Renovations to the Chinatown gate at 7th and H Streets, NW, known locally as the Friendship Arch, are now complete after a $300,000 touch-up. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities led the restoration work. This was the first major renovation to the arch since it was installed in 1986.

The Friendship Arch is the world's largest single-span Chinese arch.  The top of the arch is now illuminated, so the structure doesn't seem so out of place with the rest of the video billboards and neon that have popped up around the intersection.

More than 100 people packed a room yesterday evening to hear the latest plans for Howard University Town Center, a $150 million mixed-use development on land owned by Howard University and planned by Castlerock Partners, AVCO Interests, and Hardie Industries. 

The development team offered that they are probably a week or two away from finalizing a 99-year ground lease with the university which would enable them to get serious on design and leasing for the site that is bounded by Georgia Avenue, 8th Street, and W Street in NW DC.

The 2.2 acre site is envisioned to contain between 300 and 450 apartments, mostly market-rate, and between 70,000 and 125,000 square feet of retail.  Quite a spread, eh?  The development team pointed out that no retailers have signed up for space yet in the project and that plans are very fluid right now on the final amounts of residential and retail space, all depending on the results of various market studies that are still in progress. 

The team also offered that the usual retail suspects are in the running for space at the site, including Giant, Safeway, Shopper's Food Warehouse, CVS, and Walgreens and with a few surprises such as Fresh Grocer and ShopRite. They also envision a bookstore on the site.elcoming human-scale environment for pedestrians.

Devrouax & Purnell Architects is designing the site plan.  The building envelope seems decent and in keeping with guidelines set forth in the District's Comprehensive Plan for Georgia Avenue.