*goodlinks: expect the unexpected

vacant home on W Street SE - ready for revival

A Class 4 tax rate for blight? via Washington Business Journal
the DC Council recently lowered the vacant property tax rate from $10 per $100 of assessed value to $5. But Ward 4 councilwoman Bowser is fighting to recognize the benefit of a higher tax: property owners are finally acting.

Art Monk and Charles Mann Sell Former City Property for Millions, Bail On Anacostia Job Training Center, via Washington City Paper
for many years the Good Samaritan Foundation has been promising to open a job training center in the old Carver Theater on MLK Ave near the metro station. Now its former-Redskins founders have sold the building to Howard Road Academy. Another school on our main street within a block from Metro?

And We've Got Tracks, via Barry Farm (re)Mixed
the Anacostia Streetcar Line is finally under construction, and tracks are actually being laid on Firth Sterling Avenue now. Nobody yet knows if this will be a boon for the neighborhood, but my fingers are crossed that investors and developers see this exciting new form of transportation as reason to start building.

11th Street Bridge Under Troubled Wires, via DC Mud
it's no secret that overhead wires aren't allowed in the Federal City, but now the National Capital Planning Commission is threatening to disallow wires crossing the new 11th Street Bridges, arguing that they might interrupt important views to the city's monumental core.

Waterfront Precidents, via City Block
following up on a discussion about narrowing the Anacostia River to encourage more urban development on both sides, this blogger explores urban waterfronts around the world and compares their features to our own waterway.

saturday

It was a beautiful, albeit ridiculously hot day for a stroll through the neighborhood. This post is all over the place, so get ready.

Honestly, this building at the corner of Good Hope and 15th would not have been one of Keller Williams "Preferred Properties" even last year. Love that it is now. (I think that there is already a contract on it)


This is what the building was planned to become.


Good ol' Drake's, looking from Good Hope Road. Word from Drake himself is that the restaurant is still coming, and that a new cursive "Anacostia" sign should adorn the front of the building soon.


This is what the old sign looked like. I think the new one will be an exact replica. Should be pretty cool lookin'.

photo courtesy of flickr user ellievanhoutte

This is one of my favorite houses in the neighborhood. It reminds me of New Orleans.


Remember how this playground wasn't finished during the whole HGTV weekend? Well, it's up now.




Yep, this is a sign from 4 years ago. You can add littering to the list of laws Marion Barry has broken.


Remember the Carver Theater building? Turns out they built a sweet giant glass skylight on top.


photos by DG-rad

savoy school, etc

While I still have yet to receive any clear word on what exactly the extent of the renovations/rebuilding at Savoy Elementary is, the construction fences have gone up:



Looks like a good team. Bowie Gridley Architects has done a lot of private school design projects in the past, as well as the Thurgood Marshall Academy right next door. Sigal Construction has overseen its fair share of educational projects.

Update 6/25/08, from the DCRA's list of approved building permits:
"ADDITION AND RENOVATION TO EXISTING 1960 PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDING. ADDITIONS INCLUDE A NEW GYM, UNDERGROUND GARAGE, AND..." (description is cut off)



Also adjecent to the new Savoy School is the Carver Theater project (building with big chimney, above). Right now I am extremely hesitent about this project, both because it has taken way longer than originally planned, and because now these windows look way cheap:





Maybe I will be proven wrong, but right now it isn't looking like it will be the awesome contributing building when finished that I have been hoping for. ...crossing my fingers, though.

photos by DG-rad

the Carver Theater building

Then:


Now:


Future?:


The Team:


Inside Out:


old photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Archives, rendering from the Good Samaritan Foundation, other photos by DG-rad

- - -

Then:

"This movie house, located in the Anacostia area of Washington, stood on Nichols Street (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue) near Talbert Street.

It opened in 1948 and sat just over 500. The Carver was designed in Streamline Moderne style by local architect John J. Zink, best known for his Senator Theatre in Baltimore, and the Uptown Theatre in Washington. Closed during the 60s, the Carver became the first home of the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum in 1967."

Source: Cinema Treasures

Now:

After seven years of delays, it looks like maybe the renovation of the Carver Theater into a student training center for the Good Samaritan Foundation might actually be underway. While no significant work has been done recently, the site has been cleaned up and one person I spoke with on the street said that workers have been there every day for the past couple weeks.

The Washington City Paper has a very good article on the current state of the theater, with history about the long delays and broken promises surrounding it.

I'm especially glad that Muse Architects is designing this project, as they have a history of context-sensitive and very high quality work throughout the region.