The Foggy BoTTom CurrenT
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Vol. X, No. 48
Serving Foggy Bottom & the West End
Board supports SunTrust proposal
JUGGLING ACT
■ Development: Neighbors
decry height, smaller plaza By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer
Plans to construct a seven-story condo building on the Adams Morgan SunTrust site won over preservation officials last week, despite persistent concerns and frustrations from community
members and local officials. At a hearing last Thursday, the Historic Preservation Review Board voted unanimously, with one member abstaining, to approve the PN Hoffman project at 18th Street and Columbia Road NW, while requesting minor changes that will be reviewed at the board’s November meeting. In particular, the board urged the developer to find a more attractive design for the proposed
community plaza at the intersection; simplify the colors and materials for the penthouse in order to prevent it from standing out from the rest of the building; add more detail to the storefront portion; and continue to refine sight lines from the building to the street. Critics maintain that the building is too large and out of character with its surroundings on both streets, but board chair Gretchen See SunTrust/Page 5
Metro offers plan for Tenley station plaza By CUNEYT DIL
Current Correspondent
Brian Kapur/The Current
On Saturday, Logan Circle hosted the sixth annual Little Goblins Parade, which featured a costume parade through the neighborhood and then games and entertainment at Stead Park in the Dupont Circle neighborhood.
Metro has settled on a $16.7 million concept design for traffic and pedestrian upgrades to the area around the Tenleytown station that envisions larger sidewalks and more crosswalk visibility on Albemarle Street and Fort Drive NW. The proposed Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority project, which would be funded by the District, aims to ease congestion between pedestrians, cyclists and motorists on a stretch of road heavy in bus traffic. Metro and D.C. officials presented and discussed the plans at a recent meeting of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3E (Friendship Heights, Tenleytown), receiving criticisms about the cost and other elements. The project would: ■ remove parking lanes on both sides of Albemarle See Metro/Page 2
Rendering courtesy of WMATA
The changes aim to improve safety around the Tenleytown Metrorail station’s eastern entrance.
Radio veterans’ podcast revels in local anecdotes
Spring Valley ANC race sees disputes on procedure, ideas
By MARK LIEBERMAN
■ Election: Challenger seeks
Current Staff Writer
Over the summer, D.C. radio veterans Janice and Andy Ockershausen were on their way to the beach when Janice had an idea. Janice’s sister, a web designer, had been talking to her about podcasts, but Janice and Andy were only dimly aware of the audio medium and neither had ever listened to one before. Lifelong D.C. residents and veterans of the radio station WMAL, the Ockershausens had been looking for ways to get back into the media business and reengage with the social circles they’d started to leave behind. En route to Dewey Beach, Del., they dreamed up a solution to both problems: an interview podcast focusing on key players in D.C.’s forgotten history, hosted by Andy and produced by Janice. That program, “Our Town,” has already produced
to oust longtime incumbent By MARK LIEBERMAN Photo by Mary Pat Collins
Janice and Andy Ockershausen, lifelong District residents, produce the twice-weekly podcast “Our Town” at WMAL’s studio in Friendship Heights.
a dozen episodes, with several dozen more already recorded and scheduled to run in the next few months. New episodes, each approximately 30 minutes long, arrive online every Tuesday and Thursday. In each one, Andy Ockershausen sits down with a prominent personality — often a close personal See Podcast/Page 34
Current Staff Writer
Both candidates in a contentious election for a Spring Valley advisory neighborhood commission seat say they’re best-suited to serving the community going forward — and that their opponent has either violated the rules or distracted from the issues. For the first time since 2010, incumbent Tom Smith has a challenger in single-member district
3D02: Troy Kravitz, a three-year resident of the neighborhood who thinks Smith has acted irresponsibly with commission business and during the current campaign. Smith — currently the ANC 3D chair — counters that his opponent has unfairly attacked his character, transforming the campaign into a referendum on behavior rather than an effort to improve the community. ANC 3D includes Foxhall, the Palisades, Spring Valley and Wesley Heights, as well as the bulk of the American University campus; the 10 commissioners, who each See Election/Page 17
NEWS
EVENTS
PASSAGES
INDEX
Georgetown Library
Colorful ‘Situations’
Local choreographer
Calendar/20 Classifieds/33 District Digest/4 Exhibits/21 Foggy Bottom News/11 In Your Neighborhood/16
Burst pipe closes precinct site as Election Day approaches with repairs continuing / Page 3
Touchstone Gallery to present artist’s narrative collages as part of new exhibition / Page 21
Palisades resident creates dance performance based on National Portrait Gallery pieces / Page 13
Opinion/8 Police Report/6 Real Estate/15 School Dispatches/18 Service Directory/31 Week Ahead/3
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