Colette at The Stacks
Handel Architects is part of a team of designers collaborating on The Stacks, a new multi-building development in DC's Capitol Riverfront district.
The Stacks is a new 6-acre, 2 million-square-foot mixed-use development on Washington, DC's Southwest Waterfront. The multi-building project will include 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 will be broken into smaller blocks by a winding Corso that will cut 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.
Handel Architects is leading the design of Colette, which will include nearly 400 luxury residential rental 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 two façade approaches that relate to one another but are still distinct. Both facades reflect 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, will have a separate entrance and feature an open-air roof deck.