Developer EastBanc will today host a “topping out ceremony” to celebrate installing the final exterior beam of its West End fire station project at 23rd and M Streets, NW. A couple blocks away, the developer is also working on a new library. Both buildings—expected to be completed next year—veer drastically from what you’d traditionally imagine such community staples to entail.
The West End fire station project will house 55 units of affordable housing (for residents earning no more than 60 percent of area median income), along with what is possibly the most intense squash facility ever. Dubbed Squash on Fire, the 19,700-square-foot space will boast eight courts, including a “showcase court” encased in glass, plus a full-service restaurant and a bar.
The new 21,000-square-foot library is part of a ten-story building, housing 164 condos and rental apartments on the upper floors, with 7,300 square feet of retail on the ground floor. Both the library and fire station complexes were designed by TEN Arquitectos and are being constructed as a public-private partnership between the city of DC, EastBanc, The JBG Companies, and Clark Enterprises.
Marisa M. Kashino joined Washingtonian in 2009 and was a senior editor until 2022.
