The Manhattan Project
Morning Roundup: Second Helpings Edition
Fire at 17th and L NW Forces Evacuations
Compromise Uncertain on Same-Sex Marriage Law
Increased Urban Walkability For The Win
The long, long saga of the empty warehouse space at 14th and T Streets NW has come to an end. Upscale furniture retailer Room & Board has finally gone ahead and bought the building, after dropping out of negotiations for a while and then eventually coming back and making another offer, Housing Complex reports. The building at one time had been targeted as a comedy club/yoga studio/lounge combo, but all those pipe dreams have at last gone up in smoke. From the press release:
Room & Board, a 29-year-old company offering handcrafted, American-made home furnishings, announced today it will open a new store in Washington, D.C., in the early spring of 2010. The store, located in the historic Taylor Motors Building at 14th and T, will be Room & Board’s second store on the east coast and eleventh store in the U.S....
The new store, located at 1840 14th Street Northwest, will initially employ approximately 50 design associates and staff members at its distribution center. The 31,600 square foot store will honor the historical integrity of the building and surrounding neighborhood. The existing shell will be refurbished to preserve its historic character, reflecting Room & Board’s environmental philosophy of design. Room & Board is currently searching for a separate distribution center in the area to facilitate customer deliveries.
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Hopefully, they'll have at least two styles of $9,999 leather couch I can choose from. Somebody has to keep the neighborhood "ghetto."
for all the whinging about this (and apparent kidding from my colleague above here), i'm glad to see that something constructive is coming here. hopefully the tryst crew can try putting their idea together somewhere else on the street (there's still space...)
I've already suggested yet-another-trendy-wine-bar, and still, no venture capital. Perhaps they could have a wine bar in the Room & Board lobby, so customers can get stinko while the salesfolk upsell them on a rust prevention package, because those leather couches will rust up on ya.
They should also consider a premium maintenance package that involves monthly removal of red wine/blood/semen stains.
comedy/yoga/lounge
Insert fart joke ________
They have stores in New York City (SoHo) and Atlanta. Wouldn't this be the third store on the east coast?
guess they're not considering atlanta (and georgia, for that matter) part of their east coast region. it's likely they define that has the middle atlantic and new england...
Fair enough. Maybe the whole General Sherman thing.
I saw a Room & Board truck in town just a couple of days ago and went online to look at their stuff. Nice, and prices sort of in line with Pottery Barn or Crate and Barrel. My only complaint is that no one seems to make furniture to fit in an urban bedroom space. Most bedroom sets would only fit in McMansion 500 sq. ft. bedroom, and that's the size of my entire condo. Anyone have any suggestions for where to find smaller-scaled furniture? I'd really like to graduate from my mismatched Ikea crap...
I will have to look around, but I think the Washington, DC area has stores that sell "Model Home" furniture which is "slightly" scaled down to make rooms look bigger. There was one such store in Tysons Corner.
Not really my style, but Pier One has scaled-furniture.
I don't know, it looks a little more pricey than Pottery Barn or C&B to me, but it's definitely well-made stuff that won't wear out after five years.
Check out CB2. Their furniture tends to fit pretty well in small spaces. I have a number of pieces from there that I absolutely love.
Let me preface this with my parents back in Wisconsin run one of the small businesses that makes one of their semi-custom furniture lines, so I may be a bit biased (ok alot biased in all honesty...I am super excited to see that they are moving into my neighborhood), but they have a section of the website that tells stories about people that have the furniture. One of the stories is a woman with a 500 square foot condo in Manhattan. Also several of the lines are semi custom and can be made as big or as small as you want them. Check out the story. They have pictures of her 1 bedroom condo. http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/ideas_advice/stories/lanie.ftl
(egads! That sounded like a spambot...so sorry!)
sorry...that was supposed to be a reply to AMDCer
it's good that the building is going to be redeveloped, but unfortunate that it will house a furniture store, something 14th Street has in droves.
They have a lot of sleek mid century modern and smaller scale furniture. They were one of the few places I found useful in furnishing smaller urban rooms. How small are you looking for?
My bedroom is probably about 150 sq'. The stuff I have now fits nicely, but again, all mismatched. The problem is finding "sets" that are smaller. Good tip about Pier 1, but not really my style, either.
I refuse to believe the assertion that a building of this size in Washington, DC will not eventually contain, somewhere within its walls, a CVS.
Is that the one that used to be a homeless shelter? If so, I used to volunteer there. I used to operate this old-school elevator they had. The job had its ups and downs.
Ladies and gentlemen, that's my time, you've been great! Make sure to tip your bartenders and waitresses...thank you very much! Good night!
Well played. This is right up my alley.
Finally. Welcome to the neighborhood, Room and Board. While I can certainly understand the concerns of local furniture stores, I would also like to see less vacant buildings on 14th street, especially with TMNT murals tagged on the side of the building. I was more of a Gobots and MASK man myself.
MASK, nice! I think I had the giant transforming mountain playset. Or maybe a friend did. It was awesome.
i bought my bedroom furniture from this company. looks better online than in real life and the craftsmanship could be better. the stuff i have seems pretty similar to the quality of West Elm, maybe a little better. the console i got from crate & barrel was built better i think.
AMDCer-
There are plenty of good local furniture stores already in that area, and I know Vastu does small scale furniture. They're right across the street from the R & B location and are locally owned.