Category Archives: Development

October 7, 2010 · 10:00 am

DCPLF Offers Sneak Peak at New Library

Anna Velazco and Anna Fuhrman of the DC Public Library Foundation

Tuesday night, the DC Public Library Foundation, a non-profit that supports the mission of the District public libraries, opened the doors of the soon to be finished Georgetown Library to the group’s donors.

The crowd was given the chance to poke around the new space, from the funky childrens library in the basement to the Peabody collection in the third floor. (GM will have a complete set of photos of the new space for you next week).

And the new Peabody Collection and Reading Room is a fantastic new addition to the refurbished space. Occupying what once was the attic, the precious collection hosts a treasure trove of Georgetown history. Jerry McCoy, the special collections librarian in charge of the Peabody collection, has taken to calling it “Georgetown’s Attic.” Check out some of the artifacts on display Tuesday night:

An old Beall Street sign (Beall Street was renamed O St., and by the way it’s pronounced “bell”).

Clock from the old Peabody Room, frozen in time from just a few minutes after the fire started. Interesting story: had the cupola fallen to the east instead of to the west, the entire Peabody collection would have been lost. Thankfully it wasn’t, and after some high tech freezing and recovery, the vast majority of the collection survived. Continue reading →

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October 4, 2010 · 10:00 am

Kicking a Guy When He’s Down

This large sign has been sitting outside the Hurt Home since the summer. After the primary some wiseacre has modified this sign to kick Fenty when he’s down. If you can’t make it out, it says “Adrian M. Fenty, Ex Mayor” and later it reads “Creating Economic Opportunities for the District of Columbiafraternity brothers.”

Whoever wrote it must be very pleased with himself since after writing it initially, he came back with a darker pen and traced over his opus to make it easier to read.

For what it’s worth, there haven’t been any accusations that Argos Group is in anyway connected with Fenty’s fraternity.

GM doesn’t support graffiti like this, but really, these vanity signs are pretty bad in the first place. They use public funds to serve one purpose: increase the mayor’s approval rating. This one is particularly bad since: A. Fenty’s name is about 50% larger than all the other text, B. It provides no useful information about the project, and C. It’s freaking huge.

GM hopes (but doesn’t expect) that Vincent Gray won’t waste our money on self-congratulatory signs like this.

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September 27, 2010 · 10:00 am

First Look: The Georgetown Library

The fences around the Georgetown Library came down the other day, which gave GM and chance to poke around the building as it nears completion. He took a few shots, so check them out:

Above is the new ramp that goes from the side walk up the the front door. It’s well done and merges into the landscaping when you look at the building from the front.

There is a large patio right out the back door of the library. Below that is a sloping terrace down to the lower level. This is where the children’s library will be. The sloping terrace allows a lot of light in. Continue reading →

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August 6, 2010 · 10:00 am

Georgetown Library to Reopen in October

In reporting the other day that the Georgetown Library cupola was restored, GM stated that the library was targeted for a September reopening. Turns out that was a bit premature. He was contacted by a representative of the DC Public Libraries to inform him that the target month for reopening is October.

GM thought he’d take this errata opportunity to republish his piece from last year describing what’s in store for Georgetown’s newly renovated gem: Continue reading →

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July 19, 2010 · 10:00 am

Update on Georgetown Waterfront Park Phase II

Thousands of people have enjoyed to new Georgetown Waterfront park since it was opened in the summer of 2008. Originally, the second half of this great park (dubbed “Phase II”) was supposed to be complete by this winter. However, keen observers likely have noticed a profound lack of activity at the construction site recently. The cause of this delay was a series of unforeseen challenges that broke the project’s budget. Thanks to some recent Council action, however, the project appears back on track.

Courtesy of the National Parks Service

As GM discussed a while back, Phase II of the park will incorporate several elements including a water feature, a pergola, and stadium seating for crew races. Construction began late 2008 and was expected to last two years. Continue reading →

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July 16, 2010 · 10:00 am

Marc Teren’s Plans For Scheele’s Reportedly Scrapped

As reported here over the last year or so, the Scheele family is trying to sell the historic market that bears its name at Dumbarton and 29th St.

Soon after the building went on the market, Georgetown resident, Marc Teren, stepped forward to buy the building. Although he promised to keep the market around, given the controversy over his efforts to subdivide the Friendly estate on 31st St., many in the neighborhood were concerned. Continue reading →

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July 2, 2010 · 10:01 am

Details on Those Hurt Home Changes

As previewed here yesterday, significant changes were announced to the proposed Hurt Home development at a community meeting last night. While some reservations over the details remain, all in all the community appears to now support the project.

Unlike the disastrous meeting at Jellef last month, this meeting was much better planned.  Attendees included Jack Evans, and representatives from the Argos Group, the ANC, and the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development. The meeting began with some introductory remarks from Jack Evans, Ron Lewis, and Freddie Peaco (who has a personal history with the Hurt home for the Blind and gave an emotional speech in favor of increasing the number of units set aside for blind residents). The point that Evans tried to get across was essentially that he got the message from the community and that he won’t let this project move forward until the neighbors are more comfortable with it. Continue reading →

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July 1, 2010 · 10:00 am

Big Changes For Hurt Home to be Announced Today

Two big events are on tap today relating to the Hurt Home property at 3050 R St. First, the DC Council Committee on Economic Development and Government and the Environment will continue its round-table discussion on the surplussing of the property (along with six other properties). According to statement made by Jack Evans at the ANC meeting this week, the main purpose of this meeting is for the government to present its case for why the property should be surplussed.

This has been a contentious point for the neighborhood. On June 9th, there was a public meeting held to solicit the public’s ideas for the property. It turned into a bit of a farce since the representatives of the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Planing and Economic Development didn’t actually give a formal presentation as to why they thought the property should be surplused (even though they had already accepted an offer from the developer). Thus the public had to respond to an argument they knew nothing about.

So today’s round-table is mostly about the horse catching up to the cart. Continue reading →

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June 11, 2010 · 10:00 am

Georgetown Has Apartment Buildings Already

As discussed yesterday, GM attended a community meeting Wednesday night to discuss the surplussing of the Hurt Home. And as will be discussed here shortly, the process by which the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development is surplussing this property does not appear consistent with the spirit and perhaps even the letter of the new Public Land Surplus Standards Amendment Act of 2009.

But today, GM wanted to address a statement made by the DMPED representative that appeared to be accepted as true by the audience: namely that Georgetown is a neighborhood of single family homes. Continue reading →

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June 10, 2010 · 10:00 am

Box Checked on Hurt Home

Last night representatives of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development met with a small group of Georgetown residents to discuss the proposed surplussing of the Hurt Home at 3050 R St. (the group was small because the DMPED didn’t do a particularly good job advertising the meeting. Although, GM will point out he did two separate posts on the meeting.)

As predicted by GM, this meeting essentially was a check-the-box procedure required by the recently effective Public Land Surplus Standards Amendment Act of 2009. In short: the DMPED office decided to surplus the Hurt Home last year, an RFP was issued, and only one party, the Argos Group, came forward with a bid.  The process to dispose of the property to Argos was moving forward until this new law kicked in.

This new law is an attempt to decouple the decision to surplus a property from the process to actually dispose of the property. Thus, in the future properties will be identified for surplussing, the DMPED office will, among other steps, hold a public meeting to see if the public has any ideas for a public use for the building, and then recommend to the Council that it identify the property as surplus. Then, theoretically, DMPED would move forward with the RFP process and the ultimate disposition of the property will be determined. Before the law became effective, the surplus and disposition processes were joint.

Unfortunately, for this project (and other high profile projects like the West End Library and the Hine School in Eastern Market) the disposition has for all intents and purposes been determined already.  Namely, the building will be sold to Argos Group to be converted into condos. In fact, Argos’s Best and Final Offer proposal has already been accepted by DMPED. Continue reading →

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