Preservation League Guns for a Fight

The DC Preservation Leauge issued its 2007 list of Most Endangered Places in a press release. Here's a sampling:

• DCPL warns "the view from the west porch of the United States Capitol overlooking the “Grand Avenue” of the National Mall and beyond to the Potomac River and Arlington National Cemetery was once open to visitors. Today, extreme security measures cut off public access to this remarkable view . . . Centuries of careful urban planning that created a city symbolic of openness, freedom, and democracy have been overturned by spontaneous, ill planned measures."
  
  
  Is this a reference to the over zealous cops that put a few ropes on the Capitol, or a reference to the high-rises of Arlington? True the off-limit signs at the Capitol are off-putting, but the USA Today building and its ilk are worse, if you ask us DCPL. If the DCPL can wax about the lack of access, how about demanding that Arlington abide by the DC height limit?
  
• Three former DC public schools located between North Capitol and 3rd Sts.
  NW "represent an irreplaceable view of the developing architecture." Armstrong High School, Slater Elementary School and Langston Elementary School. Though plans are in the works all now "are completely empty and prey to squatters and thieves," DCPL said. "Attempts to contact the Board of Education . . . regarding these schools and their dilapidated condition went unanswered." Shame.


• The row houses of Columbia Heights, Eckington and Capitol Hill east are all under development pressure.


• Last year we wrote about the risk of turning Mt. Pleasant Street into a strip mall.

Hands Off: No Bright Ideas for the Mall

The Smithsonian Institution has accelerated its search for a public or private partner to redevelop its landmark Arts and Industries Building, the WaPo reports.

Smithsonian officials pledged that any partnership would "be consistent with the mission of the Institution." That means, according to one person in the congressional briefing, "no hotel, no bed-and-breakfast, no Gap, but something compatible with the rest of the Smithsonian."

So much for mixed-use development. What about an elaborate food court devoted to American culinary arts? Or residences for artists? Nope...only the staid and boring may apply.

MLK Memorial Moving Along

The Martin Luther King Memorial is one step closer to reality, says the WashExam. The memorial campaign so far has collected $78.5 million, including $10 million from General Motors and $5 million from Tommy Hilfiger.

The MLK memorial is slated for a four-acre plot on the Tidal Basin, immediately northeast of the Lincoln Memorial, southwest of the Jefferson Memorial and adjacent to the FDR Memorial. The design features a crescent-shaped stone wall inscribed with excerpts from King’s speeches and the “Stone of Hope,” a 30-foot likeness of the legendary Baptist preacher.

The Sky's The Limit! Not Here.

Standing on the mall, looking at the Rossyln skyline, we always found the Rosslyn skyline to be perplexing. Why there, not here? If low buildings make us special, how am I supposed to feel special when standing by the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument or the waterfront looking at the U.S.A. Today building?

First the facts as originally articulated here. Contrary to what some believe, the height limit is not set by the Washington Monument or the dome of the U.S. Capitol. A revised height law in 1910 did away with the fixed maximum. That legislation, still in effect, states that no new building may be more than 20 feet taller than the width of the street in front of it.

For example, the height limit for buildings fronting a 110-foot-wide stretch of Connecticut Avenue NW is 130 feet, while the limit for buildings facing 60-foot-wide residential streets in Cleveland Park would be 80 feet. At some parts of Pennsylvania Avenue, however, a height limit of 160 feet is permitted.

As suggested here, maybe the height limit should be done away with to encourage low-income housing. Does the height limit help D.C. or collar its economic growth? Certainly there are places where there is no place for tall buildings, i.e. Capitol Hill, Georgetown and Pennsylvania Ave.

But what about New York Ave. or upper Wisconsin, Connecticut or Georgia Aves? What about Anacostia? Wouldn't skyscrapers in Anacostia be equi-distant to the mall to Rosslyn?