EastBanc's Post Office Project Goes Subterranean

The EastBanc, Inc. development at the rear of the Georgetown Post Office at 1215 31st St., NW will be built almost entirely below ground level, after innumerable design iterations and use discussions. The above-ground exception will be the adaptive re-use of a 1915 addition at the rear of the original 1856 building.

The project is going before the Board of Zoning Adjustment for a variance to allow the renovation and expansion of an existing building for a retail, commercial and office use.

"The Office of Planning, historic folks and the neighbor next door have all had different ideas about this project," explained Mary Mottershead, an executive VP for EastBanc, Inc., at the ANC meeting Monday.

At various times during its life, the development went from being a to a to its current and, perhaps, final design as described above.

During one Old Georgetown Board meeting about the design, architect Guy Martin called the process a "."

Mottershead said the development team had to wait to seek a zoning exception "until we got all three parties in agreement as to which plan they liked."

The only part of the project that will be above ground will be the existing 1915 structure. The building is below-ground as seen from 31st Street but the south side of the structure will be visible from the parking lot at the rear because the project is being dug into a hill.

On the upside for EastBanc, building below ground enables them to build out the lot occupancy much more than would have been possible above ground.

The Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission approved the plan unanimously. The Board of Zoning Adjustment will review the case July 24.