With the city’s red-hot housing market showing no signs of easing, dozens of luxury condominium projects are either under construction or opening soon throughout the city, especially downtown and near Metro stations. On the web, DCGentrification.com has listings of projects along U Street and in Columbia Heights, JD Land’s Near Southeast webpage contains an impressive compendium of information about development in that region, and DCLofts.com has an exhaustive listing of “Lofts, loft-style, and urban condo living in Washington DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland.”
Along Wisconsin Avenue north of Georgetown the Georgetown Heights building, a project by the Walnut Street Development Company, is just one of the dozens of luxury condominium buildings popping up in the region. The project is seen here in a photo taken in December, currently the structure of the building reaches two stories. The building will contain 44 “homes from $700,000 to $2 million plus” for “gracious cosmopolitan living.” There’s only one problem: the project isn’t in Georgetown – it’s two neighborhoods away. Presumably the residents could traipse the 1.3 miles to Georgetown down Wisconsin Avenue (or catch a 30 bus), but they’d have to pass through Glover Park and Burleith on the way. Sure, these are two neighborhoods many of the city’s Metro-hopping young professionals have never heard of, but they’re real neighborhoods, complete with newsletters, community groups, and commercial identities.
Of course, what we termed “name imperialism” in July 2004 is nothing new to the District – with “Dupont Circle” perhaps being the most abused neighborhood moniker. What’s your favorite example of misnaming?
