Kelly Wallace, construction executive with Bozzuto, leads a tour of CUA architecture students.
From Catholic University's south side of campus along Michigan Avenue, a large crane can be seen looming in the sky. The methodical banging of a pile driver can be heard in the distance.
On April 12, a sunny and blustery morning, that active construction site along five city blocks served as a real-world classroom for a group of graduate and undergraduate students from CUA's School of Architecture and Planning.
The Monroe Street Market project - a $200 million development - will transform the University's South Campus into a vibrant, mixed-use community.
The University has partnered with residential real estate company The Bozzuto Group, developer Abdo Development, and real estate investment company Pritzker Realty Group on the project.
Kelly Wallace, construction executive for Bozzuto, greeted the students as they walked through dirt and gravel and up the steps to his trailer, which serves as the construction site's command center. He handed out hard hats and gave an overview of safety precautions. Pointing to a large diagram of the development on the wall, he explained how the project is divided into blocks of land.
"Blocks A, B, and C are all underway. We'll have apartment buildings on top of retail, and below-ground parking. Block D hasn't started yet. It will be a community center designed to connect with the arts theme of the development."
Construction on Block C started in December, Block B a month and a half later, and Block A a few weeks ago. The phased starts, said Wallace, "help organize the chaos."
The tour began at Block A where the excavation is just underway. Wallace invited four construction superintendants along for the tour.
The students and their professors, Julie Ju-Youn Kim, associate professor and director of the Summer Institute for Architecture, and Barry Yatt, professor and associate dean for research, talked shop with them throughout the tour - asking questions and sharing ideas.
Architecture students survey the Block B excavation, which is halfway complete.
At Block B, the group stood behind a rope looking down some 16 feet to the excavation that is halfway complete. Wallace pointed out where the Clock Tower and piazza will serve as the entrance to the development from Michigan Avenue. As they crossed Seventh Street toward CUA's Maloney Hall, he explained how the "awkward island" between Seventh and Monroe will be removed so that Seventh will "hit Michigan at a 90-degree angle."
At the Block C site, the students viewed a completed excavation and a concrete foundation. As they stood on gravel amid piles of rebar, Yatt asked the students if they knew why the rebar is covered with rust. "The rough surface allows it to adhere to the concrete better," answered one student.
Another student asked how many pounds of concrete the bucket hanging from a crane holds. "Two [cubic] yards at 4,000 pounds a yard. But if that bucket goes further out to the end of the crane, it would only be able to hold about half a yard," said Wallace.
The concrete floor and walls of a large parking garage were clearly visible at Block C, the busiest site with a construction crew of about 80 who were hard at work. "You can see the concrete columns. They mark where two buildings will be built over the garage. In the middle of the two buildings will be a plaza. Look for the flat rebar on top of the columns. That helps you visualize where the plaza will be," said Wallace.
The tour was organized by CUA's chapter of American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS).
"I was excited about the Monroe Street Market project before the tour and I am even more excited now," said senior Ryan Nugent, of New Orleans, who is president of CUA-AIAS. "It's so great to see a crane over Catholic University again. It's a sign of progress."
Nugent will be a graduate architecture student in the fall and by the end of the tour, he had already made plans with Wallace to organize a fall student tour of the site.
Senior Andrew Laux, of Newtown, Pa., vice president of CUA- AIAS, worked closely with Wallace to set up the tour. "It was so great to see students talking with construction managers as peers. It shows us how far we've come. We understood the project and we knew what questions to ask. It's so important to see the concepts you study and use in the classroom at work in a real project."
Monroe Street Market will consist of approximately 720 residential units, 45 townhomes, 83,000 square feet of street-level retail, 15,000 square feet of artist studio space, a 3,000 square-foot community arts center, and 850 parking spaces. At a groundbreaking ceremony last November, Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray said the project should serve as a "prototype" for relationships between universities and their surrounding communities.
