV Restaurante Italiano across the street has sold out and will be redeveloped into a condos tower over the next few years.

However NY Ave and Mass Ave will always be way too wide to truly insulate Mt Vernon Square. Wide L’Enfant avenues are my least favorite feature in DC.

What class was this project for? I want to take it.

By: rr 446

rr 446 — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 11:42:56 +0000

if 8th street(south of the convention center) were open it would mostly be used by taxi’s servicing the hotel, lets be real. why didnt you criticize the convention ceter for gobbling up 8th street to the north of the square?