NoMaCNTR

Located in Washington, DC’s NoMa neighborhood on the former site of a Greyhound bus terminal, the NoMaCNTR development features a new 13-story, 876,000 sf mixed-use building with a 235-room Washington Marriott hotel and the 472-unit REVEL apartments. The development also includes over 40,000 sf of retail and restaurant space, three levels of below-grade parking for almost 300 cars and several amenity spaces for residents including two large outdoor courtyards with ample green space and a roof top pool.

The building program was initially planned as a partial office building on the east side of the site, but due to a changing economic climate the development team soon realized that a change in the programming was necessary and pivoted to the next best alternative – a flag ship hotel for Marriott. Part of the goal for NoMaCNTR was to create a place of community for the surrounding neighborhood. In addition to the number of restaurants that the site will offer, the second-floor courtyard will serve as a place for people to gather and connect with one another.

The original building concept was designed to be U-shaped to provide additional separation between office and residential. To capture more square footage of the site due to the change in usage, it was decided to connect the two ends of the “U” at level seven and above. This revision was one of the most unique and challenging aspects of the building’s design because it required the structure to “bridge” a gap that was 60 feet long and 60 feet wide.  The design team explored several options with the resulting solution being both structurally feasible and aesthetically pleasing – a reversed steel king post truss located below level seven supported by V shaped steel tension rods on the front and back of the bridge. The entire system would then be connected to concrete encased steel columns at the roof level.