Report from Park View UNC Meeting

While several issues were discussed at last night’s Park View UNC meeting, the highlight was definitely the presentation by Ted Trabue of the Green Builders Council of DC and architect Greg Kearley of inscapestudio as they presented their ideas for the properties at 3628-3632 Georgia Avenue, DC.

It seems that their concept has evolved since PoP first reported that a bar was coming to Georgia Avenue. The Green Room looks to be anything but a typical neighborhood bar. From the drawings displayed at the meeting the goal is currently a high end, media heavy space. Emphasis will be on seating rather than packing folks in. Entertainment may be anything from sports to politics to music. As you might expect, the newly crafted space will meet the minimum LEED Basic level for green buildings.

The Current proposal is only for the building at 3632 (next to Looking Glass). If the economy picks up, they hope to have the planned five-story building they ultimately envision started in 3+ years. Time will tell on that.

Other meeting topics

Other items that were raised were concerns on traffic speed along Park Place, street cleaning along Park Place, a proposed curb cut on Warder Street, and illegal dumping behind the Fisherman of Men Church. I’ll report more on these topics as they are more fully developed in months to come.

New Additions to Historic Structures

The alley facades of many Capitol Hill homes do not look like the historic fronts

Here’s a debate I’ve been having with a neighbor of mine: When you add on to a building that’s  90+ years old, do you have to keep the style of the older structure or are you allowed to depart from that style?

Historical Districts and codes aside, I’d like to know what people think from a personal perspective.

I view is that there should be truth in architecture and that construction should be of its time. If that means you meticulously restore a historic house and then put a modern addition on it, to me that’s acceptable. Unify styles with form, scale, and color.

My neighbor thinks that any construction connected to an older building should look like the older building. While I can see where some MAY want to go that route, I don’t agree that it is the only correct way to proceed.

This Date in History

July 29, 1922: According to an announcement made by the office of D. J. Dunigan, three groups of houses at Grant Circle on Varnum and Fourth streets had been completed. The homes were of brick construction, contained six and eight rooms, and had all the newest conveniences. The moderately priced homes were on deep lots, with some even having large brick garages in the rear.

Mr. Dunigan also stated that approximately 200 dwellings would be erected in this addition to Petworth. The tract covered six city blosck, with fifteen frontages. The boundaries of the development were Rock Creek Church Road to the east, Webster Street on the north, Grant Circle on the west, and Upshur Street to the south.

Bittersweet Corner Store Update

I was hoping that my last update on the store being renovated at the corner of Rock Creek Church Road and Warder would be more positive than this, but I guess  sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. It is the goal of the owners to have it opened in the next couple of weeks. As you can see from the one image, the interior is coming along. It looks like its going to be a nice, open area.

Now for the bad, within the last 24 hours, vandal have damaged the glass of the front door and one of the windows. While this validates the recent addition of bars on the windows, I think its sad that the store was targeting before its even had a chance to open. You may recall it was also the victim of graffiti back on June 19th.

NPR Moving to 1111 N. Capitol

I was a little surprised to see a sign outside of 1111 N. Capitol over the weekend announcing that it was going to be the future site of NPR.

Until recently, the current building there was leased to the Smithsonian Institution for several functions not needed on the Mall, such as storage for unused furniture and obsolete electronics and overflow storage for seldom used library materials.

I’m unsure what “future site of … ” means, but hope it indicates a new building will occupy the site rather than a renovated structure.

Perhaps a reader can shed more light on this subject.

Jim Graham Announces Financing of Park View CVS and Other Ward 1 News

From and email sent by Jim Graham tonight:

This week the D.C. Council approved emergency bills I introduced to help two important projects on Georgia Avenue.

One bill authorizes District financing assistance for the development of a CVS Pharmacy at Georgia and New Hampshire Avenues. This CVS is a long time coming for the Park View and Petworth neighborhoods. It will be a convenient addition to the growing communities.

The other authorizes closing the alley between Georgia and Sherman Avenues on Lamont Street. It will be replaced with a wider, more functional alley.

This will help with the construction of a new multi-family residential building at Georgia Avenue and Lamont Street. The building will house 69 units, at least half of which will be affordable.

Both of these developments are walking distance from the Georgia Ave-Petworth Metro station on the Green Line.

… and Speaking of Bruce Monroe Redevelopment

I’m for getting rid of the old Bruce Monroe school 100%. I think its an eye sore and don’t see how you expect children to learn in anything that even remotely looks like a prison.

That said, do we really need to spend money building a new school? Currently the Bruce Monroe school is using the historic Park View Elementary. From the neighbors I’ve talked to, we love it. Its a far more attractive building, in a more attractive residential neighborhood, with a large grass sports field across the street from it.

Why can’t the school continue to use Park View Elementary? Georgia Avenue is largely, or at least once was, a commercial corridor. Is that really where we want our children?

Out of curiosity, I’d like to know what others think, whether it is in the poll or as a comment. 

Update on the Bruce Monroe Elementary School Demolition Schedule

I got the following notice form the Georgia Avenue group listserv:

–Demolition of the Bruce Monroe School is supposed to start on/or around July 15, 2009. (A press conference is being planned at the site the morning that demolition starts.)

–Demolition will take approximately three (3) months. (Work will proceed every Monday – Saturday from 7 AM to 7 PM. Signs will go up around the site.)

–Solicitation of construction bids will begin on July, 15, 2009. It will take 60 to 75 after the closing of the bids to evaluate them. A contract may be awarded by the end of 2009. The contract has to be approved by the DC City Council.

–The site will be redeveloped as a school with commercial and/or residential construction on the Georgia Avenue side of the property through a public/private partnership. The school will have 75,000 to 100,000 square feet of space.

–The new Bruce Monroe Elementary School is tenatively scheduled to open in 2013. It’s educational programs will include grades Pre-K through 5 or grades Pre-K through 8 (to be worked out by the school system and the school community.)

***Active discussions are taking place between the Chancellor’s Office, DCPS, Bruce Monroe administrators, teachers, and parents, the DC Education Ombudsman’s Office, Councilman Gray’s office, Councilman Kwame Brown’s office, DC economic develpment officials, and the community.

Latest on Central Union Mission

At last night’s ANC1A meeting David Treadwell spoke to the group to let them know what the latest was on the future of the Central Union Mission.

The planned land swap with the Georgia Avenue and Gales School properties no longer seems to be on the table, as the ACLU is suing. It is their contention that such a deal can not be made because a religious organization and a municipal entity are not compatible.

This does not mean the downtown site has fallen through and it’s back to the original plan. Rather, the Mission still hopes to work with the District to reach a deal on the Gales School to place its homeless shelter there. Right now they are working through the legal issues.

Treadwell focused most of his time on the Georgia Avenue property. Since the Mission cannot allow the property to remain vacant with no plan of development whatsoever, they are proposing a mixed use building. Treadwell stated that the location would be a good site for the Mission’s administrative offices and counselling services. The other parts of the building would be for mixed income housing and commercial. If things go the way they are currently planned, the Mission would retain ownership only of the sections of the building they end up using, with other tenants owning their footprints much like a condo is organized.

Perhaps most encouraging is that Treadwell indicated that the City has been working with the Mission toward the same goal and is assisting as much as possible to sort this out.

(My thanks to M.V. Jantzen for the use of the Mission image)

Central Union Mission on ANC1A Agenda

From the Georgia Avenue listserv, at tomorrow night’s ANC1A meeting,

David Treadwell from Central Union Mission will be presenting their proposal for development of a mixed income apartment building at 3510-3512 Georgia Avenue, and the lots immediately behind on Newton Street. Please come out and find out about this proposal. As you probably know, they were proposing a 170+ bed mens shelter, but have opted for something different after the neighborhood objected to such a large overnight mens shelter on Georgia Avenue. The meeting starts at 7:00pm at 3101 13th Street Northwest (the cafeteria of Harriet Tubman Elementary School).