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DECEMBER2015

Vol. 47, No. 6

Next Issue

January 8

Adams Morgan “Vision” Report Published by Office of Planning for Public to Weigh in;

Comment Period Extended to February 8thBy Anthony L. Harvey

In a tightly organized 32-page document of text

and graphics, the District’s Office of Planning (OP) has crafted a remarkable document summarizing in straight-forward, concise prose the many facets of the Adams Morgan community, the desire of that communi-ty to strengthen and extend the many factors contribut-ing to its unique and diverse nature, and steps that can be taken to carry forward into the future just such a unique, diverse nature. The document is posted on the OP website, and commu-nity comments are eagerly awaited with the ANC having successfully sought an extension of the public comment period through February 8, 2016.

OP noted in the vision framework introduction that “the catalyst for study-ing the Adams Morgan neighborhood was the activism of some residents and civic organizations who requested that the District complete a planning analysis and neighborhood roadmap in response to changes in the area, including new development, a shifting retail environ-ment, and the desire to preserve and improve quality of life.”

Continuing, OP further observed that “the community began these efforts in 2012 in the form of a community

based effort of Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 1C called Envision Adams Morgan.” This, together with the ANC’s Herculean efforts at assembling and formally adopting a comprehensive, community-based study regarding the redevelopment of the Marie H. Reed Community Learning Center, have served as building blocks for the OP sponsored Vision Framework.

OP concluded its introduction with the observation that this community-wide “planning initiative provided resi-dents, local businesses, institutions and property owners an opportunity to work together on articulating a vision for the future of Adams Morgan.” The pro-cess adopted for achieving this involved intensive participation by Adams Morgan residents and stakeholders in the cre-ation of a neighborhood profile. This involved, OP noted, “opportunities for public input and dialogue over the past year [which] included: 1) a neighbor-hood walking tour; 2) a half-day com-munity workshop; 3) a project website; 4) three community office hours events; 5) an on-line engagement forum; and 6) Latino business outreach through direct canvassing.”

[Editor’s Note: For our most recent previous report on this initiative, see “Office of Planning Soon to Publish Adams Morgan ‘Vision’ Final Report,” October 2015 issue pdf, page 1.]

OP’s Vision Framework lives up to its name with several extremely useful “frameworks,” first with nine Defining

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☞ What’s Inside?

2 Editorial: Pay to Play

6 Renwick Gallery “Wonder” Exhibition & Reopening

Web Phillips Collection Exhibition Reviewed Click Here to Read

☞ Reader Comments & Submissionsn CareFirst: Two Big to Regulate?

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?

photo—courtesy DC Office of Planning

Typical Saturday afternoon view along 18th Street.

photo—courtesy DC Office of Planning

High Heel Race Fun Festivities

2015

Click here to enjoy the photos courtesy of Phil Carney.

Shaw Celebrates Small Business Saturday as Retail Stores and Restaurants Boom

By Alexander M. Padro*

After decades as a retail desert, Shaw is on the move, with three-dozen openings

in 2015, more than two-dozen in 2014 and another two-dozen already scheduled for 2016. The neighborhood recently set two records, with 20 new businesses opening in October and November and 15 ribbons cut for new businesses on Small Business Saturday, a possible world record.

Shaw’s observance of the annual nation-wide Small Business Saturday promotion on November 28th highlighted this retail renaissance and featured 15 ribbon cuttings, including 10 at developer JBG’s new The Shay (8th & Fla.) and Atlantic Plumbing (8th & V) mixed-use/residential buildings at 8th Street and Florida Avenue and 8th and T Streets, respectively.

The Shaw Small Business Saturday events began at La Colombe in Blagden Alley, the first of three stops in at-large Councilmember Vincent B. Orange, Sr.’s “Coffee and Tea with the Councilmember,” a tradition now in its second year. Orange chairs the DC Council’s Committee on photo—Pleasant P. Mann, courtesy Shaw Main Streets, Inc.

Calabash Tea & Tonic owner Sunyatta Amen greeting Small Business Saturday customers.Cont., SHAW, p. 5

Memorial to Father of Black History Features Statue,

New LandscapingBy P.L. Wolff

On a mild and sunny Saturday, December 5, 2015, the Shaw com-

munity dedicated a completely made-over Carter G. Woodson Park honoring the memory this revered man who lived and worked in the neighborhood and is consid-ered to have been the “father” of African-American history. The ceremony was part of observances of the 140th anniversary of the historian’s birth and the centennial of the establishment of the association he founded, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

Construction of the park, located at 9th Street and Rhode Island Avenue, NW, fea-tures the bronze sculpture, completed this past summer, of a seated Dr. Woodson by nationally recognized and honored (and

Cont., MEMORIAL, p. 4

photo—courtesy National Capital Parks

The Woodson home on 9th Street undergoing restoration in preparation for it to be opened as an historic house museum in 2016.

Page 2 • The InTowner • December 2015

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From the Publisher’s Desk...By P.L. Wolff

Pepco-Exelon Deal Smacks of Pay to Play

Back in June we addressed this then looming disaster for DC residential (and, for that mat-ter, small business) electric utility ratepayers in this space. Then last month we followed

up, having, as we (admittedly, sarcastically) wrote, been “blindsided by Mayor Bowser’s sudden about-face by which she and an influential gang of her cohorts –- office seekers who she has awarded with plum jobs, large donors to her (now suddenly due to overwhelming condemna-tion closed-down) political action committee, and large contractors trolling for DC government contracts — [had] conned the PSC into re-opening the case and promising a quick reconsid-eration.” (See, “Stop Pepco Merger! Once Again, a Clarion Call.”

Further, we wondered, “Could it be that the mayor has engineered this unseemly 360-degree turn of events so that things are totally greased to overturn the initial rejection?”

Questions, questions indeed. Who was/is really pulling the strings –- who is the éminence grise behind the screen? Now we may know and if this is truly so, then we have a major prob-lem of potential “pay to play.” We hope we are proven wrong.

What has brought us to this place was Aaron C. Davis’ very disturbing November 30th report in the Washington Post about the role of former Pepco lobbyist and quintessential Washington business insider Beverly Perry who Bowser brought on board, as Davis wrote, “the mayor likens to her own, personal ‘Valerie Jarrett,’ President Obama’s White House confidante.” How pre-tentious.

Questions have been raised in many quarters around the city about Perry influencing the mayor to totally reverse her previous condemnation of the deal which, if finally approved will, reported Davis, “provide a windfall to shareholders of Pepco — as well as to Perry herself.”

Perry, however, has been emphatic that she had deliberately recused herself from any involvement in discussions or interactions with other administration officials, a claim backed up by those very officials. And, in fairness, we have to take her at her word unless and until a contrary scenario emerges.

But this still doesn’t satisfy our serious skepticism in light of the fact that it was well known that she was a major Pepco shareholder, as summarized by Davis in his Post article:

“Perry owned 47,600 shares of Pepco stock and had an interest in tens of thousands of addi-tional shares through long-term incentive programs when, in 2013, she stepped down from her role as senior vice president of Pepco, according to federal records reviewed by The Washington Post. Perry, in fact, is potentially one of the largest individual beneficiaries of the merger.”

Notwithstanding these facts, Perry denied that there would be any actual financial benefit to her for promoting the merger. As she was quoted in the Post article, “Anything that I would receive at this point from a merger, I would receive no matter if I worked for the mayor or for Wal-Mart.”

And yet, as of the end of November, her shares were then worth around $1.2 million – “an increase,” Davis reported, “of about $300,000, over its pre-merger announcement price. It would also rise by about $75,000 more when a deal is finalized. Exelon has agreed to pay a price per share about $1.58 above where Pepco stock closed [on the 30th], according to federal filings by the companies.”

Even so why shouldn’t a stockholder –- even a very prosperous one –- benefit from an increase the value of their shares? None whatsoever we respond –- except that when there seems to be a conflict of interest between the needs of the public and an official who is pledged to serve that public . . . well, you be the judge!

And in this instance Perry has been judged harshly by ratepayers and good-government advo-cates who are rightly saying, as Davis reported, that “the proximity of a former Pepco executive to the government officials in Bowser’s office working to finish the deal [is] nothing short of nefarious.”

Amplifying on this is the statement by the non-profit Community Power Network’s executive director, Anya Schoolman, “Pepco and Exelon have always been very confident -- overly con-fident -- in their dealings with DC on this merger, and we’ve heard it’s because they believed they had an inside track, someone on the inside. We always believed that was Beverly Perry,”

And so do we, and that, along with all the other reasons that previously had been analyzed and regarded by the PSC as disqualifying the merger application, should be the nail in the cof-fin of this deal for once and for all.

Copyright © 2015 InTowner Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permis-sion is prohibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §107 & 108 (“fair use”).

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Characteristics of Adams Morgan; second, a set of 11 Values; and third, 17 Goals organized around five core categories -- also identified as Ideas).

“Defining Characteristics” are identified as diversity, arts, culture, vibrancy, archi-tecture, amenities, institutions, brand, and location.

“Values” are articulated as admonitions for action, listed as promoting community diversity; protecting neighborhood charac-ter and historic resources; improving pub-lic space and gathering places; enhanc-ing pedestrian access to transit options; strengthening retail vitality and range of options; celebrating the unique identify of Adams Morgan and its eclectic, artistic, and ethnically diverse heritage; improving communications between business own-ers and residents; leveraging community activism and local networks to advance sus-tainability of the neighborhood; promoting multicultural and multilingual participation in building community; supporting and protecting affordable housing; positioning Adams Morgan to be a family-friendly and age-friendly neighborhood with robust ame-nities.

The 17 “Goals” are organized around five core categories, namely, “creating great places; redefining retail; embracing sustain-ability; strengthening identify through arts, history, and culture; and bolstering com-munity.”

The remainder of this fascinating docu-ment deconstructs the 17 goals as they relate to one or more of the five core catego-ries. And here the details of these goals as outlined in this Vision Framework should result, for example, in lively and informative responses from many of the most thought-ful and longtime, as well as newly arrived, Adams Morgan residents eager to see further modernization of neighborhood facilities and the creation of new community ame-nities, plus thoughts and comments from long-standing property owners and busi-ness proprietors -- and newcomers -- and instructive insights from politically active stakeholders on the ANC and in leader-ship positions of civic associations and the

Business Improvement District.Creating “Great Places” provides an

immediate pair of examples, beginning with the admonition that Adams Morgan “initi-ate a culturally sensitive and age-friendly redesign and enhancement of Unity Park.” Controversy abounds regarding the fate of this strategically located small, triangular park, generously donated to the District by the First Church of Christ, Scientist, when Euclid Street was originally cut through to Columbia Road, separating that area from the handsome steps and façade of the imposing church building.

This reporter first remembers it (in the 1960s and ‘70s) as a “City Beautiful”-style park, complete with a small bandstand,

water fountains, traditional park benches, and trees and grass. Since moving back to the neighborhood in 1990 this reporter has it become a monotonous hardscape with an out-of-scale sculpture and lacking the finishing touches that were promised (e.g., a water feature, lighting, and comfortable seating) when, reportedly, funds available to the non-profit organization conducting the Unity Park renovation ran out. The one successful activation of the park in recent years -- the Latino themed weekend collec-tion of outdoor food stands featuring central and south American dishes -- was torpedoed by self-appointed activists from the business community, while neighborhood residents loved it.

[Editor’s Note: This outdoor Office of Latino Affairs-sponsored food market was the subject of an extensive -– and largely positive (despite the negatively couched headline) -- report five years ago. See, “Unlicensed and Non-DC Resident Vending in City Funded Adams Morgan Program Exposed,” September 2010 issue pdf, page 1.]

A second issue is even more fascinating to this reporter. Goal number three directs

ADAMS MORGANFrom p. 1

<http:/ / t inyurl .com/pcy9fw7>

Cont., ADAMS MORGAN, p. 4

photo—courtesy DC Office of Planning

Mid-20th aerial view of Adams Morgan.

photo—courtesy DC Office of Planning

View of Dance Alley behind the west side of 18th Street looking south from Columbia Road toward Belmont Road.

graphic—courtesy DC Office of Planning

Page 4 • The InTowner • December 2015

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the conducting of “an audit of alleys in the commercial district to identify opportunities for making them cleaner, safer, more attrac-tive and animated in line with the move-ment towards living alleys.” Adjacent to this directive is a photograph of a captioned “existing typical commercial alley,” this being the narrow alley that stretches from an unbroken east side of the 18th Street com-mercial strip and which continues without a break all the way from Columbia Road south to Kalorama Road. The other side of this alley is not commercial, rather it is entirely residential and supports the occu-pants of apartment buildings and residential row houses; it is perhaps the least typical alley in Adams Morgan and will soon be overwhelmed by the completion of the con-struction and subsequent operation of the enormous (for Adams Morgan) new hotel and underground parking and commercial levels now being built behind the First Church of Christ, Scientist.

By contrast, another alley, one which had been included on an earlier OP Vision Framework community tour, led participants to an actual commercial alley -- one that bisects the top of the Washington

Heights triangle between Columbia Road and the west side of18th Street, albeit with several residential apartment buildings on Columbia Road -- was not mentioned. This much wider alley (it’s funnel-shaped and stretches south to the middle of the north side of Belmont Road) is named Dance Alley in recognition of its having been the rear entrance to the former 18th Street loca-tion of celebrated Dance Place’s instruc-tional and practice studio. This same alley supported such establishments as a frame and gilding shop, artists’ studio spaces, and a terrific antique and cast-off furniture store. The “re-animation” of this commercial alley was somehow discarded from consideration.

The remaining 15 goals outlined in the Vision Framework include enhancing exist-ing and creating new gathering places; creating four retail sub districts, aligning retailer goals, and reinforcing the collec-tive identity of each sub district; improv-ing connections between retailers and resi-dents; providing technical assistance for, and support to, existing Hispanic, Asian, and African-owned and operated businesses; achieving neighborhood goals for cleanli-ness, safety, and a healthy environment; enhancing neighborhood sustainability; rec-ognizing and reinforcing the importance of maintaining neighborhood character; reinforcing Adams Morgan’s identity as

a place for arts and culture; establishing neighborhood gateways at key locations to delineate Adams Morgan from adjacent neighborhoods; celebrating and connecting neighborhood assets; Increase the percent-age of units that are subsidized affordable housing; Expand neighborhood amenities; improving the quality and accessibility of existing playgrounds, parks, and green spac-es; improving bicycle and pedestrian access and safety and establishing a more con-nected bicycle lane network; and improving public safety and communications with the Metropolitan Police Department. Other goals not articulated in the document may come to mind. Residents, property owners, and business and institutional constituen-cies are urged to pass them on.

Serious reviewers of this remarkably craft-ed, important document will find other issues with which to enlarge upon, add to, dissect or disagree with, or to affirm with enthusiasm -- as did this reporter. It’s that sort of open-ended document to which OP would strive for maximum community support.

Comments and questions should be directed to OP’s Ward One Planner Josh Silver at joshua.silver@dc.gov. He may also be contacted at (202) 442-8816.

Copyright © 2015 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.

ADAMS MORGANFrom p. 3

Washington-based) sculptor Raymond Kaskey. Woodson’s home and office at 1538 9th Street, NW, was designated a National Historic Landmark and placed on the National Register of Historic Places

in 1976. It is currently being renovated as an historic house museum by the National Park Service and projected to be open for tours by the end of 2016.

According to Shaw Main Streets Executive Director Alexander M. Padro, his organization “is responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the bronze statue of Dr. Woodson . . . using funding provided as part of the mitigation of negative impacts result-ing from the construction of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. We’re pleased to bring the Shaw community together to dedicate this mon-ument to such an important local and national hero.”

Carter G. Woodson was born on December 19, 1875, in New Canton, Virginia, the son of former slaves. A Harvard-trained historian, Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915. After initially being housed in offices on the 1200 block of U Street, NW, Woodson moved the association and his residence to 1538 9th Street, NW, in

1922. From that location he promoted what is now known as Black History Month and published books, journals, and teaching materials on African-American history and culture; he was also a co-founder in 1915 of The Journal of Negro History.

Woodson also served as a DC Public Schools high school principal and Howard University dean. He died in Washington

in 1950, though the orga-nization he founded con-tinued to occupy the 9th Street house until the early 1970s.

The park was named by the DC City Council in honor of Carter G. Woodson in 2001 as part of an effort to draw atten-tion to the plight of the adjacent Woodson house, which was vacant and occupied by squatters at the time. The house appeared on the DC Preservation League’s list of 10 Most Endangered Places and

the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of the 11 Most Endangered Places in America that year. In 2003, Congress authorized the establishment of the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site, and the National Park Service subsequently acquired 1538 9th Street, NW and two adja-cent buildings. Renovation and construc-tion on the Woodson house and adjacent row houses began in 2015.

Copyright © 2015 InTowner Publishing Corp. & Shaw Main Streets, Inc. All rights reserved.

MEMORIALFrom p. 1

photo—Alexander M. Padro

photo—Alexander M. Padro

Page 5 • The InTowner • December 2015

Business, Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, which has oversight over the government agencies that support small business devel-opment. After paying the tabs of dozens of customers at the Philadelphia-based cof-feehouse’s first DC outpost, Orange and his team, along with TV cameras moved on to Calabash Tea and Tonic on 7th Street, which opened in May and was festooned with blue and white balloons and decora-tions, the national “Shop Small” campaign’s colors.

The entourage then merged with Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s team at Compass Coffee’s new, second location on 8th Street at The Shay, where even more media were gathered for Small Business Saturday cover-age. Bowser, Orange, Department of Small and Local Business Development Director Ana Harvey, business owners and developers posed for photos under a mural of Compass’ Made in DC logo.

Orange and Bowser moved two doors north to Lettie Gooch boutique, where the mayor shopped and bought a top and pair of earrings. The boutique first opened on 9th Street in 2006, moved out of Shaw for a few years, and returned just in time for Saturday’s event. Orange then joined fellow at-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman in the lobby at the Atlantic Plumbing building for

the ribbon cutting kickoff.Ribbons were then cut at design shops

Cherry Blossom Creative and Typecase Industries and the Foundry Gallery before moving to The Shay buildings for Riide’s made in DC powered bicycles, the all-new Serv-U Liquors, bike and motorcycle garb purveyors Chrome Industries, Steven Alan men’s and women’s fashions, Compass

Coffee, local tailors Read Wall, and Lettie Gooch. Along the way, the group passed Washington Project for the Arts’ new gal-lery, Atlantic Plumbing Cinemas’ six-screen Landmark Theater, the pop-up Tie Bar, eyewear icon Warby Parker, Frank & Oak menswear, technical cashmere mavens Kit & Ace, about-to-open Glen’s Garden Market’s second outpost, and several new restaurants under construction.

A limo van whisked the contingent to the new Dacha Market on 7th Street, followed by Convivial Restaurant at City Market at O, and the final businesses, all at Douglas Development’s Gang of Three complex in the 1200 block of 9inth Street: tech policy shop Development Seed, the newly-relocat-ed and expanded Reformation Fitness, and Mid-Atlantic cuisine restaurant The Dabney.

The two-hour frenzy of ribbon cuttings was videotaped and is being submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records for verification as the first time this feat has been

achieved anywhere.Shaw Main Streets, the commercial revi-

talization and historic preservation nonprofit that has been guiding the neighborhood’s revitalization since 20003, sponsored the world record attempt as part of the annual effort to encourage residents and visitors alike to shop, eat and drink local on the day after Black Friday. Free Shaw Main Streets reusable shopping bags were also distributed by participating businesses.

A few days before, Events DC announced that all six vacant retail spaces at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, just north of Mt. Vernon Square and between 7th and 9th Streets, had been leased, with four food and beverage establishments, an exercise studio, and a barber shop filling the spaces; all are scheduled to open in 2016.

Businesses that opened earlier in 2015 included fitness studios District Pilates and Shaw Yoga; cafés Piassa EthioCuisine and Rito Loco; Unleashed by Petco, Red Valet Cleaners and U Scoot scooter rentals and sales; bar/restaurants Freedom Lounge and Noble House; expansions of Chercher Ethiopian Restaurant, Ivy & Coney, and TG Cigar Lounge, and a reopened Duffy’s Irish Pub.

Upcoming openings include some of the most widely anticipated DC restaurants in years, including Eric Ziebold’s Kinship and Metier, Top Chef contestants Kwame Onwuachi’s The Shaw Bijou and Marjorie Meek-Bradley’s Smoked & Stacked, Tim Ma’s Kyirisan, Rob Rubba’s Hazel, Michael Friedman’s All Purpose, Tiffany MacIsaac’s Buttercream Bakeshop, and Josh Phillips’ Espita Mezcaleria. 2016 is going to be a deli-cious year to dine in Shaw!

*The writer, a long-time resident of the Shaw neighborhood, is also the Executive Director of Shaw Main Streets.

Copyright © 2015 InTowner Publishing Corp. & Shaw Main Streets, Inc. All rights reserved.

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SHAWFrom p. 1

photo—Pleasant P. Mann, courtesy Shaw Main Streets, Inc.

Shown cutting the ribbon at Cherry Blossom Creative are (l-r): Alexander M. Padro, Shaw Main Streets Executive Director; at-large DC Councilmember Elissa Silverman; at-large Councilmember Vincent B. Orange, Sr.; Torie Partridge, Creative Director of Cherry Blossom Creative; Shaw Main Streets Board Chair Gretchen B. Wharton.

photo—Pleasant P. Mann, courtesy Shaw Main Streets, Inc.

Councilmember Orange shown with Compass Coffee owners Harrison Suarez and Michael Haft follow-ing the cutting of their establishment’s ribbon.

photo—Alexander M. Padro, courtesy Shaw Main Streets, Inc.

Mayor Bowser meeting with the press outside Compass Coffee.

Page 6 • The InTowner • December 2015

RENWICK GALLERY OF THE SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART

MUSEUM Pa. Ave. at 17th St. NW; 357-2531

Daily, 10am-5:30pmThe stars of Smithsonian American Art

Museum’s reopening of its historic land-marked Renwick Gallery building which houses the museum’s venue for showing decorative, architectural, and craft arts, are the three-dozen financial patrons led by David Rubenstein who provided 50 percent of the funds for the Gallery’s $30 million renovation and reopening exhibition -- a 50/50 public/private effort led by the muse-um’s indefatigable director Betsy Broun.

Also deserving special recognition are the nine selected artists commissioned to create new works for the reopening as organized by Nicholas Bell, the Renwick’s curator-in-charge, as well as the architects, construc-tion engineers, and Smithsonian staff who led the rehabilitation and improvement of the building itself -- especially in its continu-ing historic preservation together with the restoration of previously concealed interior spaces, the opening of windows and the further strengthening of the building’s struc-ture, and dramatically improved lighting. This last was achieved with an innovative new LED lighting system brilliantly con-ceived, designed, and implemented by the Smithsonian’s in-house lighting designer Scott Rosenfeld.

The BuildingThe sensitivity with which window mold-

ings, ceiling structures, and gallery walls were repaired and reconstructed, dropped ceilings removed, re-plastered, and elegant-ly repainted in a lighter palette is apparent throughout the grand spaces of this outstand-ing mid-19th century building, designed by Smithsonian castle and New York City’s St. Patrick church architect James Renwick for Washington financier and founder of the Corcoran Gallery of Art William Wilson Corcoran to house and publicly display his art collection.

At the press briefing for the reopening, Director Broun characterized the building as a masterpiece -- “one of the first and finest examples of Second Empire architecture in the country.” Continuing, she noted that the building’s “infrastructure has been replaced or upgraded with the most up-to-date sus-tainable and energy efficient technologies available,” that re-pointing the brick and stone exterior was undertaken, and “custom-designed furnishings for the lobby by metal-smith Marc Mairoana” have been installed.

Rosenfeld’s glowing new LED system appears to allow for interior lighting to clearly illuminate all interior spaces with soft, background light and set the stage to provide dramatic lighting for the art objects being exhibited. As described in the press release: “All lighting within gallery and public spaces has been converted to LED technology, a major goal of the renova-tion. The new lighting system includes a number of technologies currently unique to the Renwick and is a landmark advance in both lighting design and museum energy efficiency.”

Continuing, the press release noted that Westlake Reed Leskosky is the lead archi-tectural design and engineering firm for the project and Consigli Construction Co. Inc. the general construction contractor. “Both firms,” the Renwick notes, “are recognized leaders in work with museums and historic buildings.”

In addition to federal funds for the pub-lic’s 50 percent contribution, project funds included a grant from the Save America’s Treasures program administered by the National Park Service and the generosity of private supporters of the Renwick’s building program. In all, the Renwick announced,

35 individuals and organizations each gave over $100,000 or more to the project. The results are dazzling.

The ExhibitionThe nine artists commissioned to cre-

ate new site specific installation works to celebrate the reopening exhibition, which is titled “Wonder,” include both nationally and locally known artists -- and several artists who should be much better known.

Best known is Maya Lin, landscape archi-tect and sculptor of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall. Her Renwick piece, Folding the Chesapeake, harkens back to the pioneering studio glass movement in the U.S. of which her father

Henry Huan Lin was a pioneer. Maya Lin uses watery green glass marbles and adhe-sives to create a topographic map of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, using a gallery floor and side walls as the ground -- resulting in another work in her series of explorations of natural wonders.

Leo Villareal, whose large and complex rhythmic light sculpture, Multiverse, can be viewed at the National Gallery of Art, installed his dynamic sculpture for the “Wonder” exhibition in suspension high above the Gallery’s grand staircase. Titled Volume (Renwick), this new light sculpture is programmed to never exactly repeat itself in mesmerizing sequences of the movement of light down slender icicle style pipes or in

a suddenly break out of panels of sparkling stars

Tara Donovan, an outstanding graduate of the Corcoran College of Art+Design whose work has been widely shown in both Washington and New York art museums and commercial galleries, fills a gallery space with dolomite-style towers of thousands (and thousands) of white index cards, glued one to the other and aggressively arranged in a forest of threatening and mystifying wonder-ment; her work, which crowds her gallery space, is untitled.

Chakaia Booker, who Washingtonians know well from her terrific exhibitions at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, characteristically uses the retread and damaged debris of black vehicular tires as the raw materials for her powerful works. For “Wonder,” Booker has created a laby-rinth using her familiar black rubber mate-rial in a work ironically and humorously titled Anonymous Donor. Its size and scale beautifully fits its installed gallery space.

Jennifer Angus, a Canadian transplant, has created a wonderment for the exhibition titled In the Midnight Garden. It features large and strikingly colorful insects from the exotic (to westerners) climes of Malaysia, Thailand, and Papua New Guinea. Angus fills an entire, large pink-painted gallery with neo-primitive wall displays which remind me of an imaginary children’s room in a 19th century Victorian household enthralled with natural history. Objects and specimens abound, in cabinets in the center of the gallery as well as on wall mounts. Children will love it!

John Grade used half-a-million pieces of reclaimed old growth western red cedar to build his fascinating, eco-friendly Middle Fork (Cascades) new tree, the much larger of Grade’s two trees in the exhibition. Having first selected an approximately 150-year-old

hemlock that shares the same age as the

Art & Culture By Anthony L. Harvey*

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

Gabriel Dawe, Plexus A1 (2015).

Leo Villareal, Volume (Renwick) (2015).

Page 7 • The InTowner • December 2015

ART & CULTUREFrom p. 6

Renwick building as the model for his old growth cedar. Grade and his team then created a cast of the hemlock for a mold in which to construct the new tree; it is fasci-nating both in size and in startling visual impact. Grade’s second, much smaller tree, Middle Fork (Artic) uses the same technique employing a stunted balsam poplar of the same age but from the harsh, rocky Alaska climate below the Beaufort Sea.

Patrick Dougherty’s installation created out of willow saplings is titled Shindig, and here the checklist explanation is right on the mark. It observes that “Dougherty has crisscrossed the world weaving sticks into marvelous architectures.” Continuing, the checklist states that “[e]ach structure is unique” with the shaping of saplings serving to reflect the artist’s sensitivity to the natural resilience and bending preference of each of his harvested branches. “Finding the right sticks remains a constant challenge, and part of the adventure of the art-making sends him scouring over the forgotten cor-ners of land where plants grow wild and full of possibility.” It is the largest of the exhibi-tion’s art works and would be even more effective if mounted directly above its pres-ent first floor gallery in the Grand Salon, where Janet Echelman’s 1.8 is displayed.

Echelman’s work is concisely described in the exhibition checklist as consisting of “knotted and braided fiber with pro-grammable lighting and wind movement above printed textile flooring.” Continuing, it asserts that her “woven sculpture cor-responds to a map of the energy released across the Pacific Ocean during the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, [creating the

Fukashima disaster] one of the most devas-tating natural disasters in recorded history. The event was so powerful it shifted the earth on its axis and shortened the day by 1.8 seconds lending this work its title [and] reminding us that what is wondrous can equally be dangerous.”

To this viewer, 1.8 is in no way obviously meaningful as a symbolic representation of the Fukashima disaster; one need only compare this conceptual installation art piece with the actual visual recordings of

the disaster’s earthquake destruction and powerfully obliterating tidal waves, heart-breakingly broadcast over and again by Japan’s television broadcaster NHK and repeated throughout the world. Moreover, the continuing saga of the even greater, consequent nuclear disaster at Fukashima and the even larger area directly affected is as heartbreaking as the immediate wind, water, and earthquake disasters.

In fact, the magnitude of an otherwise now empty Renwick Grand Salon itself simply overwhelms and swallows 1.8. Moreover, were the aesthetic aura of 1.8 what is claimed, it would hardly serve as an appropriate backdrop for the interior of the Grand Salon as an events space in which to hold private festivities such as weddings and other celebrations.

Plexus A1, the ninth work of these nine artists, Mexican American Gabriel Dawe, is this reviewer’s favorite of the 10 works in the exhibition. Comprised of thread, wood, hooks, and steel, it is best described as one of “Dawe’s architecturally scaled weavings [that] are often mistaken for fleeting rays of light. It is an appropriate trick of the eye, as the artist was inspired,” the checklist asserts, “to use thread in this fashion by memories of the skies above Mexico City and east Texas, his childhood and current homes, respectively. The material and vivid colors also recall the embroideries everywhere in production during Dawe’s upbringing.” Plexus A1 is brilliantly lighted, with threads the colors of the spectrum -- including a sequence reflecting those of the rainbow

flag -- displayed as though the colors are moving. The arrays of these colored threads dip and cross in the middle -- the classic image of swards crossing. It is a beautiful piece, full of both aesthetic and program-matic narratives.

Three publications accompany the exhi-bition and Gallery reopening: “American Louvre, A History of the Renwick Gallery” by Charles Robertson, “Craft for a Modern World” by Nora Atkinson, and “WONDER” by Nicholas Bell. The exhibition continues for six months.

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*Anthony L. Harvey is a collector of contempo-rary art, with an emphasis on Washington art-ists. 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 respon-sible 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.

Chakaia Booker, Anonymous Donor (2015).

Janet Echelman, 1.8 (2015).

Jennifer Angus, In the Midnight Garden (2015).

Stunning Paintings from SwitzerlandIn a beautiful exhibition, reviewed here, of both famous and, to American audi-ences, lesser known European art mas-terpieces, the Phillips Collection has mounted an exhibition of more than 60 paintings on view through January 10.