Historic Preservation Board Rebuffs Meridian International Developers

By William G. Schulz*

“It’s too damn tall.”

Those were the words of ANC 1C Chair Ted Guthrie as well was the refrain of many Meridian Hill Historic District com-munity members at a contentious hearing of the DC Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) on May 4th to consider revised plans for a high-rise luxury apart-ment building and conference center on the grounds of the Meridian International Center, which is across 16th Street from historic Meridian Hill Park.

The city’s Historic Preservation Office (HPO) recommended that HPRB approve the developers’ revised plans and design concept, but once again that out-come is far from certain, as the May 4th hearing and the board’s temporary action on the matter now indicate. By a vote of four to three, they have — for the fourth time — sent the developers back to create a yet another revised design concept.

[Editor’s Note: For our prior report-ing about this proposed project, see “Opposition to Size of Meridian International Center’s 16th Street Planned Residential Tower and Conference Space

Grows,” InTowner, July 2015.]But representatives of real estate devel-

oper Westbrook Partners and architects Perkins Eastman certainly gave their best effort at the hearing. They testified that, in response to a second round of HPRB recommendations and community con-cerns, they were able to reduce the “per-ceived height” of the building on 16th Street by a step-back of the building’s 8th floor; reduce perceived mass of the build-ing through a less contemporary design and more strategic arrangement of balco-nies; blend better with nearby buildings by switching to a masonry façade that also better matches in terms of color; and create a redesigned front entrance that is prominent, distinct, and therefore also

in keeping with adjacent buildings.

“We looked at remov-ing one floor,” said Jon Cummings, a Westbrook director. “But that pro-duced a squat-looking building that didn’t work.” He said the city has forbid-den removal of the berm fronting on 16th Street — an earlier recommenda-tion of the HPRB — that rises from the street and thereby affects the build-ing’s overall height.

Cummings did not

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Art and Culture

National Gallery of Art

The Birth of Impressionism: Frédéric Bazille

Page 6

Auguste Renoir, Boy with Cat

Phot

o—Ph

il C

arne

y.

image—Perkins Eastman Architects/Planners.

Architect’s depiction of the built site as viewed from high above 16th and Belmont Sts. In the upper right can be seen the historic Embassy Apartments and on the left the White-Meyer house with its rear gardens overlooking Belmont St.

image—Perkins Eastman Architects/Planners.

Architect’s depiction of the redesigned apartment building as viewed from across 16th St. To the right can be seen the top floor of the red brick White-Meyer hose further up Crescent Pl. and looking south can be seen a portion of the Beekman Place condominium commu-nity at Beekman St.

Cont., MERIDIAN, p. 4

Dupont Circle Village’s Annual Silent Auction Featured 1960s Nostalgia, Music, Food and More

By Iris Molotsky*

The huge red inflated LOVE in the center stage in the ballroom set the

mood for the evening. The theme for the Dupont Circle Village’s Friday, April 28, 2017 fundraising gala — a trip back to the ‘60s — was “Peace, Love and Party,”

and the exuberant crowd that gathered scrounged through their attics for tie-dyed shirts, scruffy jeans and old posters. War is not good for children “and other living things” as well as Woodstock posters came alive again as past and present mingled.

Lois Berlin and I, who served as the event’s co-chairs, agreed that this year’s Gala ranked as one of the best. The weather cooperated and the guests arrived at All Souls Church, Unitarian at

photo—Irv Molotsky, courtesy Dupont Circle Village. Cont., AUCTION, p. 5

Community Gardening in DC Promoting Social Activism, Nutrition, Learning, Understanding

By Larry Ray*

Community gardening is a huge trend in the District of Columbia. The DC

Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) asserts it oversees more than 30 of these gardens. Why is this? Is it an act of social activism?; is it an environmental act?; does it promote social cohesion?; is it simply a desire for good-tasting food?

DPR lists 34 community gardens and five urban farms. The wait list is long. DC Public Schools have more than 190 gardens. The DC Urban Gardeners Network lists a total of 69 community gardens and 23 urban farms. Another option is offered through the Growing Food, Growing Community Intergenerational Gardening Program run by Age-Friendly DC, DPR, and Recreation, and the Office of the State Superintendent for Education which connects residents of all ages and abilities who want to garden with spaces and opportunities to do so. Information about how to participate in this program can be had by contacting the office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services’ Age-Frienly DC Initiative.

Community gardening may be viewed as a subset of Urban Gardening. Today, approximately 15% of food worldwide is grown in urban centers. This includes res-taurants growing herbs on their rooftops. The benefits? Freshness, sustainability,

access to quality food and quality of life.In the University of South Florida’s 2009

Masters degree thesis by Joshua Birky, “The modern community garden movement in the United States: Its roots, its current con-

photo—Larry Ray—The InTowner.

The community garden at Francis-Stevens Education Campus at 2425 N St., NW, an amalgam of Francis Middle School, Stevens Elementary, and School Without Walls.

Cont., GARDENING, p. 3

Page 2 • The InTowner • May 2017

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

Our Mayor Needs to Concentrate on the Urgent Priorities; She Seems to be Unaware About This

Regular readers of our commentaries know that we have consistently argued for and applauded fiscal restraint by our city government so as to ensure that programs, services

and policies that advance the kind of progressive society we taxpayers stand behind will have the resources necessary to achieve these goals.

In short, we urge vigilance to ensure that available funds are used for the purposes intended and not squandered — especially at this time of a President who wants to slash and slash appropriations for domestic needs and a Congress that is more ready than ever to make it happen — this along with the prospect of loss of DC taxpaying federal employees whose numbers are expected to drastically diminish, again thanks to the government haters in the White House.

Back in February we expressed alarm over the revelations from the Council’s finance and revenue committee chairman, Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans, that the District “is at risk for approximately $5 billion per year” — and of that, “$1 billion goes towards social programs.”

In light of all the “handwriting on the wall” that was apparent from the moment Trump won the election, we wondered if Mayor Bowser was as upset as we by the May 6th lead story in the Washington Post which reported that the “D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development was forced to forfeit $15.8 million in the past three years after repeatedly missing key spending deadlines meant to ensure that federal housing money is properly managed at the local level”?

While acknowledging that the “spending problems predate the Bowser administration, . . . most of the bills came due soon after the mayor took office and launched her affordable housing plans.” Seems like she and her people didn’t have their eye on the ball. Ironically, this failing has dealt a blow to one of Bowser’s much vaunted initiatives for assisting the less fortunate among us which would inject an additional $100 million into the program that assists families with limited resources to find affordable places to live.

As the Post further reported, that $15.8 million which the District was forced to return to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development “could have provided rent vouchers for a year to roughly 1,000 of the city’s poorest families.” As attorney Will Merrifield at the nonprofit Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless was quoted in the article, “This is insane. . . . That they would allow this money to go to waste is absurd.”

Indeed it is “insane,” but it is even much more: it’s unconscionable and a dereliction of duty starting at not just at the top of the agency but at the very tippy top — the Office of the Mayor. She had a chance to catch this impending disaster but was asleep at the switch!

We have to hope she may have learned a lesson, though we are not 100% certain; doubts were generated when we read a May 5th report in the Post that Bowser was very seriously calling on the Council to enact a ban on the raising of chickens in backyards even where there was more than adequate space and proper chicken coop arrangements. (This matter of chickens in the backyard became something of a cause célèbre following the publication a year ago by the Post of a report titled “D.C. lawyers are suing the city to keep their four backyard chickens.”)

Fortunately for her, she suddenly has had the good sense — at least for now, she says — to withdraw her proposed backyard chicken ban. But she was also seeking to require that house cats be licensed! What about them? Aren’t there enough serious matters facing the District that this kind of trivia shouldn’t be wasting her time? We need her full and undivided atten-tion on the Big Stuff.

We think Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh may have said it best, as reported by the Post: “‘It’s just so absurd that it almost makes your jaw drop,’ . . . expressing astonishment that large sections of Bowser’s 2018 Budget Support Act were devoted to what she considered quixotic animal regulations.”

Copyright © 2017 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”).

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

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Page 3 • The InTowner • May 2017

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Raul Prieto RamirezDescribed by critics as “fearless, exciting, sizzling,”

an organist who “instantly connected with the audience” and for whom “[the] audience rose to its

feet with applause at every opportunity.”

dition and its prospects for the future,” he traces the nationwide and DC community gardening trend back to British gardens. He posits that the U.S. reached a zenith for community gardening in the 1940s (no doubt due to the push for “victory gardens” for increased food production during World War II), but the trend began again in the 1970s. He believes it will be sustainable since the movement did not start from a major catalyst, but many unconnected cata-lysts spurred on by nonprofits and various public and private entities.

Columbia Heights Green Community Garden

This newly created nonprofit park has an interesting history. Located within the block bounded by between 11th Street, Sherman Avenue, Park Road and Lamont Street, NW and accessible only through the alleys, this was a nuisance property for 40 years. First, it was falling down garages, then illegal car repair, then drugs and finally dumping. DC government had to take some action on a monthly basis.

Then, in 2010, the Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for this area contacted Steve Coleman, Executive Director of Washington Parks and People (WPP) with the idea of creating a small neighborhood park. WPP embraced the idea. Some persons believed they had legal claims to the land so they needed to be persuaded to give up their interest to the non-profit WPP, which they did. WPP and the ANC worked with former Ward One Councilmember Jim Graham to obtain funds to finance the work to reclaim the land. [Ed. Note: We first reported on this project on page 1 of the September 2010 issue.]

Today, the spot is beautiful. One enters through an arched trellis covered with wis-teria. To the north are beehives and butterfly bushes. In the center are bales of hay where teachers bring children to learn about gar-dening. To the south are the community gardens.

Some of the expenses for the garden come from renting parking spaces to Zipcar and ParkQuiz.

This is what is called a collaborative com-munity garden, a place where members of the community can come together to help each other grow and prosper. By setting up a garden in a central location where neighbors can have easy access, this makes it possible for those who don’t have the extra money needed to buy freshly grown produce the opportunity to have healthy and fresh food in their homes.

Bruce-Monroe ParkEstablished in 2011, Bruce Monroe

Community Garden is situated inside Bruce Monroe Park, located off the west side of Georgia Avenue between Irving Street and Columbia Road, a short walk from the

Columbia Heights Metro station. The gar-den occupies the rear (western) portion of the park, away from the bustle of Georgia Avenue.

Comprised of raised beds mainly divided into nearly 200 three by six-foot plots, indi-viduals and families maintain these and shared plots are looked after by groups of gardeners.

Garden Coordinator Mohammed said, “I believe the Shared Beds Program is one of the sacred programs of the . . . garden. Over the years this program has allowed us to help the community in the best possible way we could, especially the children [who have their own plots lower to the ground].”

It was in 2008 that the DC Council had initially approved the Park Morton plan to develop this large block’s western half abutting Georgia Avenue with the goal of integrating this project into the larger Park View/Petworth community. This $37 mil-lion project included some governmental funding.

Twin Oaks, 14th Street Heights Community Garden

Established in 2010 and operated by DPR, this garden is used by 100 gardeners, has five beehives and a compost network. The gar-den serves the neighborhoods of Petworth, Columbia Heights and 14th Street Heights in the shadow of the Washington Hospital Center. Presently, it consists two sections — north and south. Users were upset to learn last year that the north section will be taken over by a parking lot to accommodate 44 cars; 38 spots, however, are to be made avail-able at DPR’s Upshur Garden at 14th and Upshur Streets, NW.

Wangari Community GardenMany neighbors were not aware that this

2.7 acres is a community garden consisting of 50 fruit trees and plots dedicated to the cultivation of vegetables, herbs, berries, and medicinals.

GARDENINGFrom p. 1

photo—Larry Ray—The InTowner.

photo—courtesy Wangari Gardens.

CLICK HERE to continue to Gardening

Page 4 • The InTowner • May 2017

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explain a seeming contradiction that, some-how, a reduction in perceived height didn’t also produce a squat-looking building. Rather, he insisted that all previous changes recommended by HPRB needed to happen in concert because each change had signifi-cant impact on the overall look and feel of the building design.

Despite the design changes and glossy presentation to HPRB, ANC 1C remains opposed to the project as do many smaller Meridian Hill neighborhood coalitions, condo boards of nearby buildings, and indi-vidual residents.

Amanda Fox Perry, the commissioner who represents the single member district in which the Meridian International Center is located, said at the hearing that the devel-opers have not responded in good faith to community concerns and that plans for the building still do not comply with historic district guidelines.

“A reduction in height would be good faith,” Perry said. Yet the building remains eight stories tall. To Perry and many others, that means the developers need to take out at least one floor of the building.

She said the ANC remains extremely con-cerned about the impact on the Center’s two John Russell Pope-designed mansions — the White-Meyer and Meridian Houses — with their south-facing gardens potentially thrown under permanent shadow, and how the new

apartment building might also obliterate views from several vantage points, including Meridian Hill Park.

Commission Chair Guthrie summed up the angst of many residents: “Shame on you Meridian International. You have sold out for cash. This proposal is too tall. How many times do we have to say this?”

Meridian Center officials — none of whom testified at the hearing — have insisted from the time the project was

first proposed to the city’s various review boards that a chief aim of their project is, in fact, historic preserva-tion. At an April 2, 2015, HPRB hearing Meridian’s president, Ambassador Stuart Holliday, testified that Meridian urgently needs a funding mechanism to sup-port its historic preservation expenses as well as capital improvements to the historic structures.

But Meridian has been rebuffed twice by HPRB — following again the 2015 design review and after a December 2016 review in which board members voted four to one against the proj-ect. The board agreed with

community members about height and massing of the apartment building as well as the need for a prominent 16th Street entrance to the building that would be more in character with other apartment buildings along that portion of 16th Street that runs parallel to Meridian Hill Park.

In a prepared statement, Westbrook states, “The project team has met with [HPRB] staff several times to discuss the evolution of the design and has subsequently revised and refined the design of the new building

MERIDIANFrom p. 1

photo—William G. Schulz—The InTowner

Meridian International center’s White-Meyer house as can be seen by people walking up Crescent Pl. from 16th St.

image—Perkins Eastman Architects/Planners.

Architect’s drawing intended to show how the apartment building’sheight has been lowered (labeled “current”) in comparision to the previous iteration which HPRB had rejected. This alteration, appar-ently, was not obvious to those attending the ANC’s meeting.

photo—William G. Schulz—The InTowner

Cont., MERIDIAN, p. 5

Page 5 • The InTowner • May 2017

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accordingly.” The project team has had six meetings with neighbors and members of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission, additional calls with interested people, and met with the ANC’s Planning, Zoning, and Transportation Committee and the full ANC as the design has evolved; community outreach on this revised design has been extensive.”

But HPRB Chair Marnique Heath, Joseph Taylor, and other board members kept circling back to the issue of the build-ing’s height. They said they didn’t quite comprehend the argument that the build-

ing height couldn’t be lowered by one floor and wished the developers had brought some evidence to back up their testimony.

Of the studies of building height the developers mentioned, Heath said to their team, “I want to know what it was you were looking at and why it didn’t work.”

* Associate Editor William G. Schulz, a resi-dent of Dupont Circle since the 1980s, has been a journalist specializing in science and investi-gative reporting for over 30 years.

Copyright © 2017 InTowner Publishing Corp. & William G. Schulz. 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”).

MERIDIANFrom p. 4

16th and Harvard Streets, NW to enjoy drinks and hors d’oeuvres in the garden before moving inside to enjoy a catered dinner.

Guests flitted from table to table greeting old friends, meeting new neighbors and getting down to business — bidding on fan-tastic destinations and signing up for “Celeb Salons” featuring Washington notables. More information about theses “salons,” which continue throughout the summer, is available at www.dupontcirclevillage.net.

The Dupont Circle Village (DCV), made up of residents of Dupont Circle and parts of Adams Morgan and Kalorama, is a

nonprofit organization dedicated to helping senior residents remain in their own homes and communities.

Volunteers of all ages provide many needed services, including transportation to medical appointments, shopping and phar-macy errands, and friendly home visits to members with limited mobility. DCV offers a variety of social and cultural programs that provide social interaction and mental health.

The money raised at the annual gala is used to fund activities and programs and our Open Village Fund, which under-writes reduced-cost memberships based on income. The Village is an inclusive orga-nization with no restrictions based on race, sexual orientation, religion or income.

*Iris Molotsky, a long-time resident of Dupont Circle, served as this year’s co-chair for the Gala event. For more information about this organization, see “Aging-in-Place Movement Grows With Formation of Dupont Circle Village,” March 2009 issue PDF, page 1.

Copyright © 2017 InTowner Publishing Corp. & Dupont Circle Village. All rights reserved. reproduction in whole or in part without per-mission is prohibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §107

AUCTIONFrom p. 1

photo—Phil Carney, courtesy Dupont Circle Village.

photo—Phil Carney, courtesy Dupont Circle Village.

Page 6 • The InTowner • May 2017

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

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

By Joseph R. Phelan*

The Birth of Impressionism: Frédéric Bazille

Imagine what it would be like to experi-ence the Impressionist movement in a

fresh way, as it was emerging in the 1860s, the decade before the first exhibition of 1874. One would see the beginnings of the “New Painting” inspired by modern life that challenged the artistic conventions of the day.

This new exhibition at the National Gallery helps us to do that by introducing one of the most important but least known of all the Impressionists, Frédéric Bazille (1841–1870) who in the crucial decade of the 1860s worked alongside his fellow stu-dents and friends Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley — the legendary painters who would usher in Impressionism.

The exhibition, the first major presenta-tion of Bazille’s work in America in 25 years, brings together 46 of his paintings alongside

28 key works by the artists who inspired him — Courbet and Corot — and by his contemporaries, such as Manet, Monet, and Renoir with whom he was closely associ-ated. With some fabulous loans from Musée D’Orsay in Paris and the Musée Fabre, this is the kind of show that comes once in a lifetime.

Frédéric Bazille, too, seemed destined to share in the glory that his friends achieved in later decades. But that was not to be because he was killed in battle during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, just prior to his 29th birthday, bringing his promising career to an abrupt end.

In the first gallery room, we meet the young man from Montpellier where his upper middle class family (which he depict-ed in the large-scale canvas from 1967-’68,

The Family Gathering, found in a later room) played a prominent role in local poli-tics and the business of wine-making.

Tall, handsome, intelligent, and wealthy, Bazille seemed to have everything going for him. In Paris in 1862 to pursue his medical studies at his parent’s insistence, he also enrolled as a student in the studio of the academic painter Charles Gleyre. There he became friends with Monet, Renoir and Sisley.

In the carefully conceived and visually striking life-sized Self Portrait with Palette (1865), Bazille portrays himself in the pro-cess of painting his own self-portrait. In his right hand he holds a paintbrush; in his left, additional brushes and a palette loaded with smears of red, green and yellow paint. In the gravitas, scale and formality of this painting, the artist is proudly proclaiming his chosen profession and justifying his abandonment of his medical training.

Bazille’s friendship with Claude Monet is one of the fascinating stories of the exhibi-tion. Accompanying Monet 1863 to the forest of Fontainebleau, the artists set their easels outside to paint directly from nature. Monet, the more advanced painter and

stronger personality, improved Bazille’s eye and technique. Later Bazille and Monet trav-eled to Normandy where Monet was born and where he had learned to paint outdoors from the older painter Boudin. We see Bazille copying one of Monet’s first expansive landscapes, The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1865).

Later, when Monet was work-ing on a monumental canvas Luncheon in the Grass (1865-’66) for the annual Salon on location in Chailly, he begged his friend to come to model

for him. Although the Luncheon was never completed, the National Gallery owns the study for this painting titled Bazille and Camille. Shortly after Bazille’s arrival, Monet injured his leg and was bedridden. Taking charge of the situation, the ex-medical student depicted the convalescing Monet in Improvised Field Hospital (1865) laid out in bed at the inn with his injured leg elevated on a pile of blankets.

This most amusing painting reverses the power relationship between the two men. Bazille is in charge and seems to have been inspired to create one of his most accomplished

works. He incorporated a variety of patterns and textures from the floral wallpaper and geometric tiles on the floor to the wood grain of the bed and plaid mattress. His ability to transform this potential cacophony of disparate elements into a surprisingly harmoni-ous and visually engaging whole is a particular skill, and one that he would continue to hone in the years to come.

In the room devoted to “Studio Friendships” we see a series of paint-ings of studios by such luminaries as Delacroix, Corot, and Cézanne, along with portraits of Monet, Bazille, and Renoir by each other. Bazille depict-ed three different studios,

each of which he generously shared with his artist friends.

For the Impressionists, the studio was more than a place to work it was also a space to socialize and a showroom for their paintings. Bazille’s largest and most revealing studio paint-ing, The Studio on the Rue La Condamine (1869-70) is a kind of retrospective reflection on his career, from his first foray into the Salon in 1866 until the pres-ent moment embodied by still unfinished La Toilette (1870) and his comrades (Monet, Renoir, Manet, etc.) who helped drive and encourage his develop-ment.

In the next room we see Bazille attempting to portray figures in bright sunlight. This

modern genre, which falls between por-traiture and genre scenes, also appealed to Monet, Renoir and Berthe Morisot, who set themselves the challenge of introducing modern figures into landscapes painted sur le motif. Bazille succeeded with The Pink Dress (1864), when he also depicted his family’s estate for the first time. Every sum-mer he painted his most ambitious works destined for the next Salon there, including Family Gathering (1867) and View of the Village (1868), which according to Berthe Morisot, fulfilled the aspiration of this entire generation “to place a figure en plein air.”

Bazille also established a reputation as a painter of the male nude, a subject which was largely overlooked by his fellow art-ists. While exploring how to depict fig-ures en plein air, the artist painted several male nudes such as Fisherman with a Net (1868) and followed it up with multi-figure Summer Scene (1869-70). In this latter work, for the very first time the theme of mod-ern male bathing is made the subject of a large format painting. These paintings are among Bazille’s boldest and most provoca-tive works.

In some of his later works, such as Landscape on the Banks of the Lenz (1870),

Bazille becomes a truly great landscape painter. Although I would not go so far as the organizers of the exhibition who say that the artist “scales the heights of classical majesty of Poussin and Corot,” his picture does seem to be influenced by those great landscape painters more than by Monet.

Copyright © 2017 InTowner Publishing Corp. & Joseph R. Phelan. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §107 (“fair use”).

*Joseph R. Phelan is a Washington based author and teacher. He is the founding editor of Artcyclopedia.com, the fine art search engine. He has taught at the Catholic University of America and the University of Maryland University College.

Art & Culture

Frédéric Bazille, The Family Gathering (1867-’68).

Frédéric Bazille, Self Portrait with Palette (1865).

Frédéric Bazille, Landscape on the Banks of the Lez (1870).

Frédéric Bazille, The Studio on the Rue La Condamine (1869-’70).

Frédéric Bazille, Summer Scene (Bathers) (1869-’70).

Frédéric Bazille, The Improvised Field Hospital (1865).