ThayerAvenue.com

For those of you with some time on your hands this evening, you might think about attending the Historic Preservation Committee Hearing at the Planning Commission. As you may know, the Silver Spring Historical Society is trying to get the building on the Montgomery County Master Plan for Historic Designation.

I outlined my thoughts thoroughly on the matter, and I (thankfully) expect the push for historic designation to be crushed. If you’re up for a large download (~20MB) and a thoroughly-detailed argument against the designation (brought to you by the church itself with the help of historian David Rotenstein), I recommend you download the PDF submitted to the Planning Commission. Lots of great stuff in there. Otherwise, the introductory letter is a good overview.

Best of luck to Dr. McIntosh and the rest of the crew.

And so it begins.

Last week, I noticed that the National Institute of Dry Cleaning had all its windows removed and signs posted on the doors. Turns out the sign was just a notice of asbestos abatement, but I expect the actual permit signs to follow shortly. I went by last weekend and was amazed at the open access, but I guess that’s not going to last for long.

According to DCMud, Priderock Capital Partners LLC and DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners are building a nine-story apartment complex that will house 210 units and two levels of underground parking. Here’s how it looked back in the day (photo courtesy of Flickr user Sligo20910).

Here’s what we have today (click thumbnails for full size images). Some of the remaining marble around one of the doors is in good enough condition that I’d want to take a slab home. And nice details elsewhere (graffiti notwithstanding). I wonder what they did with the windows that had all the colored panes of glass in them. Those would have been nice souvenirs as well.

Looking forward to the integration of the old façade into the new building.

And a Happy St. Paddy’s Day to ya!

UPDATE (3/17 @ 10:00pm):
Writing this post inspired me to find an old sign I knew I had stashed away – an old internal office sign for the aforementioned building. I found it, as well as the fact that the proper name for this place might be the National Institiute of Cleaning & Dyeing.

The front (colored) plastic is transparent where the letters and artwork are. Underneath that is a textured metal plate with the beveled letters. Plus the great Crystoglass sticker on the back. I assume the window was for a person’s name and this hung outside their office.

At any rate, we now have a building with two names. I’m still investigating, but I’ve turned up some interesting tidbits – including this article from the March 1949 issue of Popular Science.

Just a quick note to follow up from the Montgomery County Council committee hearing today, courtesy of Councilmember George Leventhal:

The latest news: the County Council’s Health & Human Services and Planning, Housing & Economic Development Committees met jointly to discuss Council President Ervin’s resolution to authorize a bridge over Wayne Avenue.  Consistent with his vote for the bridge in 2009, Councilmember Leventhal moved the resolution (Ervin is not a member of either committee) but it failed for a lack of a second. Councilmembers Rice, Navarro, Floreen and Elrich were present but none seconded the motion.  So there is no committee recommendation. It remains to be seen whether Council President Ervin will now bring the matter before the full Council without a committee recommendation.

Well, that’s that. For now.

In Other Devastating News…
This afternoon, someone on the ESSCA listserv posted this. I was going to summarize, but I think verbatim is best:

Dear Neighbors,

If you called the Weather (301-936-1212) this week, you heard that Verizon is discontinuing this service in June 2011.  In Wednesday’s Post, John Kelly’s Washington column in the Metro section concerned the planned discontinuation of the weather and time services of Verizon.

If you would like to protest the cessation of weather and time reports by telephone, please email verizonweatherofdc@… (incomplete email in listserv post) and call Verizon @1-800-VERIZON.  If you don’t want the service to end, please forward this email to your friends and neighbors on other listserves to spread the word.

Maybe Verizon will reverse this decision.

Really? Last time I called a phone number for weather and time, I was 9 years old. I wonder how many people called that number on a daily basis. I certainly don’t see a problem with the lowest common denominator being “Traffic and Weather together on the 8s” on WTOP, but that’s ESSCA in all its glory.

I may start writing my own version of Goodnight, Moon with the two aforementioned items.

A moment of silence, anyone?

Having spent lots of working days down near L’Enfant Plaza, I’ve had the opportunity to sample Korean tacos, poutine, cupcakes, and more – all from their custom mobile delivery systems (i.e., trucks). Even thought I don’t work in downtown Silver Spring, weekend food trucks (and even weekday, for those that do) would be a welcome addition to the neighborhood. I spotted this Tops American Food Company food truck (based out of Gaithersburg) in front of the Bethel World Outreach Ministries church last week, but unfortunately, it was just as they were closing up shop.

Silver Spring, Singular mentioned on Facebook that they are in the area regularly, and last year, TBD had multiple stories about Silver Spring being the next stop for food trucks. Sadly, that has yet to happen.

As for Tops, their diverse menu would be a welcome addition to the food scene around the ‘hood, but being able to pick up some poutine on Saturdays while visiting the farmers market or Fenton Street Market could drive some serious traffic. If you haven’t tried it, trust me on this. Now the question is: How do we get them here? Food Truck Tracker keeps tabs on the food trucks in the city if you work down there during the week, but getting these mobile delicacy delivery machines up here on the weekend could start to foster relationships for weekday delivery as well.

It’s a short trip, people. Come on by!

Yes, I put out a call for people to attend the March 8 County Council hearing. And yes, I did not make it to the meeting. And even when life catches up and everyone is busy, I’m not going to make any excuses. My fault – period. Evidently, the council hearing did not go as the anti-bridge contingent would have planned, and reports indicate seven of eight people who actually testified were pro bridge. *facepalm*

That’s annoying. And then, of course, George Leventhal calls me out on Twitter (and Facebook, for that matter):

@ThayerAvenue Dude (may I call you Dude?) you posted on your blog urging people to show up tonite but you didn’t show up yourself!

Thanks, George. Yer a real peach. And congratulations on last year’s fourth place finish in the at-large race. At least you beat Duchy.

He asks, “How are elected officials supposed to know what the public thinks if the public doesn’t show up at public hearings?” Well, George, look at your Facebook page. And the plethora of people who posted on Councilmember Riemer’s Facebook post concerning the matter. Isn’t that why you stay engaged with social media? To communicate with people and hear what they think? Of course, approval for the bridge is far from over. In the meantime:

Step 1: Signs
These will be finished and mounted tomorrow.

Step 2: Show up for shit.
Seems simple enough, right?

Step 3: Hound the Council
According to Councilmember Leventhal, there is a committee discussion on Thursday. I have no idea what that entails and if it’s even open to the public, but I plan on finding out. And if I have to stand on the corner of Maryland Avenue and E. Jefferson Street in downtown Rockville with the aforementioned signs, I will.

Step 4: Wait for the budget discussions
This is really what is comes down to – funding priorities. Let’s face it: Times are tough. Funding for public safety is going to get cut, which means police and fire departments have less. Education funding is going to get cut, which means fewer resources for teachers and students. And we’re still going to approve the bridge? Somehow, I get the feeling that the council members know the bridge will get axed anyway because of budget constraints. If someone tells me this will die in budget discussions, I’ll be happy. But I won’t trust it until I see it.

Okay – so there it is. After constantly attending the most mundane of (ESSCA) meetings in my own neighborhood, I miss this one. So be it. I’ll try not to let it happen again.

And neither should you.

I’m almost afraid to say it out loud for jinxing it, but last night’s ESSCA meeting had some thoughtful discussion about the development on the site of First Baptist Church. I mean, there was the futile attempt at reuse plans via the Historical Society, but otherwise it looks like, barring any snafus, this thing will actually go forward. It’s a solid development plan and perfect for urban density. There were some people who might have thrown up in their mouths a little during the vote, but I think it was because they knew that so many accommodations had been made that this was the best they were going to get out of this parcel of land.

As for that presentation by the historical society, I have three things to say: (1) Informative; (2) Never gonna happen; (3) Most. Boring. Powerpoint. Ever. If you’re trying to sell a point, you have to do it with some flair, folks. Do not read deadpan from a script. This was right before I fell asleep:

But then I had to wake up to continue the live tweeting. Now for the main recap.

When you compare the new drawings to the old (previous images in this post), you’ll notice height variations in the new rendering while the previous one had a flat top. The thumbnails below will take you to larger images so you can see the detail.

The first image is from the southwest corner of Fenton & Bonifant by the loft condos (which look pretty nice from the outside – anyone live there?). The second image is straight from the south side of Bonifant east of Fenton. As I understand it, the “community” wanted a less-imposing façade on that residential street (nevermind that the church across the street looks like modern brutalist architecture). So the zoning text amendment (ZTA) is to get permission to increase the height on the Wayne/Fenton side of the structure while decreasing it on the Bonifant side.

The other point of contention was traffic in and out of the garage doors you see on Bonifant at the bottom of the second image. The arched door in the center of the image is for resident parking, limited church (staff) parking, and pick up/drop off for the daycare at the church (the building to the right). Some detail:

It’s actually a great development for urban density. I’m psyched about the retail prospects for the first floor, and I think it will generate more foot traffic along Fenton. Once the library is done, we should have a good gateway to Fenton Village.

The third image above shows the top view of the development with the courtyard that runs north/south between Wayne and Bonifant. You’ll also see three (private) deck areas – two on the Fenton side and one on the courtyard side – that sit on top of the first floor retail. Not sure if these are apartment specific or if they’re accessible to all residents. Just not the public.

At any rate, I think you can say hello to your next mixed-use development in downtown Silver Spring. There are still plenty of hearings and hoops to jump through. ESSCA’s approval of the ZTA is just one. The property sits right on the border between ESSCA and SOECA (Seven Oaks-Evanswood Citizen’s Association), and SOECA needs to support the ZTA now. If they don’t, we’re going to have a cage match. Two civic groups enter, one civic group leave.

And credit to D. for the best tweet of the night.