Fb 05 06 2015

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Serving Foggy Bottom & the West End

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Vol. VIV, No. 22

The Foggy BoTTom CurrenT

Residents cope with garage collapse

P U P P Y P L AY

■ Watergate: Answers still

elusive after Friday’s incident

By BRADY HOLT Current Staff Writer

Watergate residents are looking for elusive answers after part of the complex’s parking garage collapsed Friday morning, injuring two people, cutting off utilities, closing surrounding streets, stranding residents’

cars and indefinitely suspending access to some of their parking. The abrupt collapse affected about 7,500 square feet of the garage at 2600 Virginia Ave., injuring two people and damaging or destroying about 30 cars, according to media reports. It also severed pipes and ducts, which in turn flooded some businesses and forced others — along with the West End Interim Library — to close. In front of the complex, Virginia Avenue is also

closed. According to advisory neighborhood commissioner William Kennedy Smith, work was taking place to expand the Watergate Hotel’s underground ballroom near the site of the collapse at the time of the incident. The two people hurt when the area’s plaza “pancaked” into the two underground levels were construction workers, who suffered minor injuries. See Watergate/Page 7

Stevens project wins preliminary nod By ELIZABETH WIENER Current Staff Writer

Brian Kapur/The Current

SmileGW and George Washington University Program Board hosted a “Paws Your Stress” event at the University Yard Saturday. The therapy dogs brought smiles for the students as they wrap up the semester with the stress of final exams.

Long-debated plans for rehabilitating the Thaddeus Stevens elementary school for use by special needs students, while erecting a modern office building next door to cover the costs, won a hardy initial vote of support from the D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board last Thursday. Board members singled out for praise a detailed preservation plan for Stevens, the oldest surviving public elementary school in the city. Members were also pleased that there’s apparent consensus around such a major project to maintain the vacant city-owned building in Foggy Bottom for school use. Stevens, which was built in 1868 to serve AfricanAmerican children, closed in 2008 despite neighborhood protests, and it will reopen as a new branch for the private Ivymount School, which educates children with See Stevens/Page 18

Rendering courtesy of Martinez and Johnson

Plans to revamp the 1868 school building, center, and to construct an adjacent office building won initial approval from the preservation review board.

Petworth market sports local teens’ design help

Observatory Circle manor considered for demolition

By GRAHAM VYSE

■ Development: Neighbors

Current Staff Writer

When the Petworth Community Market opened for its sixth season this past Saturday, it did so with the help of some creative teenagers with a passion for art and design. A group of young people from the National Building Museum’s Design Apprenticeship Program helped reimagine the layout of the market this spring, adding signage, seating and a play area for children. Using materials donated by the nonprofit Community Forklift, they spent eight Saturdays designing and constructing benches and chairs out of recycled materials. They also set up a “tic-tac-tomato” game using pictures of vegetables. These portable additions could be set up easily each week at the nonprofit market, where local

NEWS

fear loss of ‘iconic’ residence By DEIRDRE BANNON Current Correspondent

Brian Kapur/The Current

The Petworth Community Market opened for the season Saturday with new seating developed from recycled materials and a revised layout.

farmers, bakers and other vendors sell their goods on Saturdays near the corner of Upshur Street and Georgia Avenue. “This was a really fantastic opportunity for us,” market secretary Bobby Klosowski told program particiSee Market/Page 7

EVENTS

Northwest residents band together to buy solar energy — Page 3

Kennedy Center to host reimagining of classic ‘Cinderella’ — Page 23

The pending sale of an Embassy Row mansion to a local developer could result in the razing of the 1926 Spanish-style estate, with some residents fearing a new development trend. Meanwhile, for preservationists interested in saving the house, the clock is ticking. Local development firm Zuckerman Partners is under contract for

SHERWOOD

Democracy fails to bloom this spring in voteless Washington — Page 10

the home at 3400 Massachusetts Ave., and sources say a condition of the sale is that a raze permit must be in place. A raze permit application was filed April 10 for the property by its current owner, the State Central Bank of Keokuk, Iowa, which purchased the home in 2014 from the Park family trust, members of which lived there from the 1960s through 2005. Zuckerman Partners did not respond to The Current’s request for comment. The house sits in a prominent corner location adjacent to the Naval See Observatory/Page 5

INDEX Calendar/20 Classifieds/29 District Digest/4 Exhibits/21 Foggy Bottom News/13 In Your Neighborhood/8

Opinion/10 Police Report/6 Real Estate/17 School Dispatches/12 Service Directory/27 Theater/23

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