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JANUARY2014

Vol. 45, No. 7

Next Issue

February 14

Adams Morgan’s Kalorama Park Ruinous Water Run-off Problems Being Corrected; Neighbors Succeed in Coaxing Parks Dep’t. Into Action

By Mike Persley*

On December 13, 2013 nearly 300

plants and shrubs were installed at the 19th Street and Belmont Road entrance to Kalorama Park in Adams Morgan, mark-ing the first phase in an attempt to rejuvenate a park that has sat largely neglected for decades.

The garden project, which seeks to revital-ize the park’s original Victorian design with a visually cohesive mix of shrubs and flow-ers that are durable throughout the year is the result of a tremen-dous effort by long-time neighborhood residents.

Kathryn Kross, president and founder of the Fund for Kalorama Park, along with several others, have spent the last few years working with environmen-tal groups, landscape designers and the city government in order to turn the park into a unifying destination that the neighborhood currently lacks.

“I think that property like this in the middle of the city is where waterfront property was like 40 years ago,” says

Kross. “People didn’t value it and now it’s like, ‘Oh my God, your parents sold their house that’s on the water?!’”

Kross initially thought of restoring the park in the early 1990s, when she first arrived in DC and bought a house a few blocks away, she told The InTowner.

After walking past and viewing its bleak conditions daily, she and her boy-friend at the time formed the Fund for Kalorama Park, an organization that raises funds and works to improve the park’s condition.

“I was like, ‘This could be a beautiful park,’ and I wanted to have a beautiful park,” she says.

The Fund was also formed, she says, out of her innate impulse to take something unkempt and turn it into something beau-tiful.

“What I really dig is taking something that I know can be beautiful and making it see its potential. I love anything that takes something old

Around Our Community Column Now on Website as Community News

To access Around Our Community, click the Community News link button

on our home page.

See in Special Online Content:n Ecuadorian Embassy Sustained Significant

Earthquake Damage, August 23, 2011

n Balancing Neighborhood Retail: The 25% Rule

n Reconstructing Historic Holt House

n When Does My Cast Iron Staircase Need Attention?

For complete articles click Special Online Content link at right.

RECENT REAL ESTATE SALES: NOVEMBER 2013The Selected Recent Real Estate Sales monthly feature is now available on its own web page and may be accessed directly by the link in the middle of the home page or by the button in the left side panel. This has made possible the introduction of a new format which allows for easy search by addresses by scrolling down through the list, starting with single family houses, proceeding to condominiums, and concluding with co-ops.

DC History Feature Moved to WebsiteTo access “What Once Was” (successor to the “Scenes from the Past” feature), click the link button on our home page. Being on our website allows for more extensive text & more images than was possible when in the issue PDFs.

Reservations Recommended Restaurant Reviews by Alexandra Greeley

and

Food in the ‘Hood by Joel Denker

These monthly features are appearing exclu-sively in our website’s Restaurants and Food in the ‘Hood sections, respectively, and can be accessed directly by the links in the middle of the home page or by the buttons in the left side panel.

photo—courtesy Fund for Kalorama Park.

The new plantings along the 19th Street entry steps and walkway were completed by professional landscapers this past December. In the distance over the rise looking toward Mintwood Place can be seen the apartment buildings on Columbia Road.

photo—courtesy Fund for Kalorama Park.

View of the sorry state of the 19th Street entrance area to the park before the landscaping got underway. In the background can be seen the rear of the apartment buildings on Mintwood Place. Cont., KALORAMA, p. 4

Mt. Pleasant Preservation and Zoning Controversies Roil Community and ANCBy Anthony L. Harvey

The Mount Pleasant Public Library’s spa-cious new community meeting room

was filled with a standing room only crowd, plus rump groups in the adjacent lobby and activists moving between both spaces — for the Advisory Neighborhood Commission’s (ANC) December meeting. In addition to the hot-button issue of the “Local Resident Voting Rights Act of 2013” which would permit permanent, legal DC residents to vote in local elections –- which the ANC endorsed with lit-tle discussion or dissension — largely attracted such a crowd, the ANC’s agenda included consideration of the prospective impact on historic preservation and zoning as a consequence of the infill and adaptive re-use projects being pro-posed by developers on two important sites in the Mt. Pleasant Historic District

–- specifically, the north side of the 1800 block of Park Road and the juncture of 17th Street with Oakwood Terrace.

1867 Park Road, NWNew to the ANC’s agenda was the pro-

posed 1867 Park Road redevelopment proj-

photo—Google Street View.

View showing a portion of the south side of the 1800 block of Park Road, one of the neighborhood’s most lovely streets.

Cont., CONTROVERSIES, p. 3

City Nearing Proposal Pick for Franklin School Adaptive Re-use

By P.L. Wolff

When nearly four years ago the Coalition for Franklin School held a

public forum on potential educational and cultural uses for the long empty historic Adolph Cluss-designed 1872 building over-looking downtown’s Franklin Square Park,

the Mayor’s economic development staff was reviewing three proposals for the adap-tive re-use of this landmarked building: an hotel, a Chinese immersion international baccalaureate charter school, and a mixed-use educational and cultural activities site. (See, “New Use for Historic Franklin School Building of Concern to Large Numbers of

DC Residents,” InTowner, April 2010 issue PDF page 1; http://tinyurl.com/m9ftu83.)

Now, nearly four years later those proposals were no longer on the table; instead, following a process that com-menced in April 2013, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Development is now close to announc-ing the final selection of one of four proposals:

• From DC’s Douglas Development, a luxury, 40-room boutique hotel fea-turing a rooftop restaurant overlooking Franklin Square Park with a branch of Philadelphia’s “Kite & Key” restaurant and bar at street-level. photo—William Gilcher, courtesy Adolf Cluss Project.

2001 view of the Franklin School building as seen across 13th Street from Franklin Square Park. Cont., FRANKLIN SCHOOL, p. 4

http://www.intowner.com/special-online-content/

http://tinyurl.com/m9ftu83

http://tinyurl.com/m9ftu83

• The InTowner • January 2014

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Publisher & Managing Editor—P.L. WolffAssociate Editor—Anthony L. HarveyContributing Writers— Paul K. Williams, Ben LaskyLayout & Design — Mina RempeHistoric Preservation—Stephen A. Hansen

Restaurants—Alexandra GreeleyFood in the ’Hood—Joel DenkerReal Estate—Jo RicksPhotographer—Phil CarneyWebmaster—Eddie Sutton

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The InTowner (ISSN 0887-9400) is published 12 times per year by The InTowner Publishing Corporation, 1730-B Corcoran Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20009. Owned by The InTowner Publishing Corporation, P.L. Wolff, president and chief executive officer.

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Restaurants Run Like Nightclubs Hurt Not Only Residents But Legitimate Restaurateurs

As regular readers of these commentaries know, we have long stated our opposition to the often, unwarranted harassment of legitimate applicants for ABC licenses, particu-

larly the tactics of the so-called “gangs of five” that are permitted by law and regulation to interject themselves into the proceedings before the ANC Board, too often in ways that cause unreasonable delay and huge expense with no other apparent motive than to seem-ingly derail the entire process thereby causing the applicant to abandon the effort.

But this is not to suggest that we reject the notion that residents can never have legiti-mate concerns about the affect on the peaceable enjoyment of their homes that might be disrupted by the poor management –- or sometimes even illegal operations –- of close-by ABC-licensed establishments. That this is perceived by large numbers of Adams Morgan residents who live on 18th Street or adjacent to it or in close proximity that the weekend “scene” is out of control is a matter that needs to be taken seriously and addressed in an appropriate manner.

What is not appropriate is to rail against those residents. What is needed is clear-headed analysis of the issues and discussion about what can be done in a balanced way to solve problems. What is not needed is for denunciations and absolute denials that there is now a problem.

Bringing all the neighborhood dissatisfaction to the fore was the recent mayhem that spilled out from an ABC-licensed establishment in the 1800 block of 18th Street. As reported by MPD 3rd District officer Aubrey Mongal, police “were summoned to the ‘District’ nightclub . . . for the report of an aggravated assault involving multiple vic-tims. Once on the scene, police units located four adult males and one adult female suf-fering from various stab wounds / lacerations. . . . [F]our of the victims had been assaulted inside of the ‘District’ nightclub. . . . The last victim was stabbed on the sidewalk in front of the nightclub. It appears these assaults may have occurred as a result of a large fight that had erupted on the second floor of the establishment.”

We are struck by the reference –- twice –- in the above excerpted portion of the police report to the establishment being a “nightclub.” The reality is, however, that the ABC board has not issued nightclub licenses in Adams Morgan, only restaurant and tavern licenses; District is licensed as a restaurant only, and it is not the only restaurant-licensed establishment that operates as if it is a nightclub in the neighborhood.

And Officer Mongal is not alone in calling District a nightclub. Take a look on Yelp.com, a world-wide source used by the young and the hip for finding the “in” places in which to be seen. The Yelp listing has this establishment listed under the category of “Dance Club” and lists its “ambiance” as “trendy,” emphasizes that it’s “good for danc-ing,” and features a “full bar”; tellingly, there is no mention about the presence of food. And while it might be argued that Yelp has it wrong, why has not management availed itself of the opportunity provided by Yelp to edit its listing? We know the answer. And Yelp is not alone: Facebook also lists this place as a nightclub.

So why doesn’t the city’s regulators crack down on restaurants that operate like nightclubs but don’t have those licenses. We urge the Alcohol Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) to make this a priority. Its force of inspectors has within the past year been substantially upgraded and it would seem to be feasible to detail a few to dig into identifying the restaurants that are out of compliance rather than waiting for a situa-tion to blow up and reveal what neighbors already have known all along.

If District (and other similar ABC-licensed places) had been properly licensed as a nightclub what occurred there recently might never have happened. That is because ABC-issued nightclub licenses impose special security requirements.

Among those requirements are the following: the preparation of an ABRA-approved security plan; stringent vetting of staff and security guards; that security staff be present on the premises at all times; that patrons be scrutinized as they enter, including pat-downs of men, opening of patron bags and shining a flashlight over their contents; and proactively maintaining peace and order within the premises at all times.

Maybe Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham can get the ball rolling.

Copyright © 2013 InTowner Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §107 & 108 (“fair use”).

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ect, which its architects from the Dupont Circle-based Trout Design Studio presented to the assembled — and mostly hostile — audience on behalf of the project’s develop-ers, Potomac Construction Group.

Both the architects and the developers are well-known in the adjacent Adams Morgan community for their successful presenta-tions two years ago to the community and its ANC, the Zoning Commission, and the

Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) of their “Il Palazzo” adaptive re-use residen-tial project. When completed, it will consists of a large condominium structure behind the restored former Italian Embassy build-ings at 16th and Fuller Streets with a mod-ernist “hyphen” connecting the old with the new. (See, “Old Italian Embassy 16th Street Site Redevelopment Plan Proceeding Apace; Adams Morgan Hotel Plan Has Way to Go,” InTowner, June 2011 issue PDF page 1; http://tinyurl.com/lfopcro.)

Trout Design Studio’s architectural ren-dering for its 1867 Park Road adaptation envisions an historic restoration of the exist-ing structure’s front façade and porch and the construction of a replacement house façade on the adjacent side yard — a vacant lot where 1865 Park Road once stood. The existing and new structures would both have additional rear construction to allow for a total of six new units in a luxury condomin-ium apartment building within, in effect, a pair of connected, house-like structures.

Part of the presentation included a ren-dering of the front façade of what would be constructed on the old 1865 site — a house, which, from the front reminded one of an eerie and fascinating Edward Hopper-like depiction of an eclectic, turn-of-the-20th century Queen Anne-style house.

Curiously, these two houses, built origi-nally five feet apart, have always been some-

what out of place on the north side of the 1800 block of Park Road — all of which had in 1978 been federally landmarked and placed on the National Register of Historic Places celebrating a series of Mt. Pleasant’s hilltop mansions possessing gracious yards and gardens. Numbers 1867 and 1865 are much more like the handsome duplex hous-es on the south side of Park Road’s 1700 block.

Setting aside the community’s and the ANC’s objections to the nature and size of the new construction — asserted to

be more than three times the size of the existing house and not conforming to historic preservation compat-ibility criteria — the crux of the zoning matter is the existence of a regulatory provi-sion that allows for the conversion of the amount of lot occu-pancy for single fam-ily structures in R-4 zoned districts, which Park Road is in, to be increased from 40 to 60 percent when con-verted to multi-family use. In zoning lan-guage, the proposed 1867 and 1865 Park Road redevelopment

would be a “matter of right” project.In response to the community, the ANC

passed two resolutions directly related to the project. The first stated that the HPRB should “reject the design concept currently being proposed for 1867 Park Road, NW”

for the following reason:“Whatever its architectural design ele-

ments, this building is inherently incongru-ous at this location in Mt. Pleasant. It is too large, being more than triple the size of the existing house on this lot. The anticipated use, as a 6-unit apartment house, is contrary to the usage of other houses on this row, all detached single-family dwell-ings, widely spaced, on large lots. The proposed structure is a drastic deviation in building size and in building spacing, being built essentially up to the property line, and loom-ing over the adjacent house and rear yard. Consequently, whatever the architectural details of its construction, this structure is incongruous on its row, and incompatible with its neighbors, and per-force must be judged incom-patible with the Mt. Pleasant Historic District.”

The second resolution was directed to the Zoning Commission, which is pres-ently wrestling with a com-prehensive re-write of the District’s zoning regulations.

Noting that a “2007 rulemaking by the Office of Zoning resulted in allowing for a detached building with a 40% maximum lot coverage if used as a single-family dwelling, could be transformed into a ‘row dwelling’ or ‘flat’ simply as a result of conversion to a multiple-family dwelling. This has permit-ted detached and semi-detached houses to be expanded by as much as 50%, result-ing in some very unfortunate construction results. The conversion of a detached or semi-detached building into a multi-family dwelling should leave the building catego-rized under ‘All other structures, as it is not, by virtue of multiple families, transformed into a row house. The maximum lot cover-age should remain at 40% so developers are not tempted to bulb-out houses by half, to take advantage of this lot-coverage “bonus.”

These resolutions echo the well-expressed and concise testimony on this and other issues affecting the historic district given by Fay Armstrong, president of Historic Mt. Pleasant, in her November testimony before the full Zoning Commission.

3428, 3430, 3432 Oakwood Terrace, NWOn the matter of the Oakwood Terrace

project, the ANC adopted a resolution, recommending that the HPRB “reject the design concept currently proposed at 17th St. NW and Oakwood Terrace NW (3428, 3430, 3432 Oakwood Terrace) because of [the project’s] incompatibility with other homes on the Oakwood Terrace block

within the Mt. Pleasant historic district as well as outstanding questions related to the application, process and public noti-fication of the subdivision of land par-cels.” (For background on this project, see, “Controversial Project for Construction of New Row Houses on Heavily Wooded Mt. Pleasant Site Raise Issues of Compatibility &

Appropriateness,” InTowner, July 2013 issue PDF page 1; http://tinyurl.com/nwu9d2b.)

The ANC’s resolution further asserts that “the proposed design and setback is not consistent with the design of other houses on the historic block and does not follow guidelines for new construction in his-toric districts in the District of Columbia.” Moreover, the resolution continues —

“There are questions concerning the sub-division of the property in 2007 and 2010. There is a pending Freedom of Information Act request to the Historic Preservation Office which will clarify whether proper legal notice was given.

“Residents unaware of the project or the HPRB evaluation in 2010 did not have an opportunity to review the plan and express their concerns to the ANC or the board.

“The ANC now wishes to make clear to the HPRB that it is taking this opportunity afforded by the board’s continuing review to express its opposition to the project as proposed and requests that the project be denied clearance for permitting.”

The Oakwood Terrace project was struck from the Board’s January 9th agenda and may appear on the HPRB’s January 23rd public hearing schedule, as well as that of the 1867 Park Road project’s design review consideration.

Copyright © 2014 InTowner Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §107 & 108 (“fair use”).

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CONTROVERSIESFrom p. 1

photo—courtesy Trout Design Studio.

Recent view looking up from the street (which was under reconstruction at the time) of the existing but rundown 1867 Park Road house. The adjoin-ing empty lot at No. 1865 can be seen to the right.

photo—courtesy National Park Service.

1978 view of 1867 Park Road showing the original porch which had subsequently bee removed. The adjoining lot at No. 1865. seen to the right, was empty even back then.

photo—courtesy Trout Design Studio.

Architect’s rendering showing how the existing house’s (left) façade would be restored and the porch reconstructed and how a new house to be constructed (right) would compliment the original.

photo—Phil Carney—The InTowner.

Shown here on Oakwood Terrace are typical Mt. Pleasant houses.

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and preserves the character of it but makes it usable for a new age.”

Another example of her urges to improve and beautify, Kross says, was when she moved to DC and bought an old, run-down row house which she has since substantially improved by replacing its entire rear section and adding an English basement apartment and additional bathrooms.

Throughout much of its history, how-ever, the Fund was largely ineffective due to Kross’ work as a journalist overseas, she say But in recent years, she has stopped working as a reporter and returned to Washington, giving her time and energy to put into the restoration of the park.

Her renewed efforts began in April of 2013 when the Fund applied for and received a $5,000 “Keep America Beautiful” Community Improvement Grant from Lowe’s.

The grant, she says, which required a

detailed plan showing how the funds were to be used, gave her leverage to approach the city about restoration work which could, in effect, incorporate her project.

“I basically said to the city, ‘Look, we don’t want to lose out on this grant.’ “They agreed.”

Because the grant was not nearly enough for a complete restoration, she says, she decided to focus on one area of the park and “make it excellent.”

Out sprung the idea for the garden.“This place has been a park since the for-

ties,” she says. “Knowing that it dated back, I wanted something that was free-flowing that complimented the neighborhood.”

But just as soon as the garden plan came about, so came about a whole series of prob-lems that threatened to derail it.

The park, which is roughly a three-acre

triangle bounded by 19th Street on the west and Columbia Road to the east, with Kalorama Road bisecting its southward pointing apex. To the north, the park slopes noticeably downward toward the rear of the properties along the south side of Mintwood Place.

At the top of the slope sits a small rec-reation center building with down-spouts that empty out onto the street. Many of the trench drains designed to catch the rainwater are broken, and as a result, rain builds up and runs directly down the sidewalk into the path to the entryway where the garden was to be built.

The problem was noticed imme-diately by Dianne Seiffert, the land-scape designer engaged for the proj-ect.

“You have these erosion and struc-tural problems that have to be taken care of before beautification can occur,” says Seiffert. “If you don’t figure out a way to redirect the water, everything would simply be wiped out.”

But there was also a larger prob-lem with soil erosion that had stalled the city’s efforts to restore the park in the past.

In 2009, the Department of Parks and Recreation began what was to be

a failed and somewhat contentious attempt at fixing the erosion and runoff problem in the park.

For a time, the contractors hired by DPR closed off most of the north side of the park in order to build a series of berms designed to hold water back that would otherwise have been runoff. The berms, however, proved ineffective because they had been raised in an area where very little of the rainwater run-off actually flowed.

The contractors also added new layers of soil before realizing that what had been added was ineffective in absorbing rainwa-ter. Further, much of the heavy equipment that they had used damaged the root systems of many of the trees.

“It was a project that, what I can see, was not a success at all. It didn’t seem

to fix the problem and probably created whole new problems,” says Ted Guthrie, an Adams Morgan ANC Commissioner who has watched the park’s progress for over a decade. “The District has not been good at maintaining what they’ve got. They’re very good at building new things, but they’ve been terrible at keeping them that way.”

The contractors for the project were even-tually fired and replaced, but the second group failed to fix the problem as well.

In order to take on the erosion issue her-self, Kross brought in several neighborhood residents, and they each took turns standing outside during rainstorms to track the path of the rainwater throughout the park.

Together they compiled photos and video footage while monitoring the recreation center’s down-spouts, emptying rain barrels, and tracking the flow of the water down the slope.

Virginia Johnson, who stood in the rain seven or eight times over the past two years recalls being surprised by the amount of runoff she saw.

“There’s an incredible amount of runoff,” she says. “You could really see that it was a problem.”

Guthrie remembers his amazement as well. “It was really quite spectacular there for a while. It almost looked like Rock Creek park for a while there.”

Working with the DC Department of the Environment, along with dozens of contractors, landscapers, and environmental groups such as the Anacostia Watershed Society, the volunteers learned how to calculate runoff in the hundreds of gallons, as well as other ways to preserve the soil.

Their work culminated in a 15-page report the group presented to the parks and recreation department.

The city, after holding a public meeting on the subject in July, agreed to fix the docu-mented problems, and for the most part, according to Kross, they’ve been helpful.

“I’ve got to give it to them,” she says, “I wish the bureaucracy would move faster, but they’ve been great.”

New, deeper gutters have been added to the recreation center which redirect the water away from the downslope, and the downspouts on the building have been eliminated. They also agreed to install the garden as a first act in a number of park improvements.

This-coming spring, the bad soil that had been previously laid will be replaced with newer soil better suited to absorb rainwa-ter, and the Hydrangea’s, Holly, Junipers, Geraniums, and other plants the group worked to install, will be in full bloom.

“Bit-by-bit, we want to make this place beautiful,” says Kross, “I want this to be the place where moms and dads want to bring their kids and that older people can come to sit and relax.”

Kross says she plans on applying for another grant through Lowe’s in the spring, this time for the larger, $20 thousand that she hopes will speed up the restoration project.

“I believe that if you change public space, you change the contract between neighbors, and it basically says that ‘I don’t know you, but I care about you enough to make sure that what you see looks good,’” she says. “I think that changes a community. It brings out our better selves. I don’t really have evi-dence of that, but I’m going with it.”

*The writer, a resident of the Bloomingdale neighborhood, is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago where he majored in political science, and is now studying for his Masters degree at the University of Maryland’s Phillip Merrill College of Journalism.

Copyright © 2014 InTowner Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is pro-hibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §§ 107 & 108 (“fair use”).

KALORAMAFrom p. 1

raphic—courtesy Fund for Kalorama Park.

The landscape designer’s plan shows how the new plantings were to generously border the steps leading up from 19th Street (left) to the Recreation Center building inside the park.

photo—-courtesy Fund for Kalorama Park.

Typical ruinous state of the park’s unplanted areas caused by the uncontrolled water run-off; this view from the sec-tion leading down to 19th Street entrance.

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Copyright © 2014 InTowner Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §107 (“fair use”).

FRANKLIN SCHOOLFrom p. 1

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Did you know there are more than 365 shops, businesses, and restaurants in the Historic Dupont Circle Main Street corridors, one for each day of the year?

Visit the commercial corridors of Dupont Circle to shop in our 365+

clothing stores, retail shops, fitness centers, salons, saloons, restaurants, lounges, lounging areas, and yes, even a gift shop or two.



“Want your holidays to be picture perfect? Shop locally at the

wonderful and diverse retail outlets in and around Dupont Circle.”

Local Factoid:Did you know that shopping at a

local retailer returns 68% to the local community, as opposed to just 41% with

the big box stores?

Dupont Main Streets has lots of exciting projects that began construction last fall, including the Conn. Avenue median (north of the Circle), and the Triangle Park at 20th and Q Streets. We have also undertaken a storefront improvement program, window display improvement program, and even a mobile display for our temporary vacant windows!







365+






365+Did you know there are more than 365 shops, businesses and restaurants in the Historic Dupont Circle Main Street corridors, one for each day of the year?

Visit the commerical corridors of Dupont Circle to shop in our 365+ clothing stores, retail shops, fitness centers, salons, saloons, restaurants, lounges, lounging areas and yes, even a gift shop or two.


Be on the Circle or Be Square

LETTERSA Reader Takes Strong Exception to Our Reporting

Tony Harvey’s bias — and that of The Intowner — is laid bare in the “news article” on the ANC’s position on renewing the Adams Morgan moratorium. Still scrapping my jaw off the keyboard.

Mark LeeLogan Circle

Editor’s Note: The writer, a community business advocate whose weekly opinion column appears in the Washington Blade, is referring to last month’s issue PDF page 1 report, “Adams Morgan ANC Seeks to Further Extend Liquor Moratorium by 5 Years,” http://tinyurl.com/lvu322r. What was reported about that ANC meeting actually transpired; that is what made it a news article as opposed to an editorial. We stand by our reporting.

“Would you rather be reading a book on the beach?

Us, too. Find the perfect book at one of these local Dupont book sellers”

Check out: Red Onion Records & Books (1901 18th Street),

Books for America (1417 22nd Street), Kramerbooks & Afterwards (1517 Conn Ave), Books-A-Million (11 Dupont

Circle), Second Story Books (2000 P Street)

Dupont Main Streets has lots of exciting projects that began construction last fall, including the Conn Avenue median (north of the Circle), and the Triangle Park at 20th and Q Streets. We have also undertaken a storefront improvement program, window display

improvement program, and even a mobile display for our temporary vacant windows!

365+

Did you know there are more than 365 shops, businesses, and restaurants in the Historic

Dupont Circle Main Street corridors, one for each day of the year?

Visit the commercial corridors of Dupont Circle to shop in our 365+ clothing stores,

retail shops, fitness centers, salons, saloons, restaurants, lounges, lounging areas, and yes, even a gift shop or two.









365+






“Want your holidays to be picture perfect? Shop locally at the

wonderful and diverse retail outlets in and around Dupont Circle.”

Local Factoid:Did you know that shopping at a

local retailer returns 68% to the local community, as opposed to just 41% with

the big box stores?

Dupont Main Streets has lots of exciting projects that began construction last fall, including the Conn. Avenue median (north of the Circle), and the Triangle Park at 20th and Q Streets. We have also undertaken a storefront improvement program, window display improvement program, and even a mobile display for our temporary vacant windows!







365+






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Many local restaurants submitted recipes: Floriana, Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse, Level One, Cafe Dupont at The Dupont Hotel, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Twist at the Carlyle Suites Hotel, Black Fox Lounge, Darlington House, SoHo Tea and Coffee, Skewers/Cafe Luna, One Lounge, Fairfax at Embassy Row, Pesce, Al Tiramisu, Cafe Green, Urbana at the Hotel Palomar, The Tabard Inn, La Tomate, The Burger Joint, Pizza Paradiso and Restaurant Nora.

“Didn’t get what you wanted for the holidays? Buy it yourself ! ”

TheTaste of Dupont

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At the Museums By Anthony L. Harvey*

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 4th & Constitution; (202) 737-4215

Daily, 10am-5pm / www.nga.gov“Heaven & Earth: Art of Byzantium

from Greek Collections,” presents 170 art objects reflecting the glory and luxury of

the Orthodox Christian empire, one which became the eastern half of the Roman Empire and which succeeded and outlasted its Roman twin by a 1,000 years, succumb-ing to the military pressures of its own suc-cessor, the Moslem empire of the Turks, in 1453.

These art works have never been seen in the United States. They include an extraordinary array of magnificent mosa-ics and fresco fragments, powerful icon paintings, stunning liturgical items, illumi-nated manuscripts, beautifully crafted jew-elry, ceramics and glassware, together with marble statuettes and sculptural fragments. Colorful and visually arresting, “Heaven & Earth” provides an unusually rich and aes-thetically rewarding museum experience for both the connoisseur and that of the more casual museum visitor.

Organized by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, with the collabora-tion of the Benaki Museum in Athens, an exhaustive and scholarly catalog accompa-nies the exhibition; lavishly illustrated, its text embellishes one’s visual apprehension

of the exhibition, explaining, as it does, the religious, political, and cultural history of Greek Byzantium art and life during this pivotal 1,000 year period.

The show opens with gal-lery rooms of eerily impres-sive figurative and architec-

tural marble sculp-tures — expressive works both intact and fragmentary. It continues with the glories of the exhi-bition: the mosaics, fresco fragments, and icon paintings, beginning with a haunting fragment of a wall painting — fresco on plas-ter — depicting the Gospel account of “The Washing of the Feet.” Nearby are a mosaic

icon on three panels of the Virgin and Child, Virgin Episkepsis, and a grand composition of the famous Hospitality of Abraham icon paint-ed in egg tempera on wood.

The depiction of the figures in these three works, which were cre-ated in three dramatically dissimilar

and technically demanding ways — fresco, mosaic, and egg tempera painting on wood panels — share an overriding similarity in the emotionally moving grace and realism of their respec-tive figurative ensembles — both compositionally and in each of the separate figures.

Other equally power-ful works include the Icon with the Transfiguration, aptly described in the cat-alog as “a brilliant Christ in white garments inside a circular glory representing the revelation of his divine nature as described in Mark 9:2”; the private devotional triptych by either Andreas or Nikolaos Ritzos of the Enthroned Virgin and Child

and Saints, painted with the delicate preci-sion of a Persian miniature; and a tender and gentle rendering of a young Saint

George in a characteristic iconic pose.

Three liturgical objects are highlighted with the inclusion of an ensemble of a chalice, a paten, and an asterisk – made of gilt silver sheet with cast details and adorned with semi-precious stones and enamel. These were commissioned by the Ionian despot Thomas Kommenos Preloumbos and are informatively pictured and described in the catalog.

My favorite among the manuscripts is that of the Romance of Alexander the Great, historically attributed (wrongly, as it turned out) to the historian who accompa-

nied Alexander — Kallisthenes of Olynthos. Luxuriously illuminated, the beautiful man-uscript, according to the catalog, is fanciful fiction.

Among the gorgeous gold coins, precious jewelry, and body ornaments in the show, a pair of wristbands decorated in gold, glass, and cloisonné enamel stand out.

The exhibition concludes with a gallery of icon paintings — several intriguing works from the Greek island of Crete where El Greco was first trained as an icon painter — reflecting the fas-cinating interplay between Italian Renaissance works and the more tra-ditional Byzantine icon models. The last work facing the gallery visitor exiting the exhibition is the cover image from the catalog, the powerful and compel-ling Icon with the Archangel Michael.

The Byzantine Empire is something of a forgotten step-child to most western histories of the modern age — an exotic footnote to the long and often

obscurely remembered age between the glory and gran-deur of the early Roman and late Greek Empires and that of the Italian Renaissance and its impact on western Europe. Yet the wisdom and cultural elegance of Byzantium has long inspired poets and philosophers.

My favorite example is one provided by William Butler Yeats, who closed his famous poem “Sailing to Byzantium” with the wish expressed in the final stanza that after old age he might take the form of a Byzantine sage, thus leaving the appearance given him by nature and becoming captured in “. . . such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make / Of hammered gold and

gold enameling / To keep a drowsy Emperor awake; / Or set upon a golden bough to sing / To lords and ladies of Byzantium / Of what is past, or passing, or to come.”

“Heaven & Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections” continues through March 2, 2014.

Copyright © 2014 InTowner Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is pro-

hibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §107 (“fair use”).

*Anthony L. Harvey is a collector of contemporary art, with an emphasis on Washington art-

ists. He is a found-ing member of the

Washington Review of the Arts. For many years

he was the staff person in the United States Senate responsible for arts and Library of Congress oversight by the Senate’s Rules and Administration Committee

and the House and Senate’s Joint Committee on the Library.

CORRECTIONIn our recent review of the Van

Gogh “Repetitions” exhibition at the Phillips collection (“At the Museums,” InTowner, December 2013 issue PDF page 6; http://tinyurl.com/lvu322r), we mistakenly stated that the three different versions of van Gogh’s bedroom in the “yellow house” in Arles were in the show. They are not; only the one from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, which is illustrated in our review, is in the exhibition. All three, however, are beautifully illustrated in full color in the catalog, together with a fascinat-ing textual and x-radiograph decon-struction of the paintings. This ter-rific show has been extended through February 9th.

Icon of the Transfiguration (2nd half of 15th cent.).

Closure panel with lion attacking a deer (late 10th-1st half of 11th cent.).

Perfume flask (13th-14th cent.).

Romance of Alexander the Great (14th cent.). Perfume flask (14th-15th cent.).

Miniature icon with archangel Michael (13th cent.).

Plate with Eros riding a sea monster (6th-7th cent.).




In a bravura display of unedited and only recently rediscovered material related to

Diego Rivera’s world famous attempt to fresco on plaster a large, commissioned mural in 1934 to be titled Man on the Crossroads on the wall above the wide expanse of the receptionist’s counter in the lobby of the newly constructed tallest building in Rockefeller Center –- then known as the RCA Building and nowadays referred to simply as “30 Rock, the Mexican Cultural Institute is hosting an exhibition that presents facsimile copies of original works related to that effort.

This material, which includes reproduc-tions of letters, telegrams, contracts, photo-

graphs, sketches, and documents, all recent-ly conserved after being unearthed after 50 years from archives in the Frida Kahlo Museum — housed in her and Rivera’s former home and studio known for its cobalt blue exterior as Casa Azul, the “blue house,” and in the files of the astonishingly austere, architectural masterpiece commissioned by Rivera as the Anahuacalli Museum — con-stitutes the show. The Anahuacalli houses and displays Rivera’s large collection of 59,000 pre-Columbian art objects and arti-facts, which are primarily Toltec and Mayan pieces.

Anahuacalli, which means “place by the water,” also houses 17 of Rivera’s most important mural sketches, including four

preliminary drawings for the Rockefeller Center mural. It was designed in con-sultation with Frank Lloyd Wright, and constructed of indigenous volcanic stone with the museum’s resultant structure delib-

erately mimicking a “teocalli,” a Nahuatl word meaning “place of the Gods.” Both museums are in the Coyoacan district of Mexico City.

The displays cover the gal-lery walls on the first and fourth floors of the Institute’s historic 16th Street mansion and is orga-nized to explain the significance of Rivera’s selection by the Rockefeller family for this high profile commission to decorate the most important building in the family’s “city within a city” New York jobs program during the Great Depression, as well as Rivera’s prior experience execut-ing fresco commissions in the United States, his selection as the second artist given a one man show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the process of the Rockefeller Center mural’s evolution from inception through its early development into a sea of conflicts and criticisms and design stalemates that led to the cancellation of the mural contract by the Rockefeller’s con-struction design firm.

The cancellation of that con-tract culminated in the mural’s

destruction despite reported efforts by Nelson Rockefeller to save the mural for the Museum of Modern Art, of which his mother was a founding organizer and an early Rivera patron. Rivera, as a committed Promethean-style Marxist artist and prolific populist muralist — already world famous from his mural work in Mexico — was a well-known phenomenon, as were his com-munist political views.

And Rivera’s incomparable artistic talents had then only recently been once again demonstrated in his magisterial creation of the Detroit Industrial murals for the Detroit Institute of Art — 17 frescoed murals in the inner court of the museum which were per-sonally commissioned by Henry Ford’s son

Edsel. Celebrating the industrial accom-plishments of the workers and engineers of the Ford Motor Company, especially those employed in the River Rouge factory com-plex — the largest such establishment in

the world — Rivera pronounced the work as being his most successful ensemble of murals.

Other fascinating photographs and docu-ments in these first two galleries include a Fortune magazine cover ironically designed

by Rivera and a dramatic photograph of Rockefeller Center by Frida Kahlo. These are followed by a display of contracts and correspondence between the two parties — artists, including Rivera and the Rockefellers and their agents — which make fascinating reading, revealing that conflicts began from the very start of the project: over color versus a monochromatic palette for the mural, over fresco on wet plaster versus paint on canvas, and over artistic control of the final detailed

designs. The Rockefellers seemed to have been blissfully unaware of Rivera’s working methods, his use of color as part of his powerful composi-tional narratives, the program-matic importance to Rivera of permanence in the phe-nomenon of frescoes becom-ing part of the plastered walls, and the inclusion of social-ism’s heroes such as Lenin being depicted on one side of the mural — the “crossroads” being between capitalism and socialism.

Although Rivera won the battles over color and tradi-tional fresco rather than can-vas, his offer to balance Lenin with Lincoln was deemed totally unacceptable by the Rockefellers. Rivera was sum-

marily handed a check for the balance of his contract and ordered off the premises, the artist and his assistants being immedi-ately ushered out of the building. As news broke of Rivera’s dismissal, and with the

feared destruction of the almost completed mural spreading, heated controversy in the press and between dueling lines of picketers erupted immediately. All of this is presented in contemporary photographs and reproduc-tions of newspaper and magazine articles.

The fourth floor galleries also introduce Rivera’s assistants and their working meth-ods together with the remainder of the conserved sketches and photographs which document the controversies over the mural’s figurative contents. A color photograph of the more densely populated version of the mural as subsequently recreated for the Palacio De Bellas Artes in Mexico City is also on display; it is a magnificent piece of work!

“Man At The Crossroads: Diego Rivera’s Mural at Rockefeller Center” continues through March 15th. An extraordinary over-size art book has been published by Trilce in Spanish and English. The conservation of the works and the support for the exhibi-tion at the Institute has been provided by the Bank of America.

Copyright © 2014 InTowner Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §107 (“fair use”).

Art Showing in the NeighborhoodsBy Anthony L. Harvey

Mexican Cultural Institute2829 16th St., NW; (202) 728-1624

Mon.-Fri., 10am-6pm. Admission, Free

Recreated mural for the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City (1934).

Diego Rivera shown on scaffold working on the mural (1933).

Preliminary sketch (1932).

Preliminary sketch (1932).

t now in our 45th year of continuous...

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