Landmark Gateway - City of Alexandria

DSUP #2011-0030
Landmark Gateway Amendment
predominately brick with a lighter color material at the top story, although, an alternate material
such as metal panels or rainscreen will be used to accentuate the main entrance on Street A.
Building 2
Building 2 is the easternmost building of the development. Located east of private Street By
Building 2 stretches from Pickett Street to public Street C. Similar to Building 1, the building
uses the change in grade across the site to bury most of the underground parking garage,
although some is exposed at the lowest elevation along Pickett Street. Also similar to Building
1, the loading area and garage entrance are located on Street C. The applicant has agreed to
continue to work with staff during final site plan, subject to specific conditions listed in the Staff
Recommendations (Condition 3), to further improve the architecture for this building. Since this
building will eventually face a public street that will connect to the properties to the north, it will
be important to ensure that the eastern faqade is appropriately designed with active elements such
as building entrances, interesting building details, or public art.
Building 3
Located at the comer of Van Dorn and Pickett Streets, Building 3 is the most prominent building
of this development and therefore a lot of design consideration went into this building. This
building will be the first building a person sees when driving north on Van Dorn Street from the
Beltway and therefore acts as gateway into the LandmarkNan Dorn planning area. The
architecture of the building is reminiscent of an Art Moderne style with a curved wallldrum at
the comer that connects to buildings facing Van Dorn and Pickett Streets. A building break
roughly 200 feet from the Van Dorn intersection in the form of a glassy, recessed hyphen
provides some relief to the overall length of this building and provides an architectural transition
point to the second half of the building that faces Pickett Street and Street B. The hyphen also
coincides with the driveway to the central plaza and surface parking area.
Retail will be located on the ground floor of the western half of the building which will activate
the building and the pedestrian environment. Through this amendment, residential units are
proposed for the eastern half and are elevated approximately 2-3 feet above the grade of the
sidewalk along Pickett Street. In addition, a small planter is provided between the sidewalk and
the building to provide an additional offset for the residential portion and address floodplain
issues (see following section for more details). The entire building is "U" shaped, which
surrounds the internal parking plaza and central green space.
C. Floodplain Regulations
On June 16, 20 1 1, the updated Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMS) for the City were
published. The modified 100-year floodplain boundary removed some properties which were
previously in the floodplain, and also included a number of new properties that were previously
not included, which is the case for Landmark Gateway. When the development was originally
approved in 2009, no portion of the floodplain was within the boundaries of this property,
although significant flooding had been documented on the property across Pickett Street. The
201 1 update to the maps brought the floodplain boundary onto the Landmark Gateway site along
the southern property line and within a portion of Buildings 2 and 3 and the garage