The site of 1101 K Street occupies a unique location in the downtown:  the sidewalk in this area expands to 50-feet wide, making it possible to make a plaza and garden for the area and not just the customary streetscape. 

The design takes advantage of the large pedestrian population of the area to provide a useful space for tenants, flexible public space for users of the building’s retail shops and restaurants and a sensorily exciting place for the public.  This project also explores advanced methods of environmental stewardship in highly-urbanized settings, utilizing expansive below-grade soil vaults and connective root trenching to provide soil conditions capable of sustaining large canopy trees and mixed plantings. Organized into a set of sinuous forms, plantings and sculpture unite the site with the building’s entrance and outdoor restaurant seating.  These forms, legible to building occupants above, weave their way through a grove of trees and lights and encourage meandering pedestrian routes in addition to providing a sheltered, intimate dining experience.