Fb 01 13 2016

Page 1

The Foggy BoTTom CurrenT

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Board backs St. Thomas’ project plans

MLK Library project clears early evaluation

EyE ON THE BAll

■ Renovation: Commission

By BRADy HOlT

seeks modified design details

Current Staff Writer

Contentious plans to redevelop St. Thomas’ Parish won unanimous support from the D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustment yesterday. Developer CAS Riegler can now proceed with its plans to build a seven-story, 60-unit apartment building and a new church at 18th and Church streets NW, a project that neighbors fiercely argued is out of scale for their part of Dupont Circle and would eliminate a rare patch of green space. In approving the project during about 12 minutes of deliberations Tuesday morning, zoning board members said they understood that the project would change the character of Church Street but noted that the zoning regulations there do allow large development. “I can certainly appreciate the concerns expressed by the community about the height because it’s different from the rest of the block, but it’s consistent with the zone,” said board member Peter May. The St. Thomas’ project required zoning relief because developers intend to cover 86.7 percent of the lot, whereas the zoning code allows only 80 percent lot occupancy. The board evaluated the project based on how the community would be affected by that extra 6.7 percent of lot occupancy, rather than the broader comments about the building’s scale and design or the loss of green space. Members were persuaded by a filing by CAS Riegler showing an alternative design that achieved the lot occupancy requirement by pulling back the building along the site’s rear alley, which the project team said was doable but not preferred. Board chair Marnique Heath agreed that neither the developer, the church nor the neighbors would benefit from this alternative, which would be allowed without any input from See Zoning/Page 3

Vol. X, No. 6

Serving Foggy Bottom & the West End

By MARK lIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer

Brian Kapur/The Current

The NBC4 Health & Fitness Expo offered health screenings, motivational speakers and fitness classes over the weekend at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

Plans for the $200 million-plus renovation of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library downtown are rolling forward to the next phase of revisions after the National Capital Planning Commission provided review and comments last Thursday. Commissioners made minor suggestions and asked to see a revised update in the spring from the design team of Martinez + Johnson Architecture and Mecanoo. In particular, staffers recommended changes for the project’s 9th Street NW side: lowering an exterior wall and removing a parking ramp in order to create an open public space and reduce risks of vehicle-pedestrian collisions. The commission also asked for more aesthetically pleasing designs for the library’s loading dock and urged designers to remain vigilant on historic preservation issues as the project proceeds. In the meantime, the commis-

Courtesy of the D.C. Public Library

library officials hope to begin the project early next year.

sion will release an environmental study on the proposed design. The city’s central library building, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, opened to the public in 1972. The modernist building at 901 G St. NW earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. The new project will upgrade the library’s facilities to 21st-century standards, with more inviting exteriors and vibrant interiors, along with modernized infrastructure and sustainable elements. The proposed design calls for adding a fifth story, a publicly accessible roof garden, a trapezoid-shaped addition for a new fourth-floor auditorium, and other new event See library/Page 7

Choral group offers ‘encore’ performance to mature singers By MARK lIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer

It’s never too late to learn something new, even if you’ve never sung a note in your life and that new thing is choral singing. That’s the guiding principle for Encore Creativity, a local organization that hosts biannual crash courses in choral singing for seniors over 55, with professional-level concert performances at the end. This spring, some changes are in store for the nonprofit’s largest program, Capital Encore Chorale. The D.C. program will be moving into a new home at the First Congregational United Church of Christ at 945 G St. NW, relocating from the Smithsonian’s S. Dillon Ripley Center. And in a new offering this spring, participants can choose between the traditional chorale and Encore Rocks D.C., a new rock ’n’ roll

Photo courtesy of Larry Kelly

Members of the 55-and-over chorale rehearse one of their numbers for a previous concert.

alternative. Even with the changes, the mission of helping older area residents discover a new passion remains intact, according to conductor Jeffrey Dokken. “We try to provide people with a profes-

sional opportunity. It’s not just getting together and singing in unison,” said Dokken, who will conduct Encore Rocks D.C. and four other Encore chorales this spring. “It’s just rewarding to watch these people who never thought they could do choral singing really just flourish in this system.” Encore Creativity was founded in 2007 by Jeanne Kelly, who previously created the Levine School of Music’s Virginia campus. The idea sparked from a National Endowment for the Arts study that Kelly worked on in 2001, which revealed that seniors who sing under a professional conductor tend to be healthier and more productive in their later years. The study concluded after three years, but its corresponding singing program continued. A few years later, Kelly decided to take it on full-time. See Chorale/Page 5

NEWS

EVENTS

SHERWOOD

INDEX

Cinema redo planned

Digital art data

Playing the odds

Calendar/16 Classifieds/21 District Digest/4 Exhibits/17 Foggy Bottom News/11 In Your Neighborhood/14

Georgetown’s AMC Theatres is slated for an overhaul but faces preservation concerns / Page 3

Corrupted data files become artwork for an exhibit that opens Saturday at Hemphill / Page 17

Americans seek record lotto payoff as D.C. GOP seeks to boost voice at convention / Page 8

Opinion/8 Police Report/6 Real Estate/15 School Dispatches/10 Service Directory/19 Week Ahead/3

Tips? Contact us at newsdesk@currentnewspapers.com


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.