A larger, more accessible bus loop may soon be coming to the East Falls Church Metro station.

The Arlington County Board on Saturday approved a $527,681 project-coordination agreement with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. This is part of a $12.7 million plan to provide the station with additional routes, expanded passenger capacity and improvements to parking and crosswalks.

The bus loop is set to get three more bus bays as the four current bays are at maximum capacity, per the report. Other proposed upgrades include improving the physical condition of the bus loop’s pavement and sidewalks and replacing the traffic signal at the N. Sycamore Street entrance.

On Saturday, County Board member Susan Cunningham said she is particularly excited about upgrades to the station’s bus shelters. She encouraged her colleagues to remain attentive to the bottom line of improvement projects, however.

“We all need to keep an eye on how those projects go,” she said. “They’re often quite complex, and we want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to control costs going forward.”

County staff publicly presented their plans for the Metro station at the intersection of N. Sycamore Street and Washington Blvd during a community meeting in March 2022.

“Overall, public response indicated support for the proposed concept design,” a county report says. “Respondents generally found the presented plans to be safer for all modes of transportation when compared to existing locations.”

Also included in the initiative, which is part of the county’s 2023-2032 Capital Improvement Plan, are plans to enhance landscaping and stormwater management; upgrade accessible parking, crosswalks and curb ramps; and improve pedestrian access from the Metro park-and-ride lot.

The last major upgrade to the East Falls Church Metro station was the addition of a $2 million bike parking facility. The 92-spot facility made its debut in the middle of the pandemic, though it was set to open in 2015. The structure was delivered five years late and $1.1 million over budget due to miscommunication and a lack of oversight, among other problems.

The county had hoped to add a second entrance to the station but put those plans on the backburner for at least a decade back in 2018.

Photo via Google Maps

(Updated at 5:35 p.m.) A yearslong attempt to convert a historic Arlington property into a home for adults with developmental disabilities may be nearing the finish line.

The Arlington County Board is expected to consider agreements to transfer the Reeves Farmhouse into the hands of local nonprofits and allocate community development block grant funds later this year, according to a county report. In advance of this, the Board on Saturday took steps toward streamlining the efforts of Habitat for Humanity DC-NOVA, HomeAid National Capital Region and L’Arche of Greater Washington.

Officials voted to approve a use-permit amendment and accept permit applications for building and land disturbance activity — decisions that will make it simpler for nonprofits to renovate the property if they assume possession of it.

The county report argues that the nonprofits’ plans, which have been refined over extensive conversations with local agencies, are in keeping with the county’s vision for the 124-year-old Boulevard Manor structure.

“As proposed, the historic building will be renovated and expanded in a historically sensitive manner, to provide for the needs of the applicant and the intended residents of the building,” the report says.

Six years of planning and increasingly firm agreement on what to do with the farmhouse led up to this point.

The structure, which was built in 1900, sits on a property that was home to the last remaining dairy farm in Arlington County before it closed in 1955.

The county once considered transforming the farmhouse into a museum or learning center, but ultimately concluded these changes would be too expensive. The county entered talks about transferring possession of the property back in June 2018.

It took three years, but the county and nonprofits finally reached a non-binding letter of intent in February 2020 — just before the pandemic hit.

Talks about what to do with the building stalled for another three years. But they revived in April 2023 when Habitat for Humanity, HomeAid and L’Arche met with the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board to discuss the home’s future.

The review board gave its official stamp of approval to proposed renovation plans at a July meeting.

The nonprofit coalition hopes to build a two-story addition on the south side of the farmhouse and a one-story addition on the west side, giving the home a total of seven bedrooms. Housing fewer than eight people, per the county report, means the building would be legally classified as a dwelling and not a group home.

The prospective owners also intend to outfit the existing structure with the following features:

• New exterior guardrails and handrails
• A new front door
• New gutters and rain spouts
• New asphalt shingles
• Two windows in the new shed-roof dormer

The farmhouse would receive a new driveway allowing for “adequate emergency vehicle access,” along with four parking spaces, two of which would be handicap accessible. Plans additionally include stormwater management facilities and landscaping enhancements.

Other parts of the historic property, including a popular sledding hill — heavily utilized after the recent snowfall — will remain open to the public.

“The sledding hill has been a constant. Everybody wants to make sure we kept that sledding hill,” County Board Chair Libby Garvey said on Saturday.

The Board’s vote makes it possible for Habitat for Humanity, HomeAid and L’Arche to continue pursuing their plans. County staff argued that this decision is in keeping with the goals for the Reeves Farmhouse that the county adopted in 2015.

“Staff believes that the proposed renovations and site improvements to accommodate the applicant’s intention to own, renovate, and operate the Reeves Farmhouse as a residential dwelling providing care for adults with developmental disabilities [continue] to meet these criteria,” the report says.

(Updated at 3:55 p.m.) One of Rosslyn’s few remaining skywalks is set to come down as part of an effort to realize a walkable corridor from one end of the neighborhood to the other.

Arlington County will be demolishing a skywalk over N. Nash Street, near the Arlington Temple United Methodist Church building and Sunoco gas station dubbed “Our Lady of Exxon.” The county applied for a demolition permit for this project last month, permit records show.

“This is part of the Rosslyn Sector Plan’s 18th Street Corridor,” says Arlington Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Katie O’Brien. “The removal of the skywalk will help refocus pedestrian activity at the street level by replacing the remainder of the skywalk system with the envisioned 18th Street Corridor over time.”

Envisioned in the 2015 Rosslyn Sector Plan, the 18th Street Corridor is envisioned as a walkable thoroughfare extending from Rosslyn’s western edge, N. Quinn Street, to its eastern edge, Arlington Ridge Road. The corridor is intended to make Rosslyn more pedestrian-friendly by removing the skywalks, breaking up long north-south blocks and improving access to the Rosslyn Metro station, per the sector plan.

Some skywalks have already been removed as part of redevelopment projects changing Rosslyn’s skyline. Most recently, one that connected the now-demolished RCA building to the Rosslyn Gateway building was removed as part of plans to replace the building with apartments. Another over N. Lynn Street was removed in 2014 for the Central Place redevelopment that replaced a McDonalds.

The county is still working on the plans and obtaining necessary easements, O’Brien said. Demolition is expected to start this summer and take upwards of two months.

The demolition permit does not apply to the redevelopment project from Arlington-based Snell Properties, approved in 2021, to replace the Ames Center office building, formerly occupied by the Art Institute of Washington with two residential towers on the same block.

One tower would abut the Hyatt Centric hotel and another would surround the church and gas station, which will be completely rebuilt, according to a 2021 press release.

In advance of this project, Arlington Temple United Methodist Church has relocated to 1701 N. Bryan Street, just north of Courthouse, according to Rev. Martha “Marti” Ringenbach.

As for progress on this development, Snell did demolish 1820 Fort Myer Drive in October but a construction start date has not been determined, a spokeswoman for the developer tells ARLnow. She noted Snell was not aware of this demolition permit.

Once underway, the redevelopment will also advance the 18th Street Corridor by building up a segment from Fort Myer Drive to N. Nash Street, the 2021 release said.

In proposing a corridor that is partially inaccessible to cars, the sector plan admits that the 1960s-era skywalks were a bit of a failed experiment.

These skywalks were “designed to connect blocks, buildings and uses efficiently while keeping pedestrians separated from vehicular traffic,” the plan says. “The execution of the skywalk concept fell short of expectations in some cases, which combined with a renewed focus on directing pedestrian activity to the street level, has led to an incremental deconstruction of the system over the past 15 years.”

Rosslyn’s skywalks were declassé even before the new millenium, according to a scathing write-up in a 1999 study of Rosslyn.

“To the planners of the early 50’s and 60’s, presumably it seemed orderly and logical to separate the pedestrian flow with its erratic, unpredictable movements, from the fast-moving steel machines of the road,” a consulting firm wrote in the report. “Buried in the back of the planners’ minds perhaps lingered images of the piazza at San Marco in Venice or those of Rome. If so, in the instance of Rosslyn, something was lost in translation.”

Two new apartment buildings in Crystal City are almost ready for residents to move in.

Construction started on the two residential towers at 1900 Crystal Drive in 2021, nearly one year to the day after JBG Smith received approval to redevelop the aging office building previously there.

Now, JBG Smith tells ARLnow it expects residents can starting moving into the buildings — a 3-minute walk from Amazon’s second headquarters — this February. The developer has already begun receiving partial certificates of occupancy for certain floors of one tower, dubbed “The Grace.”

JBG Smith said it expects to wrap up construction by the third quarter of 2024.

The 583,000-square-foot north tower, The Grace, and a 567,500-square-foot south tower, called “Reva,” are each 300 feet tall and, across them, have 808 rental units and about 40,000 square feet of street-level retail. A pedestrian-friendly street bisecting the towers will connect 18th and 20th Streets S. and a not-yet-built park.

The Crystal City Sector Plan envisions this park space as the largest in Crystal City, at about 74,000 square feet. The plan says it “would allow for a wide variety of uses, such as passive recreation, exhibitions, concerts, festivals, cafes, some temporary kiosk retail, and evening outdoor movies” among other uses, says Dept. of Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Jerry Solomon.

JBG Smith granted to the county a public park easement of approximately 45,000 square feet to establish this open space, dubbed “Center Park.” The county received the easement understanding that the rest of the proposed public space would come as part of a future development, Solomon said.

JBG Smith also contributed $300,000 for the park’s master planning, a community engagement process where people will weigh in on programmed elements and other features.

“The current [Capital Improvement Plan] envisions the design of Center Park to begin in FY 2025 with construction to begin some time in FY 2027,” she said in an email. “In July 2024, the County Board will be considering the FY 2025-2034 CIP which may contain changes to the potential timelines and funding for public space development within the Crystal City corridor.”

While residents of The Grace and Reva can start moving in February, it is looking like a summer opening for at least some of the six announced businesses move into the ground floor retail spaces.

Per window dressings and Arlington County permits, 1900 Crystal Drive will be home to new outposts of Tatte Bakery & Cafe, a the ice cream shop Van Leeuwen, D.C.’s Chinese-French fusion restaurant Bar Chinois and Cuban café and bar Colada Shop, a nail salon called nailsaloon, and New York City-based botox spa Peachy.

Nailsaloon recently opened a location in Chevy Chase and aims to move into Crystal City this summer, a spokeswoman said.

Colada Shop is also targeting a summer opening, a company spokeswoman said.

The other businesses did not respond to requests for more information about when they might open.

JBG Smith says it still has some retail space to fill, so additional announcements may be coming.

From rendering to reality. The 1900 Crystal Drive development is transforming National Landing's skyline with its two standout towers – the Grace and Reva.

🔗 Learn more: https://t.co/vzv0WOcE8i pic.twitter.com/2hcnfrpIyn

— NationalLanding (@NationalLanding) January 3, 2024

The Pentagon City Metro Station’s second elevator project is now facing yet another delay and a request for more funds.

At its meeting this Saturday, the Arlington County Board is set to discuss adding another $4.4 million in local funds to construct a second Metro elevator on the west side of S. Hayes Street.

If approved, the project’s total cost would jump from $12.8 million to $17.3 million, marking the second budget amendment in less than two years due to construction delays, per a county report. The project is backed with federal, state and local funds.

The new funding is projected to extend the project’s duration by six months. During this time, the county plans to review the construction contract and seek to “recover liquidated damages” for the continued delays, the report said.

The Pentagon City Metro station has one of the highest ridership rates in Northern Virginia, the report says. To access an elevator, however, pedestrians need to cross six lanes of traffic to access one on the east side of S. Hayes Street, opposite the Pentagon City mall. The project aims to provide a safer alternative for pedestrians, particularly those with mobility issues.

Awarded the contract in February 2021, Maryland-based W.M. Schlosser Company began construction on the second elevator later that year. The initial project estimate was $6.4 million and was scheduled for completion in spring 2022.

In November 2022, unforeseen site conditions and supply chain issues prompted the county to increase the project’s budget to $12.8 million, following a request from W.M. Schlosser to extend the deadline to this summer.

Just over a year later, W.M. Schlosser is again seeking to extend its contract to October 2025. The company predicts the construction could be finished by October 2024 but is asking for extra time and funds to cover potential further delays.

County officials, however, allege that the contractor has failed to provide adequate evidence justifying an extension beyond six months, per the staff report. Without adequate justification for further delays, the county says it has notified the contractor of its intention to seek damages for the late completion.

So far, the county has invested about $8 million, which could increase to about $12.4 million if a six-month extension is granted.

W.M. Schlosser disputes the county’s allegations, per the report. The company did not respond to a request before publication.

While construction is set to continue, the county says it will limit its use to a “minimal amount of contingency” funds as the county attorney reviews the terms of the county contract with W.M. Schlosser.

With work beginning to wrap up on the new Fire Station 8 in Halls Hill, the county is asking residents to share mementos from the station’s past.

The artifacts, which can be donated temporarily or permanently, will go on display in the station’s public lobby exhibition dedicated to the history of Fire Station 8.

Fire Station 8 was the only station in segregation-era Arlington with Black firefighters, all volunteers, who responded to service calls that fire stations in white neighborhoods would not take. The station, which did not receive county support back then, raised the money for equipment with cookouts.

Now, the forthcoming, newly-built Arlington County Fire Department station at 4845 Langston Blvd will have updated amenities and sustainable features such as a “green” (vegetated) roof and rooftop solar panels. In addition to the lobby exhibition, it will have a plaza and pathway honoring the legacy of their fire station, which Halls Hill residents shared during the design process.

“You’ve shared memories, stories, anecdotes, and most of all, the love and respect that flourished between you, your neighbors, and the tireless dedication of the firefighters who worked, overcame, and achieved so much for and on behalf of the Halls Hill community,” according to a letter soliciting donations. “We would love to display your photographs, awards, artifacts, mementos, and more.”

The donation call is ongoing and the county does not have any pieces to share with the public yet, says Alyson Jordan Tomaszewski, a spokeswoman with Arlington’s Dept. of Environmental Services.

Suggested donations she shared with ARLnow include:

• Candid photos
• Programs or invitations for events sponsored by the station
• Artifacts from individuals (e.g., parts of uniform, helmet, buttons, pins, awards)
• Artifacts from the station (e.g., banners, signs, tools, equipment)

As for construction, Tomaszewski said most of the interior finishes on the new station have been completed. Through mid-winter of 2024, crews will focus on installing sidewalks, curbs and gutters.

After this work is complete, ACFD plans to start operating from the new building, where the old station formerly stood. Firefighters will move out of the temporary station next door, at 2217 N. Culpeper Street, where they have been working since December 2021.

Just prior to spring, crews will remove and store the temporary station, do landscaping work and add a parking lot, Tomaszewski said.

“Once this is complete, there will be a grand opening event for the public,” she said.

Sometime next year, three residential streets in Arlington without sidewalks could get upgrades to allow for safer pedestrian and cyclist use.

To help address demonstrated safety and access issues on S. Lynn Street, N. Wakefield Street and 12th Street S., Arlington County’s Neighborhood Complete Streets Program is considering piloting “shared streets.”

On these streets, the county would slow down traffic and give cyclists and pedestrians more space through signs, barriers and other features, rather than building a sidewalk.

County staff picked these streets because they have incomplete sidewalks and characteristics “that make adding a sidewalk prohibitively difficult,” says Neighborhood Complete Streets Program Manager Michelle Stafford.

These characteristics include limited public right-of-way, difficult terrain and high parking demand. The streets also ranked above other streets nominated for the pilot program because of their crash histories as well as their proximity to schools, commercial corridors and transit.

“People currently drive, bike and walk in the street in these locations, but we can add features to the street to make that shared street conditions safer and more comfortable for all,” Stafford said in a recent presentation.

The identified streets in the Arlington Ridge, Douglas Park and Bluemont neighborhoods, and the challenges they pose for adding sidewalks, are as follows:

Shared streets can surmount these challenges, according to pilot project manager Brian Shelton.

“Shared streets can meet the desires of adjacent residents and function foremost as a public space for recreation, socializing and leisure,” Shelton said. “Many streets in Arlington already function as a shared street, however, we are missing some of the treatments which would enhance pedestrian comfort on these roadways.”

Shelton said staff have looked at recommended shared street tools from the National Association of City Transportation Officials, or NATCO, and opted to pursue a handful of strategies that make use of temporary materials and do not require significant construction.

These include midblock treatment options, such as chicanes — which narrow the road such that drivers are forced to slow down — and street entrance changes, including curb extensions.

Entrances to shared streets also typically have advisory signs and pavement markings to “eliminate the confusion of how the street is intended to be used,” Shelton said.

This fall, the county solicited feedback from residents on how the projects might change how they feel travelling these roads. This input will be used to refine designs, which are set to be finalized for funding hearings in early spring of next year.

Later this coming spring, the county expects to start implementing these shared streets. County staff will monitor these streets to ensure each corridor is functioning as intended, per the county website.

The first homes being built on the old Febrey-Lothrop Estate could be ready for move-in early next year.

Developer Toll Brothers says its nine quick move-in homes at ‘The Grove at Dominion Hills’ are in progress and expected to come online in early 2024, according to the company’s D.C. Metro Division President Nimita Shah.

A model home has been open for tours since September, she said.

The first available models, per the website, are each 3-story, 5-bedroom homes priced at $1.9 million. They come with interior and exterior finishes picked out by designers.

There are 10 to-be-built home sites available, for which home buyers can choose their floor plan and personalize their finishes, says Shah.

Potential homebuyers can also take a “hard hat tour” of a home next Sunday from 1-3 p.m, according to the website.

The aging but notable Febrey-Lothrop house on the 9-plus-acre estate, at the corner of Wilson Blvd and N. McKinley Road, was demolished to make way for news housing after local preservationists, including the Arlington Historical Society, were unable to find a way to stop the project in time.

Attempts to get the county to purchase the site, parts of which date back at least to the Civil War, or to give it a local historic designation, failed.

The history of the site lives on in the names of some of the home design names — dubbed “Randolph,” “Rouse” and “Woodward.”

Alvin Lothrop, one of the namesakes of the Febrey-Lothrop Estate, was a founder of the Woodward and Lothrop department stores chain in 1898. The estate’s last owner before Toll Brothers was a trust for the local sportsman Randy Rouse.

The history, however, will be preserved in part through markers the Dominion Hills Civic Association plans to put up.

“We are in the research and design phase, including seeking input from members of our community,” says civic association President Terri Schwartzbeck.

The civic association received a $6,600 grant from Arlington County to create and install them.

“This land represents a rich swath of Arlington’s history, and the signage will include information about the Powhatan people, the Civil War, and the 20th century,” the county press release said at the time. “These new markers will allow residents and visitors to share in this forgotten history.”

The community includes new streets, curbs, utilities and street trees, Shah noted. In a bid to improve stormwater retention and water filtration, Toll Brothers added permeable driveways and, for each home, rainwater collection tanks and planter boxes.

Construction has started on a project to “repair and rehabilitate” an ’80s-era parking garage over I-66.

The unique parking structure adjacent to Washington-Liberty High School was in need of work “to improve safety and extend the overall life of the garage.”

Virginia Dept. of Transportation crews recently started work on the nearly $4 million project, which is expected to wrap up late next year. Some overnight lane closures on I-66 are expected during that time.

More, below, from a VDOT press release.

Work is underway to repair and rehabilitate the parking garage over I-66 between North Stafford Street and North Quincy Street to improve safety and extend the overall life of the garage, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.

The three-story concrete garage was built in 1982 and is adjacent to Washington-Liberty High School.

The project includes:

• Garage platform and ramp repairs with joint replacement
• Repairs to beams and columns
• Partial removal of the elastomeric bearing sheets

During construction:

• Overnight lane closures may be scheduled on I-66 in the area of the garage
• The Custis Trail parallel to the garage will remain open to bicyclists and pedestrians

The $3.9 million Parking Garage Repairs over I-66 Project is financed with state funding.

The project is scheduled for completion in late 2024.

Drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians are reminded to use caution when traveling in active work zones. Be alert to new traffic patterns and limit distractions.

The outer structure of George Mason University’s $235 million expansion project in Arlington is complete.

The university celebrated the “topping out” milestone last Friday with tours of the under-construction FUSE at Mason Square structure on its Virginia Square campus.

During the event, students and faculty showcased the types of work the new, tech-oriented facility will house, including the development of robotic limbs and disaster simulation research.

The university broke ground on the 345,000-square-foot building at 3351 Fairfax Drive in January 2022. Previously, the site was home to the old Kann’s Department store, which was demolished in March 2021.

Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. The new facility is expected to serve 750 students initially and up to 2,000 students within the next five years, according to a GMU spokesperson. It will dedicate 60% of its space to university programs and lease the remaining area for retail and private office use.

The building will house GMU’s Institute for Digital Innovation and the newly minted School of Computing, which will offer courses in artificial intelligence, data analytics and cybersecurity.

The Arlington campus is already a hub for several of GMU’s schools, spanning policy, law, conflict resolution and business.

The university’s president, Gregory Washington, told ARLnow that housing technology and social science disciplines under one roof will improve how society adopts new technologies, such as artificial intelligence.

“Engineers alone can’t do it. You need humanists. You need social scientists, and you need business people. We got all of them here working together on the next generation of problems,” he said. “That’s the difference you will see here that you don’t see many other places,”

Washington is also betting on the new facility in Arlington attracting talent that might otherwise choose bigger-name research institutions, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“If you go to MIT, what you’ll find is that the facility we’re building is… better than 95% of the facilities they have,” he said.

During the event, Arlington Economic Development Director Ryan Touhill highlighted the potential for the new facility to energize the local tech sector, which has grown rapidly in recent years, particularly with the arrival of major tech companies like Amazon.

“This project can’t be coming online at a better time,” he said. “We’re really focused in Arlington County and regionally on growing our homegrown tech sector. And that’s part of our long-term economic growth strategy.”

Demolition of the old Inner Ear Studios in Green Valley is expected to start this month, after some delays.

“This project was delayed after the discovery of unforeseen structural conditions with the adjoining building,” Arlington Dept. of Environmental Services Public Engagement Specialist Alyson Jordan Tomaszewski told ARLnow.

“After modifying the construction plans, we are now expecting demolition to start later this month and conclude in spring 2024,” she continued, noting that the issues were discovered in May.

Arlington County acquired the nearly 70-year-old warehouse and building at 2700 S. Nelson and 2701 S. Oakland streets — once the epicenter of the D.C. punk scene — in late 2021.

Deeming the building structurally unsound, the county decided to demolish it and build a flexible open space for arts programming. It aims to create an arts and industry district in Green Valley and make the arts more accessible in south Arlington.

The county approved a contract for demolition work last December and, at the time, work was expected to take 180 days and wrap up this summer. The surprise structural conditions have delayed the timeline several months and depleted the contingency budget down to $15,700, per a county report.

This weekend, the Arlington County Board is set to approve a $100,000 contract increase to cover “unforeseen conditions that are likely to be revealed” during the remaining work, the report says.

“Previously authorized contingency has been expended to implement structural modifications that were required due to unknown structural connections with adjoining buildings,” the report says. “The structural modifications have been resolved and demolition of the building is proceeding.”

If approved, the new funds will bring the total contract with Demolition Services, Inc. to nearly $547,750. Even with the contract increase, the overall budget for this project remains unchanged at $1,136,633, the report says.

Meantime, this August, the county released the final design plans for the new, temporary art space. It will be nestled among the Arlington Food Assistance Center and the Arlington Cultural Affairs building — now home to an outpost of Arlington Independent Media — and across from Jennie Dean Park.

A project webpage projects the space will be installed and open in 2024.

The designs take inspiration from Inner Ear Studios and nearby Four Mile Run, according to a video.

A plywood drum riser salvaged from Inner Ear Studios will sit atop a small outdoor stage, which has as a backdrop the corner of a wall saved from the original building.

“This small performance area serves as a monument to the creativity of the hundreds of local and national bands that recorded on this site from 1990 to 2021,” the video says. “Through a public workshop the wall will be decorated with wheatpasted print media including historical and cultural contributions from local communities and reprinted album covers from records recorded here.”

Thin blue and teal lines will criss-cross the pavement, evoking “a flowing river,” while string lights will serve as “gateways into the space,” the video says.

Lawns on either side of the small, Inner Ear-inspired stage will have outdoor sculptures and a mobile stage with a screen for movie projections. Planted berms and concrete blocks will provide a seating while a pergola will double as a shade structure and outdoor art gallery.

Inner Ear Studios has since relocated to the basement of owner Don Zientara’s Arlington house.