Park Arlington At Courthouse

Project Description

The Clarion Collection Hotel Arlington Court Suites was built in 1963, occupying a prominent, nine-story location over 2.3 acres at the intersection of North Courthouse Road and Arlington Boulevard in Arlington, Virginia. The building offers convenient transportation options, including easy access to major traffic arteries, and proximity to the Courthouse Metro Station’s Orange, Blue, and Silver lines.

VIKA was engaged to lead the entitlement and site design process for the adaptive reuse of the 187-unit hotel to a 180-residential building, offering smaller units at lower price points. In addition to interior and exterior building renovations, site improvements include pedestrian circulation enhancements, new bike racks, and environmentally friendly elements that promote Arlington’s biophilic goals as part of the Biophilic City Network. Additionally, proximity to the metro station allowed the project to reduce on-site parking while still meeting the project’s marketability goals.

Among the “environmentally friendly” elements noted above, overall stormwater goals have been exceeded using several strategies:

• Conversion of existing asphalt parking to landscape areas
• Replacement of existing asphalt with a permeable paver system
• Removal of turf areas and installing a mix of native trees, shrubs, and groundcovers that encourage pollinator species and which reduce water requirements
• Installation of a stormwater pre-filter in an existing inlet
• Creation of a “boardwalk” feature that straddles an existing drainage channel and is bordered by enhanced planting.