The Georgetown Metropolitan

As soon as GW acquired the hollow husk of what will previously have been known as the Corcoran Art Gallery, GM began to wonder what will happen to the old Fillmore School on 35th, which the Corcoran art school owns. Now we know that they will indeed sell it.

There is some history to the possible sale of this building. Back in 2010, the Corcoran entered an agreement with Eastbanc to sell the historic school building (which the art school had owned and used for studios since 1998). Eastbanc planned to turn the building into about 15 condos. They also planned to build townhouses on the building’s parking lot. Some area residents expressed concerns about the project (particularly about the preservation of the playground) but before it got very far, the deal was called off over “timing” issues. The Corcoran art school has continued to use the building for art studios ever since. Continue reading →

Photo by Mathieu Thouvenin.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Where you can get soft shell crabs around Georgetown (and other places).
• Thankfully the flood gates were up at the harbor.

2900 block of N St.

For over a year, the Friends of Rose Park have worked closely with the DC Parks and Rec. department to agree on designs for needed renovations to the park’s two popular playgrounds. And now GM can report that the designs have been agreed on and are displayed below:

Here is the tot-lot schematic. It will have a large climbing structure on the north end and a smaller structure designed like a grocery truck towards the middle. (The grocery truck appears to reflect a “market” theme for the playgrounds, which GM assumes is an homage to the popular farmers market in the park.) Continue reading →

Photo by Mike.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Baked and Wired building a bakery downtown.
• Someone electrocuted at GU.

As reported by a variety of website (such as GGW), the company Strava released a data map showing in the aggregate where its customers use its app to track their runs and bike rides. It shows, in essence, what routes are the most heavily used by the respective modes.

Above you can see the map for Georgetown using a “heat map” to show the volume of bikes on various routes. GM was somewhat surprised to see M St. with such a heavy use; it’s such an unpleasant place to ride a bike. This is probably the point where it should be pointed out that this map doesn’t pretend to capture all riders, or even a representative slice. It captures riders who are actually using the app, which probably means most riders are riding for exercise, not just transportation.

So perhaps M St. is more popular among confident riders. That said, the data seems to show that there’s a very heavy flow of bikers coming or going by Key Bridge, and its hard to get to or from Key Bridge without riding at least part of M St.  Continue reading →

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Eno Wine bar burning through sommeliers.
• Cheh jokes, but a Georgetown to Rosslyn zipline would be awesome.

Volta Park is one of the great common spaces in Georgetown. It hosts the greatest summer events, like Concerts in the Park and Volta Park Day, that bring the whole community out. In between it’s the public square for thousands of residents who use its playground, basketball courts, swimming pool, tennis courts, ballfields, and gardens all year round.

But it needs your help to keep in the good shape that it’s in. And the Friends of Volta Park make it really easy for you do pitch in. On June 6th at Georgetown Visitation, the group will host its annual cocktail party and silent auction. GM’s on the board, and he can guarantee a good time. There’ll be live music, plenty of food (brought to you by 1789), plenty of drinks (brought to you by Bacchus Wine Cellar), and plenty of good times (brought to you by your awesome neighbors).

There are some pretty great things up for auction this year. A few weekend getaways, like at Key West and the Eastern Shore, and a wine cellar’s-worth of wine from Bacchus are among the items.

Buy your tickets here. All the funds go towards maintaining the park and its tax deductible!