Located along the Washington Channel of the Potomac River, The Wharf is a new mixed-use development that stretches for a mile along Washington, D.C.’s southwest waterfront. The Wharf boasts a marina, waterfront promenade, shops, restaurants, hotels, office space, multi-family buildings comprised of 1,377 residences, The Anthem performance venue, 10 acres of new parks and open spaces, and the longest operating fish market in the country. The vision and construction of The Wharf is led by Hoffman & Associates and Madison Marquette, with 13 parcels being developed in two phases.
AKF Group (AKF) is proud to be working on Parcel 8, a 13-story mixed-use building of approximately 386,000 SF with architecture inspired by ODA Architecture. The structure will consist of multi-family rentals, a boutique hotel, and a commercial retail program. For the new development, AKF is providing mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and life safety design, as well as architectural lighting design by Lightcraft, a division of AKF.
Once completed, the building will be an important part of the rejuvenated District Wharf, but the project’s program and overall building design created unique challenges for the project team to overcome.
The optimization of 15 floor plates within a 150-foot building height limitation resulted in tight construction floor elevations. To coordinate with the elevations, AKF provided primarily smaller decentralized mechanical systems to minimize equipment and distribution sizes. This extended to electrical, plumbing, and life safety distribution to ensure desirable ceiling heights throughout. Since residential and hotel areas require extensive MEP infrastructure, AKF worked closely with the design and construction teams to accommodate these needs.