Colette is part of The Stacks, a new 6-acre, 2 million-square-foot mixed-use development on Washington, DC's Southwest Waterfront. The multi-building project includes a variety of residential and retail, with an emphasis on public open space. Rather than following the standard organizational grid of DC's blocks, The Stacks is broken into smaller blocks by a winding Corso that cuts through the neighborhood, creating open space and view opportunities. When complete The Stacks will include over a thousand apartments in a lively, walkable neighborhood anchored by human-scale buildings.

Colette includes a mix of both traditional and co-living units, as well as a large co-working space and ground level retail. The boomerang-shaped structure is broken up visually in order to break down the scale; lower floors are clad in brick to create an intimate feel from the pedestrian's perspective, while upper floors are broken into multiple façade approaches that relate to the adjacent buildings. Each facade expression reflects the industrial nature of DC's former waterfront uses by emphasizing metal and glass, but the scale and style of the windows differs as one travels around the building. The co-working space, clad in brick, has a separate entrance and includes an open-air roof deck.