A rendering of the proposed car barn on the campus of Spingarn High School.

The D.C. Department of Transportation yesterday unveiled new renderings of a proposed $50 million streetcar maintenance and training facility that the city hopes to located on the campus of Spingarn High School along Benning Road NE.

The renderings show a modern-looking facade fronting Benning Road and a more traditional brick structure facing the school behind it; the streetcars running along H Street NE and Benning Road would enter and exit from the western side of the building. The proposed design differs from an original concept which was white and silver and much blockier; streetcars entered that facility from the east and exiting from the west.

The new design is a means to tamp down on some opposition among Ward 5 residents to placing the car barn on the school’s campus. While Mayor Vince Gray has insisted that the campus is the most cost-effective location, the Kingman Park Civic Association recently filed a request to make the entire campus a historic landmark. If that designation were granted, it could slow down the design and construction process for the car barn, effectively pushing the streetcar’s launch into 2014.

D.C. officials seem to have thought ahead, though, and earlier this month the Historic Preservation Office wrote that the new design largely comported with regulations governing new buildings on historic sites:

Through a combination of massing and orientation, the currently proposed concept design establishes a logical and complimentary relationship to the arrangement and hierarchy of buildings on the campus and to their open setting. The proposed red brick of the maintenance facility contrasted with the light colored solid materials and translucent glass of the office portion of the car barn also relate directly to the schools’ predominant red brick and limestone color palette. In short, the concept as currently proposed appears to be generally compatible with its historic context. However, some further refinement of the building design and site features will likely be necessary to better relate the new facility to the historic schools and other historic properties in the surrounding area, including the landmarked Langston Terrace Dwellings which are located just to the west.

To mitigate other concerns over how the streetcar line could affect historical elements along its route, D.C. officials have even started considering rehabbing historic streetcars for use on the H Street line.