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MARCH2014

Vol. 45, No. 9

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April 11

DC Library Trustees Select Architectural Team for the Long-Awaited Reconstruction of MLK Central Library at Gallery Place

By Anthony L. Harvey

Alively crowd of DC citizen activists,

District public officials, and downtown business executives -- sprinkled with reporters and tele-vision cameras -- gath-ered downtown in the first floor lobby of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library (MLK) on February 18th to hear DC Mayor Vincent Gray announce the selection of a team of two architectural firms to renovate and restore the 42-year-old historic, landmark modernist structure designed by world-renowned architect Mies van der Rohe.

Selected were Mecanoo Architecten, with a world-wide practice based in the Netherlands at Delft, and Washington, DC’s Martinez+Johnson Architecture. Both firms are well-known for acclaimed architectural achievements, including prize-winning college and public library design projects for both newly built libraries and those featuring renovated and reconstructed historic structures.

The process for selecting these two firms was an extensive one, with respons-es to the Library’s request for interest in the project attracting architectural design firms from all over the world; 10 of these firms were asked to submit formal statements of design approaches to a project involving the restoration and

preservation of the landmarked, 1972 MLK building at 9th and G Streets, NW and its adaptation to the needs and requirements of a 21st century library structure that will reflect and support the watershed changes brought by the electronic information age and the dra-matically changing patterns of urban life -- this in either a stand-alone and restored structure or in an expanded building with additional floors for residential or commercial uses and rooftop amenities for both public and prospective private users.Three of these 10 firms were then selected and charged with the produc-tion of models, design concept plans, and architectural renderings of their design proposals.

Three days prior to the Mayor’s February 18th announcement, a stand-ing room crowd of over 300 persons

gathered in the same space for an illustrat-ed presentation of the concept design plans from each of these three teams of firms -- the other two being Patkau Architects with Ayers Saint Gross and the Freelon Group with STUDIOS Architects. All three teams present-ed stunning conceptual designs, each proposing

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: JANUARY 2014The 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.

image—courtesy Mecanoo / Martinez+Johnson.

Concept view depicting, as the selected architectural team states, how “the façade [can be returned] to the original condition with one uniform plane. Insert new glazing, so the entrance will also become visible from 9th Street.”

image—courtesy Mecanoo / Martinez+Johnson.

Concept view looking upwards from across the 9th and G Streets intersection depicting, as the architects state, how “a diagonal vol-ume almost doesn’t influence the horizontal Mies composition.” Cont., LIBRARY, p. 5

HPRB Approves Design Concept for Addition to Dupont Circle’s Historic Patterson Mansion

By P.L. Wolff

The plan under review by the DC Historic preservation Board (HPRB)

entails repurposing the historic Patterson mansion on Dupont Circle to be incorpo-rated into a high-end residential project that will include replacing the early 1950s annex

facing P Street just west of the Iraqi Embassy at the corner of 18th Street that had been built for use by the Washington Club which owned the mansion until purchased last year by developer SB-Urban.

At its February 27th meeting, the HPRB voted to accept the rec-ommendation of the Office of Planning’s Historic Preservation Office (HPO) that “the Board find the proposed concept to be generally compat-ible with the landmark and the character of the Dupont Circle and Massachusetts Avenue Historic Districts.” (The vote was unani-mous, though board member D. Graham Davidson abstained in light of him being a

photo—courtesy DC Historic Preservation Office.

The mansion as seen at 15 Dupont Circle. To the left and behind is the office building fronting on New Hampshire Avenue across from the Hotel Dupont; to the right can be seen the annex building fronting on P Street and a portion of the Iraqi Embassy’s top floor and roof. Cont., ADDITION, p. 5

Newly Formed Neighborhood Group Seeks Ways to Curb Excessive Nightclub Noise

By Ben Lasky*

For almost a year, residents living near bars and nightclubs in Dupont Circle

have complained that music and other noise from these establishments are overly disturbing.

On March 10th a meeting was held between those residents, nightclub owners and several ANC commissioners to figure out how all can work together to solve these issues.

Two nights prior to the meeting, Saturday the 8th, members of the DC Nightlife Noise Coalition visited nightclubs centered around the 1200 block of Connecticut Avenue for the purpose of determining if noise levels that could be heard from out-side those clubs exceeded the 60-decibel legal limit.

From Rosebar on Connecticut Avenue, club music heard outside was recorded at 90 decibels –- well in excess of the legal limit.

From Ozio’s rooftop dance club in the 1800 block of M Street noise was recorded at 101 decibels, the equivalent sound of a jet

Cont., COMMUNITY, p. 6

photo—courtesy DC Nightlife Noise Coalition.

Shown is the Saturday night, March 8th decibel level reading taken on Ozio’s rooftop dance club.

Page 2 • The InTowner • March 2014

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Our Pick for Mayor and Council At-Large

There’s a whole bunch of Democratic primary mayoral candidates but only one truly stands out: Jack Evans.

Evans knows how this city works (or doesn’t work and should work) better than most. For the past 25 years, since 1989 when he was elected to the Dupont Circle ANC and served as its chairman until 1991 when he won a special election to the City Council to represent Ward 2, which he has done ever since, Evans has been a strong advocate for excellence and pragmatism in city government.

Especially, it’s that insistence on finding pragmatic and sensible solutions to complex issues that sets Evans apart from most -- a product, no doubt, of his keen intellect and abil-ity to analyze competing options for solving complex problems, skills put to excellent use over the many years he has served as chairman of the Council’s very important finance and revenue committee.

Through his highly influential leadership in matters pertaining to the city’s finances, Evans has been a strong advocate for fiscal sanity and to not squander what has in the past couple of years been a welcome increase in tax revenues; he has constantly sought to say “no” to those who blithely advocate increasing taxes and has fought against proposals that would have added to residents’ tax burdens –- just the very sort of fiscal leadership we need from our mayor.

But this is not to suggest that Evans is guided by the evil playbook being consulted in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives. To the contrary, he understands the needs of the under-served, the working poor, the elderly on fixed incomes, and the young people who are being forever left out of opportunities to participate in a better and produc-tive life.

Examples abound, including Evans’ important role in ensuring recent passage of the “Senior Citizen Real Property Tax Relief Act of 2013,” which had been authored and vigor-ously advocated by at-large Councilmember Anita Bonds – who we also endorse for election (see below). The legislation exempts homeowners aged 70 years or older from paying any real property taxes on their primary residence if they have maintained DC residency for at least 15 years and have an adjusted gross income of less than $60,000.

But Evans is looking way beyond this one aspect of how to make our neighborhoods and the city as a whole more welcoming and affordable to residents of limited means or limited opportunities. In addition to changing property taxation so as to make it progressive and to ensure that the banks that have deposit and other contracts with the city actively provide services across all wards, he has outlined a series of very practical and doable (and fiscally responsible) plans to add upwards to 20,000 additional affordable residential apartments along with ensuring that existing affordable housing is retained.

We have touched on oly a few reasons why we urge voters to join with us in voting for Jack Evans. What he will give us as mayor will be not only his compassion and enormous, in-depth understanding of the needs of the city and its citizens but the smarts to know how to produce results.

And, to join with Evans in helping to ensure positive results in the City Council, we can only urge the election of currently serving at-large Councilmenber Anita Bonds who has proven herself to be an effective advocate for progressive and –- again, that all important characteristic –- pragmatic approaches to crafting sensible policies.

An excellent example of what we mean is Bonds’ “Hardship Green Grant and Rent Stabilization Act of 2014” bill by which the city landlords would be able to receive grants to cover 95 percent of the actual cost of installing green roofs, solar panels, or other energy efficient materials on rental apartment buildings with 20 or more units -- provided that the tenants do not have their rents increased for a minimum of three years.

We like this. It’s highly creative and addresses more than a single need and at the same time is, in Bonds’ own words, “a win-win-win situation. . . . [B]uilding owners win, because they receive funding to make their buildings more beautiful and less expensive to maintain. The tenants win, because they avoid burdensome rent increases. And the District wins, because our city becomes more energy efficient, more beautiful, and less expensive to live in.”

This kind of thinking is what makes for an outstanding legislator and is why we are so impressed with Anita Bonds and why she ought to be elected.

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”).

Page 3 • The InTowner • March 2014

LETTERS

DC Historic Designs, LLC provides a wide range of historic preservation and architectural services for owners and caretakers of historic properties.

DCHistoricDesigns.com (202) 596-1961

Historic Preservation, Restoration & Design

Residential and commercial designs Restorations and rehabilitations Architectural and historic research National Register/Landmark nominations Historic preservation policy compliance

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for 12 years of past issues

Jim Graham has never stoppedworking to help people in need…

At age 16, Jim Graham proudlyearned his U.S. citizenship.When he was eight, Jim’s family left Scotland in search ofnew opportunities and a new life – first in Hyattsville,ultimately settling in Detroit, where Jim’s father worked in theauto industry.

A career first defined by courageousefforts to help people living withAIDS when few cared.While working as a senior aide for a U.S. Senator, Jimvolunteered at a DC-based VD clinic. Ultimately, he wouldhead the Whitman-Walker Clinic – building it into a nationallyrecognized organization helping AIDS patients.

On the DC Council, he wouldtransform Ward One and provideunparalleled constituent services.Upon his election to the DC Council in 1998, Jim Grahamwent to work – fighting to rebuild every community in theWard and providing help to thousands of families andseniors.

Paid for by Jim Graham 2014. Nelson Ayala, CPA and Mrs. Janie Boyd, Co-Treasurers. 2853 Ontario Road, NW Washington, DC 20009. A copy of our report is filed with the Director of Campaign Finance.

For more information, to request a yard sign or get involved, visit www.jimgraham2014.com

Before you vote in the April 1st Democratic Primary, remember...

Dupont East’s 17th StreetNeighborhood Stagnating

Walking around DC makes me marvel at the progress over the past decade -- from Southwest to Southeast’s baseball stadium and Navy Yard area to H Street Northeast to Northwest’s neighborhoods like Petworth and Columbia Heights.

However, Dupont West’s 17th Street area has stagnated businesswise. Why is that? I attribute this to the ANC, DCCA and a bit of Ward 2 Council Member relying too heavily on these two.

The 17th Street Safeway is a symbol of this stagnation. With the redevelopment of the Petworth Safeway, this Safeway has to be the worst in the city. I blame this lack of progress on the ANC/DCCA. SpaLon now has moved out creating more vacant space including the LL of that building along with the LL below CVS. Very sad. Along with this stagnation, I would throw in the stagnated expansion of JR?s and even the stagnated Dupont Underground.

The ANC/DCCA generally has played an anti-business/anti-change role and this is the result.

If DC were a democracy and we could vote on the ANC?s the majority of us would vote to do away with them.

Larry RayNorth Columbia Heights

The Real Problem is the Assessment Methodology

Your editorial on the Senior Citizen Real Property Tax Relief Act of 2013 [“From the Publisher’s Desk,” February 2014; http://tinyurl.com/m6xkfm7] appropriately recog-nizes the importance of retaining our long-time senior citizen homeowners and why that is importance to the stability of District neighborhoods. However, there is one issue that this bill does not address and that is the problem with the assessment process.

There are a lot of assumptions built into the Office of Tax and Revenue’s [OTR] assessment computer program that may not

have much relationship with real market prices. For example, if recent sales are used at the measure of “market value,” houses belonging to longtime, often elderly, owners are likely to be over-assessed as they don’t reflect the recent modernization and pre-sale fix-up characteristic of houses for sale.

Similarly, as Cleveland Park’s Peter Craig pointed out in his class action lawsuit chal-lenging the assessment process, sale prices include a number of costs, such as personal property, services, or taxes related to the sale, that are part of the sale process, but not legally includable in the value of the real property itself. This means that the sale price, unless it is adjusted, generally over-states the value of the real property.

There are also issues raised by multipliers OTR uses for different neighborhoods, and in particular, how land values are deter-mined for different neighborhoods and lot sizes. Over the years, more and more of the assessed value of residential property has been shifted to OTR’s valuation of the land, without any public description or justifica-tion of how that value is determined. As someone living on the boundary between two different assessment districts, I have found the difference in valuation of similar lots very close to each other to often be significant.

Unfortunately, the Council and the Mayor have not really examined the fairness of OTR’s assessment process for residential real property. [Ward 2] Councilmember Evans, among others, likes to tout that the District has some of the lowest prop-erty tax rates in the area, but he ignores the problems with the process of determining the assessment against which the tax rate is multiplied. If OTR’s computer system routinely generates assessments that are out of line with market values, then even with “low rates,” property taxes will be high and potentially destabilizing for neighborhoods and longtime owners will increasingly find themselves priced out of their homes.

Sincerely,Ann Loikow

Cleveland Park

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Page 4 • The InTowner • March 2014

Page 5 • The InTowner • March 2014

principal in the architectural firm whose design was the one under review.)

The plan calls for the creation of a high end residential project consisting of execu-tive efficiencies — 20 in the mansion and 69 in the new glass and masonry structure that will replace the early 1950s annex. The first and second floors of the new structure will be linked to the mansion’s first and second floor levels by a two-story transpar-ent glass “hyphen” set 12 feet back from the front of both buildings. The second floor of the mansion will be renovated and turned into common spaces for the apartment ten-ants for use in the manner of a private club. The project architects are from the well-known local Hartman-Cox firm.

Unfortunately, despite repeated attempts, the developers did not respond to our request

for copies of the archi-tects’ preliminary front and side elevation ren-derings. The following description contained in the HPO staff report submitted to the pres-ervation board will pro-vide some information:

“The addition has been designed to have a simple, symmetrical-ly, rigorously ordered elevation with repeat-ing vertically-oriented window openings that relate to the propor-tions, spacing, scale and vertical orientation of fenestration on the Patterson House. The cladding of white span-drel glass is intended to

provide a similar polish and crispness to the addition as is provided by the white marble on landmark [mansion] while clearly read-ing as a contemporary building. The addi-tion’s simple geometric form, symmetri-cal composition, flat roofline, and smooth wall surfaces are somewhat reminiscent of Neo-Formalist modernism from the 1960s and 1970s, where it was often used in Washington to relate to the city’s context of classical buildings. However, rather than being clad in marble or another stone, as was typical of that era, the addition takes advantage of advancements in glass technol-ogy to create a quiet and elegant companion that relates to but doesn’t compete with the landmark [mansion].”

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”).

ADDITIONFrom p. 1

Seen from across P Street is the annex building with the top floors of the New Hampshire Avenue office building behind and the Iraqi Embassy to the right across the alley, at the far end of which can be seen the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office facing 18th Street.

to open up the interior floors of the Mies building, creating dramatic new vistas and circulation avenues, and providing rooftop green features and viewing decks -- ironi-cally making the floors, and the building itself, more Miesian-like -- with Patkau and Ayers including in their proposal an intriguing, cloud-like feature in the center of the top two library floors.

The Freelon Group, which had electrified the MLK library community on September 18, 2012 when it participated in a panel discussion with other nationally recognized architects and library experts addressing ideas on the future of the building, and at that time presented an unsolicited design pro-posal that brought the Mies building back to life in a sparkling new expression of light and openness. This time Freelon, along with STUDIOS, presented an even more elaborate design concept in the competition proposal

crafted by both firms together, with a grandi-ose new structure of apartments on top of the original building and an opened-up basement level for the archives, research collections, and MLK mural.

Freelon/STUDIOS grand interior staircase design presented a compelling alternative to the present dark and ghostly staircases adja-cent to MLK’s two elevator cores. Mecanoo/Martinez+Johnson’s proposal seemed even more Miesian than Mies; it eliminated the dull yellow brick walls from the entrance façade, the southwest corners, and throughout the upper three floors thereby presenting a crisp and clean version of the building. One image showed Mies himself standing in front of a building model without the front façade’s large brick wall panel. Noting that none of these brick walls are load bearing, and Mies’s own admonition that as time passes a society’s needs change, and the flexible, geometric design of his buildings were supremely adapt-able to change.

Competition winner Mecanoo/Martinez’s

design concept for its proposed rooftop addi-tion called for a rectilinear structure angled away from MLK’s southeast corner, keeping the horizontal frame of MLK dominant and preserving public accessibility to the build-ing’s strategic southeast corner location on the 9th and G downtown street grid. The design team’s open circulation and flexible floor plans served to maximize the opportunities for new and existing utilization of library public service, study and research, and performance and meeting room spaces.

Mecanoo, whose name is based on that of the British model construction set invented in 1898, has designed and seen built librar-ies in such locations as the Netherlands, Great Britain, and China. The library for the Technical University in Delft, for example, is a masterwork of glass and grass. Described by the firm as a building with a sloping grass roof that is freely accessible for lounging and walk-ing, the library’s roof is supported by slender steel columns that define a space enclosed by canted, fully glazed walls. “Supported by splayed steel columns,” the firm reports, “a

central cone pierces the green expanse and houses four levels of traditional study space.”

Mecanoo’s design of a central library in downtown Birmingham, England has created, by all accounts, a transforma-tional and monumental, cultural and entertain-ment landmark in that city’s largest public square. Birmingham’s central library building houses an adult and children’s library, study center, and

music library; a community health center; multimedia, archives, offices, and exhibition halls; cafés and lounge spaces; roof terraces; and a 300-seat auditorium shared with the neighboring Birmingham Repertory Theater.

Among Martinez+Johnson’s historic pub-lic library projects here in the District the prize-winning reconstruction and preservation designs for the Georgetown Library and that of Takoma, DC. The Georgetown project resulted in the solid and sensitive restoration of a historic building that had experienced a disastrous fire and in the creation of new interior spaces, first for the library’s Peabody Room in the structure’s high-ceilinged, previ-ously unused attic and then with the ground level children’s library which was ingeniously extended into the building’s backyard terrace. Circulation within the reconstructed building was dramatically improved for both patron movement and natural lighting.

The firm’s projects involving buildings of the more recent past include its preserva-tion design work for such mid-century mod-

ern landmarks as the David H. Koch theater at New York’s Lincoln Center where the architects found “the primary differences [with older historic structures] to be in building style, systems, and materials, not quality of architecture.”

Ginnie Cooper, the DC Public Library’s former chief librarian, who chaired the seven-member technical evaluation committee for the architecture team selection, emphasized that the District was selecting a team to design a new MLK, not designs for a new MLK. The Library’s press release announcing the selection offered the following three considerations informing the technical evaluation committee’s selection, which it asserted had been made with assis-tance from an advisory panel, on-line and focus group input and community input from attendees at the February 15th public briefing. The committee’s final selection was based on, the Library further asserted:n “Senior personnel assigned to the project

and their experience designing and complet-ing major libraries and obtaining appropriate approvals from DC and Federal review agen-cies;n “Approach to managing the project,

developing the project budget, managing the costs and schedule while ensuring the final design meets budget requirements, and addressing key challenges that are inherent in the project, andn “Ability to meet or exceed the District’s

Certified Business Enterprise participation rate of 35 percent.”

Next steps for the project are crucial. With the design team’s selection having been made, library officials will begin working with Martinez+Johnson to craft a contract for review and approval by the DC Council. And, according to the press release, the selection effort’s “Advisory Panel will help the library continue to collect input from the community on what they would like to see in their reno-vated . . . Library.”

The Library’s community involvement efforts so far have been modest, and perhaps appropriately so, given the technical, manage-rial, and budgetary considerations inherent in the initial task of selecting an architec-tural team based on design excellence and the selected team’s proven track record for such a project.

The extraordinary success of the library system’s reconstruction and rehabilitation of 15 branch libraries over the past several years, with a library team inspired and led by Ginnie Cooper, sets a high bar for the MLK central library project. With the architectural design excellence of the new and restored branch

library buildings providing District residents with a built phenomenon for all to see, these same District residents will be expecting an exemplary restored and re-imagined MLK building that both meets the needs of a 21st century urban library’s central facility as well as one that will provide a transformative “third place” destination at the Library’s strategic downtown location. Robust and direct com-munity involvement and interaction with both the Library’s professional and technical staff and that of the design team will be critical to the success of the resultant reconstruction.

Two subsequent factors are critical to these initial steps, and are so noted in the Library’s press release, which concludes by stating that “upon contract approval, Martinez+Johnson and Mecanoo will work with library staff and consultants to determine if the project will be renovated as a stand-alone library or as a mixed-use building with additional floors. No decisions have been made on the type or extent of the renovations or additions to the library.” Critically missing from this brief paragraph is any mention of the Library’s own 14-member advisory panel “that helped select the architecture team” and any reference to the community at large. Once again, the robust involvement of the public is vital to the success of this important civic endeavor.

And, finally, is the question of cost. “The total cost for the project has not been deter-mined. Early estimates for the total cost range from $225 million to $250 million.” The Mayor and City Council have committed an initial $103 million to the project in the District’s current capital budget.

Editor’s Note: For background on this long-running story (since 2006), see “Disposition or Retention of MLK Main Library Building Subject of In-Depth Report to Guide DC Library Trustees,” InTowner, March 2012 issue PDF page 1; http://tinyurl.com/lou5r6b.

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

LIBRARYFrom p. 1

image—courtesy Patkau / Ayers Saint Gross.

Concept view of finalists Patkau / Ayers Saint Gross depicting their vision for a re-imagined main floor.

image—courtesy Freelon / STUDIO.

Concept view of finalists Freelon / STUDIO depicting their vision for a re-imagined main floor.

Page 6 • The InTowner • March 2014

Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets

Spring Fling:

Annual Meeting & Silent Auction Come bid on 100 items on Thursday, April 24, 2014 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. in the Washington Hilton; 1919 Connecticut Avenue. Items range from vacation get-aways to hotel packages, restaurant vouchers, and artwork – all supporting Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets. Visit the auction site online after April 17th to pre-bid.

The gala will be a fun event for the whole community with music, a dinner buffet, recognition of key leaders, plus a Silent Auction. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door, which include a buffet and cash bar.

Taste of Dupont Save the date for the next Taste of Dupont on Saturday, May 31, 2014 from 2:00-5:00.

First Friday in Dupont Every First Friday of the month, art galleries stay open late to feature new art and artists around Dupont Circle. Go gallery hopping from 6:00-8:00 or so every first Friday around Dupont! And, Circa is partnering with Hillyer Art Space to sponsor their next First Friday. After 8:00 p.m., Circa is hosting a Post-First Friday Happy Hour. Anyone with a hand stamp will receive Happy Hour at CIRCA for the rest of the evening.

www.FirstFridayDupont.org .

The mission of Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets is to expand its coalition of neighborhood stakeholders; retain, expand, and attract a mix of neighborhood businesses; manage and improve our public spaces; assist independent business owners; preserve the diverse and historic character of our neighborhood; and promote Dupont Circle as a shopping and dining destination.

www.DupontCircle.biz

taking off; 30 feet away in the alley, it was 79 decibels and at 160 feet away on the roof deck of the Jefferson Row condominiums one street directly north, the noise level was recorded just 7 decibels lower, at 72.

The coalition was formed early this year by Dupont Circle ANC Commissioner Abigail Nichols and Sarah Peck, both resi-dents in the 1300 block of 18th Street. Their goal is to address and find solutions, including actively seeking and monitoring enforce-ment by the city to curb the excessive noise that emanates from many of the nightlife establishments within close proximity of residential and mixed-use areas such as in and around Dupont Circle, 14th Street, the U Street cor-ridor, to name but three.

In addition, they are engag-ing with club owners to seek their cooperation in comply-ing with the 60-decibel rule. As Peck told The InTowner, “our group has been meeting with the owners of Midtown, Dirty Martini, and Rosebar to bring down the amplified sound coming out of their clubs. We are pleased that these businesses are volun-tarily working with us to develop a noise mitigation plan that works for their business-es and that complies with the DC noise con-trol act. We think this approach may be a good model for ABRA [Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration] to follow.”

ABRA’s director, Fred Moosally, was in attendance and assured the large turn-out that he takes noise violations seriously. According to Moosally, beginning on March 13th, the Noise Task Force, which is made up of representatives from the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, the Metropolitan Police Department and ABRA, will conduct increased noise checks. The task force will conduct random noise tests throughout DC nightclubs, includ-ing ones in Dupont Circle, on Thursday through Sunday nights. The first offense for an establishment that has a noise level exceeding 60 decibels will be a fine of $1,000.

To understand how far away one can hear sound at the 60-decibel level, this would be no louder than being able to hear a conver-sation taking place a little over three feet away (absent competing ambient noise).

With respect to the legal noise level limit there was discussion about whether or not the 60-decibel limit is realistic. Not

only did representatives from the nightclubs who attended but also even a few residents agreed that the legal limit might be set too low.

“I think the big elephant in the room is that 60 decibels is never going to work,” one resident remarked. “It’s true that two people having a conversation exceeds it, so if we hold that as the standard, we’re not going to make any progress.”

When objections to what was said were voiced, one of the nightclub owners took out a smartphone with a decibel reading app which recorded that with one person speak-

ing into a microphone the decibel level was 55 to 60.

“There should be a task force put together with citizens and promoters and club own-ers who care,” an owner said. “Everybody cares for the most part…Everybody who is in here who is in the business, we don’t want to disturb you. There has to be a way to be productive.”

While noise continues to be an issue, Dupont Circle ANC Commissioner Mike Silverstein –- he also serves as a member of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board –- stated that “the hospitality industry has brought $400 million in city taxes and city revenues this past year; 59,000 people have their jobs tied into that.”

A few seconds later, Silverstein noted, “It is the second biggest industry that we have in this town” – adding, sardonically, “maybe third after corruption.”

*Ben Lasky, a contributing writer for The InTowner, studied communications and jour-nalism at The American University.

Copyright (c) 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”).

NOISEFrom p. 1

photo—courtesy DC Nightlife Noise Coalition.

Saturday night view of Ozio’s rooftop dance club as seen from the roof deck of the nearby Jefferson Row condominiums.

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Page 7 • The InTowner • March 2014

Page 8 • The InTowner • March 2014

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY MUSEUM/KATZEN CENTER 4400 Mass. Ave. (Ward Cir.)

Tue.-Sun., 11am-4pm; Mon., closed 202-885-1300

www.american.edu/museum

Washington’s intrepid arts impre-sario and director and curator of

the American University Museum Jack Rasmussen has delivered a second sizzling exhibition of 100 Washington and immedi-ate area painters, sculptors, printmakers, and mixed-media artists in an engaging installa-

tion in the Katzen Arts Center’s expansive and challenging galleries.

With a message statement in the exhibi-tion’s title, “Washington Art Matters: Art Life in the Capital 1940-1990” (WAM), and loosely based on the same arts catalog as was the first WAM exhibition of another 100 Washington artists shown at the Katzen last year, Rasmussen and his co-curators for this install-ment, gallerist Andrea Pollen and journalist and art critic Ben Forgey, have assembled an equally rep-resentative selection from among Washington artists working over the past 40 or 50 years.

Their selection once again demonstrates the amazing depth and diver-sity of outstanding artistic creativity in the nation’s capital. One can only hope that a tradition has been established for such exhi-bitions on a continuing basis -- and that a third

100 WAM together with successive thematic exhibitions might be in the immediate and longer term plans for showing additional works from among the many outstanding art-ists in the Washington arts firmament!

WAM Part II opens with an introductory gallery of unusually strong works, especially two seldom seen, densely composed, and lav-ishly brushed abstract paintings by pioneer-ing Washington artists Richard Dempsey and Robert D’Arista. Dempsey’s work is a fever-ishly expressed concoction highlighted by an explosive burst of silvery light -- the kind of forceful event occasioned by such occur-

rences as “the big bang” that brought our universe into existence.

While small in size, Dempsey’s 1964 painting is large in visual and emotional impact, as was Dempsey’s impact on the Washington art scene when in 1952, as stated in the exhibition catalog, “Franz Bader shows the watercolors of Richard Dempsey [in what] may be the first exhibition of a local black art-

ist’s work in a white-owned gallery.” Bader’s early and sustained pioneering efforts in showing the work of women and artists of color is another celebration in these WAM exhibitions. Careers were developed, and collectors were found by such path finders as Franz Bader.

A much larger work from 1965, Figure Study #1, by Robert D’Arista, a longtime and much admired artist and AU art teacher, is the exhibition’s knock-out. Darkly mesmer-izing, deeply and convincingly composed, and beautifully painted, this mysterious work announces its own mastery in plumbing something akin to the depths and cog-nitive unknowability of personal creation -- or so it seems to me. Both this and the Dempsey painting are in AU’s Watkins Collection.

Strong works abound in this first gallery, espe-cially a classic Kenneth Victor Young abstraction titled Fireball from 1969 and David C. Driskell’s Gabriel from 1965.

Terrific sculptural pieces from the Watkins are provided in represen-tative works by Genna Watson -- Somewhere In-Between (1978) -- and Greg Hannah’s 1987 Nattie Tie. Two colorful realistic works, both from the Howard University Art Gallery, enliven this same first gallery space: James A. Porter’s In a Cuban Bus (1946) and James Lesesne Wells’ Salome (1963).

And one continues through this wonder-fully laid out series of rooms and gallery spaces encountering works that will lift your spirits -- ranging from, for example, Georgia Deal’s stunning She Walks the Street, She Do the Do (1986) and Naul Ojeda’s charm-ing Escaping from the Big City (1977) to that of Mark Leithauser’s great masterwork Migration 1976. Simon Gouverneur’s power-ful work created in 1985, titled Constellated, continues to mystify and enchant, while Val Lewton’s realistic 1982 depiction of Red Top Caps and background bungalows offers mys-

teries of an entirely different sort.Two featured works by well-known

Washington art world figures -- painters, raconteurs, curators, teachers, writers, and general all-around polymaths -- William Dunlap and Sidney Lawrence, leaven the exhibition with delightful and hilarious works. Dunlap’s is something of a polyptych; its title explains it all: Learn to paint like Rembrandt in three easy steps from 1971. Sidney Lawrence’s satirical 1988 caricature of himself, complete with a saintly sun-ray nimbus, titled Self Portrait with a Swelled Head, will send you chuckling out of the show.

The catalog accompanying the exhibi-tion, available for purchase in the museum’s gift shop, is a goldmine of information on the Washington art scene for the 1940 to 1990 chronology of the show. Although by no means complete, it will become a vital source for more than one slice of the Washington art world of that period. The show sadly closes on Sunday, March 16th -- one last weekend to see it!

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

Daily, 10am-5pm / www.nga.gov

With a massive onslaught of 401 pho-tographic plates covering post World

War II American life, Garry Winogrand’s obsessively productive 30-year career as both a noted New York street photographer and a traveling American photo journalist, togeth-er with a huge, oversize exhibition catalog containing reproductions of all 401 photo-graphs plus numerous additional works by both Winogrand and his famous mentors and contemporaries -- concluding with crisp and comprehensive biographic and curato-rial texts, the National Gallery is continuing to fortify its reputation as a commanding presence in the collection, explanation, and display of 20th century American photogra-phy. In doing so the Gallery is also continu-ing to expand its museum-going audience, one that is as obsessive about images as Winogrand was in making them.

As aptly pointed out in the Gallery’s mag-isterial exhibition catalog by its photogra-phy curator Sarah Greenough, Winogrand came of age as the United States established itself following the Second World War as

the globe’s greatest military, industrial, and financial power. As that great power created in its wake a middle class with disposable income, it encouraged that class to compul-sively spend that income on objects of desire -- this new and powerful middle class having satisfied its acquisition of objects of need. This encouragement was fomented by the rise of the domestic, home delivered maga-zine culture of the post-war period -- full of seductive advertising and fueled with being wrapped around the brilliant development of the concept of photojournalism.

In the 1950s and 1960s Winogrand

At the Museums By Anthony L. Harvey*

Cont., MUSEUMS, p. 9

The exhibition’s welcoming entrance gallery nicely sets the mood for this satisfying show.

Robert D’Arista, Figure Study (1965).

Richard Dempsey, Ritual of Jamaica (1964).

Cynthia Bickley, Untitled (Four Lobes) (1966-’67).

Winogrand, New York (ca. 1962).

Page 9 • The InTowner • March 2014

recorded that new society at work and play while in the feverish throes of a fast-paced and chaotic arena of consumer consump-tion -- that class having been just released from the austerity of a wartime production regime.

Equally chaotic was Winogrand’s own concept of photography. Asserting an inspi-ration from the documentary style photo-journalism of Walker Evans and Robert Frank, Winogrand overlaid that inspiration with his adoption of the contradictory ethos of hipster intellectual Susan Sontag, who

argued for a photographic art that focused on a formalistic criteria -- one capable of raising through aesthetic form the content of photography to the level of a fine art and at the same time freeing photography from moralistic analysis or narrative story telling.

According to this theory, the successful practitioner of this new photographic dis-cipline would be the photographer whose technical skills were honed to a rigorous discipline that involved camera expertise and the strictures of using just the right lenses and ingenious techniques such as tilted hori-zons; this would be coupled with the devel-opment by the photographer of an intuitive aesthetic sense of both the proper framing and the decisive moment for the act of tak-ing the photograph. The magical moment would occur when the image appeared in the developer’s bath.

If the battle between form and content was successfully resolved, there would be no need for any explanation; one would only need to view the work. In a context of Manhattan and the equally densely built parts of adjacent New York City boroughs, Winogrand’s ethos seemed strikingly effec-tive; his photographs captured the magni-tude of that recently built and all encom-passing environment of New York City,

which was the only context needed for the depicting of human beings caught up in the maelstrom of that mid-20th century environment.

An equally denatured environment for Winogrand’s most successful work is that of urban Southern California. A brilliant example of that success is his image titled Los Angeles (1969; Cat. No. 257) which presents a complex tableau of figures, read-ing left to right, a wraith of a crippled boy slumped over in a wheelchair against a plate glass storefront, a trio of stylishly

dressed attractive young women crowned with bouffant hairstyles approaching on the urban sidewalk, and a bus stop bench filled with seated people; a lone, standing woman completes the foreground composition. Streaming bright lights create an inverted pyramid -- a chiaroscuro of shadow and light

down the center of the photograph with storefront reflections deepening the power of the overall asymmetric framing of the composition.

The most fun -- a heretical concept, no doubt, to the serious photography aficio-nado -- for this viewer is the series of 11 photographs taken by Winogrand at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. They present in appropriately staged set format the ritual madness of a national political convention.

The most powerful body of Winogrand’s work -- again for this viewer -- are those taken in New York City in the 1960s. I lived and worked in Manhattan during the mid- to late 1960s and the more I absorbed these images the more powerful and insightful they become in my own visual and emo-tional memory. New York (ca. 1962; Cat. No. 101) is typical; it captures a happily prosper-

ous, new rich (no doubt), Manhattan couple strolling down (perhaps) 5th Avenue. This delightfully (another inappropriate adjective that will offend the serious photography art buff) iconic image also serves as the exhi-bition catalog cover. And crowded street scenes of Wall Street workers and mid-Manhattan shoppers constantly enliven this photography exhibition.

The back cover to the catalog could not be a greater contrast to this happy front cover; it depicts a seemingly well-dressed woman lying forlorn in daylight in a gutter in front of a busy Denny’s restaurant -- Los Angeles (1980-’83; Cat. No. 389) -- in down-town Los Angeles during the early 1980s. As published in the catalog, it faces an image of a Latino parade celebrating the Day of the Dead, Los Angeles (1979; Cat. No. 388). Neither image has the brute force and dense complexity of the crowded New York scenes.

My least favorites are the photographs

taken in rural and small town Texas where I grew up. Here, Winogrand’s insistence on providing no textual context for his images proves fatal; it further deprives the photog-rapher of the fascinating stories embedded in the natural environment of those places; it also encourages kitsch. Two examples are from the hill country and the panhandle and are both scenes used in humorous Texas postcards that celebrate contemporary Texas eccentricities.

The first, Aquarena Springs, San Marcos, Texas (1964; Cat. No. 204) depicts a comely young woman wearing a fitted dress trimmed with a gingham neck and flounced skirt swimming in the springs with what looks like a pig. And it is a swimming pig, celebrated by visitors to the Aquarena Springs Amusement Park as “Ralph, the Diving Swine.” The springs -- all 200 of them -- form the head-waters of the San Marcos River and are one

of the oldest (12,000 years), continuously occupied human habitats in North America -- and a sacred site for its indigenous inhabit-ants. The amusement park is now no more and the site has become part of an ambi-tious environmental and water conservation program in a state desperate to nurture its diminishing water resources.

The lack of water is the subtext for Texas (1964; Cat. No. 191), the second of these images, which features a side view of the Texas Cowboy Café, complete with its outlandish sculptures and signage of cow-boys and the geographic outline of the state. Although unmentioned, the location is Dalhart, Texas, a town whose name is derived from those of the two adjoining counties in the Texas panhandle straddled by this town. The town’s fame, or infamy, is on account of its being in the exact center of the famous 1930s drought and dust bowl that devastated both the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles and adjacent areas of New Mexico and Colorado. The area has never fully regained its topsoil, rainfall, or agricul-tural production.

This fascinating exhibition continues through June 8th. The hefty and beautifully produced catalog is available for sale in the Gallery’s gift shops.

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”).

*Anthony L. Harvey is a collector of contempo-rary art, with an emphasis on Washington artists. He is a founding 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 over-sight by the Senate’s Rules and Administration Committee and the House and Senate’s Joint Committee on the Library.

Winogrand, New York World’s Fair (1964).

Winogrand, Hard Hat Rally, New York (1970).

Winogrand, John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York (1968).

Winogrand, Los Angeles (1969).