Kennedy Center Chooses CarrAmerica to Head Up New Project

WASHINGTON, DC-Members of the Board of Directors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts have made a major move toward getting a plaza extension project underway with the recent designation of CarrAmerica Realty Corp. affiliate CarrAmerica Urban Development LLC as the contractor and director for the $250 million undertaking. Celebrated architect Rafael Viñoly has long been on board to design the highly anticipated project.

The plaza expansion endeavor will occupy eight acres and feature two new steel and glass buildings adorning a centrally located water fountain. An education center with exhibition space will take up one of the structures, while rehearsal and additional office space for Washington Opera and Kennedy Center performers and employees will be housed in the other building. Plans for the project, which are still in the earliest development stages, call for a total of 400,000 sf of structural space. “These particulars are very preliminary, and a lot of this might change,” Frances C. Gretes of Rafael Viñoly Architects PC tells GlobeSt.com.