The Northwest Current
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Vol. L, No. 32
Serving Communities in Northwest Washington Since 1967
Crowding squeezes Ward 3 schools
SPARKLING ART
■ Education: Wilson High
facing particular pressure By GRACE BIRD Current Staff Writer
When Kimberly Martin became principal of Wilson High three years ago, she frequently took phone calls from lottery hopefuls across the city, fielding questions about their prospects for landing a
place at the sought-after school. Martin no longer takes those calls herself, delegating to staff the task of explaining the absence of open seats through the lottery. “I wish I could have everyone, but I just can’t,” she told The Current on Monday during Ward 3 D.C. Council member Mary Cheh’s annual school readiness tour, which evaluates schools each summer across her ward. Wilson High, located at 3950
Chesapeake St. NW, is bursting at the seams. Martin expects 1,900 students to walk through the doors next week, although the campus was built for 1,600. In recent years, Wilson’s population has steadily grown from the 1,633 students enrolled in 2011. Meanwhile, the school has endured three consecutive years of budget cuts and more than 30 layoffs. Now, with one guidance counselor See Schools/Page 5
Builder seeks landmark for Fannie Mae By GRACE BIRD Current Staff Writer
Brian Kapur/The Current
Soapstone Market in Park Van Ness hosted Chevy Chase resident Merrilee Harrigan and other local glass artists for a popup exhibit on Thursday highlighting their work.
Amid plans to redevelop the Fannie Mae headquarters into a mixed-use complex, the project team received positive reception for its proposal to secure a landmark designation for the 1958 building at 3900 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Richard Lake, co-founder of Roadside Development, said he hopes that landmark status — which would regulate and restrict alterations to the building — would go a long way toward putting residents at ease with the large-scale development. The Roadside team lavished praise on the redbrick building, graciously set back from the street behind an open lawn, citing the quiet elegance of its architecture and its resemblance to Colonial Williamsburg. The company’s plan includes renovating but generally maintaining the main 1958 building and replacing subsequent additions that sit behind it.
Rendering courtesy of Roadside Development
Roadside Development hopes to transform the campus into a mixed-use, seven-building complex.
The company also intends to spruce up the site’s outdoor spaces, Lake told the Historic Preservation Review Board last Thursday. “We wanted the building and the architecture to See Fannie Mae/Page 3
Northwest parks secure centennial grant funds
Tenleytown mural project advances with city funding
By GRACE BIRD
■ Art: Local painter hopes to
Current Staff Writer
The National Park Service is celebrating its 100th birthday by awarding centennial challenge grants to six parks across Northwest D.C., the U.S. secretary of the interior announced last month. This year, Congress gave $20 million to national parks across the U.S., and park partners added another $33 million. “Many of the national parks that Americans treasure today would simply not exist without the strong partnerships and philanthropy that have benefited the national park idea for over a century,” acting National Park Service director Michael Reynolds said in a news release. Locally, the Northwest locations receiving funds are Chevy Chase Circle, a section of Rock Creek Park near Massachusetts Avenue, Dumbarton Oaks
begin work later this month By ALEXA PERLMUTTER Brian Kapur/Current file photo
Although fountain repairs are beyond the current scope, Chevy Chase Circle is slated for upgraded benches via a National Park Service matching grant. Park, the Lincoln Memorial, the Carter G. Woodson Home and Mount Vernon Triangle. At Chevy Chase Circle, sometimes called the “gateway to the nation’s capital,” the park’s friends group received $16,368 in government funds and matched that amount with an additional $17,705. The See Parks/Page 19
Current Correspondent
A new mural is coming to Tenleytown as early as this month, dressing up the Han Cleaners building with a depiction of the neighborhood’s rich history. The project at 4425 Wisconsin Ave. NW comes from a $36,760 grant from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Local residents Stephen and Charlene Voss successfully requested the
city grant and commissioned mural artist Jarrett Ferrier to paint the building’s south wall. Work can begin as soon as permits from the city are approved. The project’s origins date back to April 2016, according to Stephen Voss. “We had seen some murals go up in D.C. We’d always known D.C. as a city full of murals,” he said. After he and his wife found out about the individual grant opportunities from the commission, they asked Ferrier to create the piece. Ferrier’s D.C. work is also featured at Rocklands Barbeque, JetSee Mural/Page 19
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