Blog | Photos | Projects | Nats Park | Time Machine Photo Archive | Project Directory | Nats Park | Search | About | Contact JD
Please note that JDLand is no longer being updated.
peek >>
Near Southeast DC Past News Items
In the Pipeline
25 M
Yards/Parcel I
Chiller Site Condos
Yards/Parcel A
1333 M St.
More Capper Apts.
Yards/DC Water site
New Marine Barracks
Nat'l Community Church
Factory 202/Yards
SC1100
Completed
Thompson Hotel ('20)
West Half ('19)
Novel South Capitol ('19)
Yards/Guild Apts. ('19)
Capper/The Harlow ('19)
New DC Water HQ ('19)
Yards/Bower Condos ('19)
Virginia Ave. Tunnel ('19)
99 M ('18)
Agora ('18)
1221 Van ('18)
District Winery ('17)
Insignia on M ('17)
F1rst/Residence Inn ('17)
One Hill South ('17)
Homewood Suites ('16)
ORE 82 ('16)
The Bixby ('16)
Dock 79 ('16)
Community Center ('16)
The Brig ('16)
Park Chelsea ('16)
Yards/Arris ('16)
Hampton Inn ('15)
Southeast Blvd. ('15)
11th St. Bridges ('15)
Parc Riverside ('14)
Twelve12/Yards ('14)
Lumber Shed ('13)
Boilermaker Shops ('13)
Camden South Cap. ('13)
Canal Park ('12)
Capitol Quarter ('12)
225 Virginia/200 I ('12)
Foundry Lofts ('12)
1015 Half Street ('10)
Yards Park ('10)
Velocity Condos ('09)
Teague Park ('09)
909 New Jersey Ave. ('09)
55 M ('09)
100 M ('08)
Onyx ('08)
70/100 I ('08)
Nationals Park ('08)
Seniors Bldg Demo ('07)
400 M ('07)
Douglass Bridge Fix ('07)
US DOT HQ ('07)
20 M ('07)
Capper Seniors 1 ('06)
Capitol Hill Tower ('06)
Courtyard/Marriott ('06)
Marine Barracks ('04)
 
Go to Full Blog Archive


3095 Blog Posts Since 2003
Go to Page: 1 | ... 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 ... 310
Search JDLand Blog Posts by Date or Category

Break On Through to the Other Side, and More Views of Note
It's a lot of building to knock down, but a milestone of sorts was reached late last week at Building 213 when the demolition punched through from the west to the east, splitting the remnants in two and giving a peek at the vistas to come once it all comes tumbling down.
So I've added a bunch of new photos of the destruction to my Yards Parcel A page, and I also think the destruction is now far enough along to add the 171st entry to my Demolished Buildings Gallery.
In addition, I've scoured the archives and have come up with more than more than 40 vantage points where Spooky Central has been visible from and will be for just a bit longer.
But if you want a few more moments of the building not looking torn apart, go stand about halfway between M and N on first and look eastward above the "Event Parking" sign, as I did above. (I didn't even notice this quirk until I got home and looked at the photo.)
A few blocks away another man-made creation that won't be much lamented is being dismantled, as seen here in its before-and-after, with the Park Chelsea now looming:
Then there's some signage I have needed to officially record, that of the Subway Café and the Big Stick at 20 M (which got its tenant layout building permit approved recently), and the new Homewood Suites banner at 50 M. Plus there's now a tower crane at the Hampton Inn site.
To bring some green to the page, I'll close with this lovely photo of the increasingly lush Monument Valley just north of the ballpark.
And I'll have an even more interesting batch of photos coming soon.
(Click on any of these to launch a mini-slideshow of all of them.)
 

PN Hoffman to Bring a Condo Building to the Yards
A move like this was previewed a few months ago, and now it's come to pass: it's being announced this morning that Forest City is selling the "Parcel O" site on the southeast corner of the 4th and Tingey at the Yards to PN Hoffman, who will be building a 130-unit/10 floor condo building.
The trapeze school is currently occupying the site, but they will be moving to the corner of New Jersey and Tingey once the NGA building demolition is completed.
This would be not only the first condo building at the Yards, but the first condo building in the neighborhood since Velocity was finished back in 2009. Judging by my inbox over the years, the demand for ownership opportunities in the neighborhood is strong.
The press release about the project gives some small amount of detail: "These luxury condominium residences will echo the unique industrial past of the site both in building architecture and unit finishes. A range of residence sizes are currently planned from studios to two-bedroom units. A rooftop resident’s lounge, outdoor kitchen and fire pits, private terraces and balconies, and front desk staff are just a few of the features."
Hoffman is a busy company these days, since they are the behind the massive Wharf development in Southwest. The company has been tied to the Yards before, having been attached way back when to the renovation of Building 202 (the big red brick building now just behind Twelve12), but that project seems to be in perpetual turnaround.
There won't be shovels in the ground next week--scuttlebutt says that Hoffman could start the project in late 2015 (about the time that the under-construction 327-unit apartment building across the street delivers), but there's nothing stated officially one way or the other.
This would be the fourth residential building at the Yards, following the 170-unit Foundry Lofts, the about-to-be-completed 218-unit Twelve12, and the aforementioned 327-unit building on Parcel N, which needs a name desperately.
 

Lehman Takes Sole Ownership of Part of the Half Street Hole
Documents filed with the Recorder of Deeds within the past few months show that Lehman Brothers has executed the necessary legal and financial maneuvers to take sole ownership of a portion of the infamous hole in the ground on Half Street just north of Nats Park (which I can't believe I didn't until this instant ever think to call Monument Valley).
The site, on the northern part of the hole and just south of 55 M Street, was going to be the hotel portion of Monument Realty's block-long Half Street development.
This is the third time in the past few years that Lehman has taken ownership of property in Monument's once-vast holdings just north of the ballpark. Lehman was one of Monument's investment partners on these properties, in addition to being the lender.
In both of the other cases, the "foreclosure" by Lehman ended up being a precursor to the sale of the property--both at 50 M, bought by investors in May 2013 and now the site of the planned Homewood Suites hotel, and at 1244 South Capitol, bought by JBG in late 2013 and likely to be a residential project. (The company's 55 M Street office building was sold in late 2013 without a Lehman takeback.)
Whether this is another precursor to another sale, we will have to see.
As of now, Monument retains an ownership stake in only two properties in the Ballpark District: the southern half of Monument Valley, where a residential project was planned, and the old Domino's site at One M Street, where back in 2012 Monument had been starting to shepherd an office project through zoning.
 

Bridge Park's Final Four Design Teams Picked; Meet Them June 10
The process continues to create the 11th Street Bridge Park, with the announcement on Tuesday of the four teams picked for the final stage of the design competition.
The park, which will use the piers still standing after the demolition of the old outbound 11th Street Bridge, would create a new type of connection between the east and west sides of the Anacostia River, and is described by its supporters as "an iconic new civic space that will provide a unique venue supporting the community’s environmental, economic, cultural and physical health."
The design teams chosen are made up of landscape architects, architects, and structural engineers, and have been given $25,000 to create their submissions. The teams are:
• Balmori Associates / Cooper, Robertson & Partners / Guy Nordenson Associates
• OLIN / OMA / Arup
• Stoss Landscape Urbanism / Höweler + Yoon Architecture / Robert Silman Associates
• Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT) / NEXT Architects / Magnusson Klemencic Associates
The park's jury expected to choose a final design this fall.
And on June 10, members of the public will be able to hear from the four teams (one of which includes OLIN, designers of Canal Park) The event runs from 6:30 to 8 pm at THEARC, 1901 Mississippi Ave., SE.
In the meantime, fundraising continues for the project, which could cost around $40 million for both construction and operations. Earlier this month council member and transportation committee chair Mary Cheh inserted into the city budget currently under deliberation $14.5 million over the next three years to partially fund the project. (This money is apparently coming from the city's decision to go with a fixed-span new Douglass Bridge rather than replacing the swing span, which is saving about $140 million.) The rest of the construction financing would be raised from private sources. In addition, about $840,000 has been raised toward the $1 million "pre-capital campaign goal."
 

Next Capper Community Center Meeting Set for June 11
The next step in the planning for the soon-to-be-built Capper Community Center has been announced, with a public meeting scheduled for Wednesday, June 11 at 200 I St. SE at 7 pm* to discuss the results of the recent neighborhood survey on desired programs and activities at the center. The consultants hired by the Housing Authority will also present their recommendations.
Sayeth DCHA: "Over the past three weeks, almost 475 members of the Southeast neighborhood answered the 130-question surveys. Of those, more than 85 percent were from within a 10-block radius of the proposed facility. About 46 percent of those surveyed indicated they rented their home. Almost three-quarters of the surveys were completed online."
The first community meeting was held in April, and included some initial "strategic visioning," in advance of the surveys going out.
* Note the different start time from when this was initially posted.
 

Tuesday Tidbits: Cruising, Looking, Fattening, Crowding
Long weekends mess with the mind.
* CRUISING BY THE HOOD: The Near Southeast Community Partners group, in concert with the 11th Street Bridge Park Project, Living Classrooms, and Anacostia Riverkeeper, are having a "Community Vision Cruise" along the Anacostia River on June 16 from 6 to 8 pm. Cruisers will ride the river on a 1928 boat and learn about the bridge park and programs to clean up the river, with food provided by Agua 301 and Ice Cream Jubilee. Tickets are $60 (and can bepurchased online), but note that space is limited.
* LOOKING AT THE HOOD: Urban Turf surveys the current state of the neighborhood, after the "rain delay" of the 2008-2012 time frame: "Now, Capitol Riverfront is seeing long-planned projects come to fruition, parks, restaurants and retailers are drawing visitors from across the city, and the streets no longer resemble a ghost town."
* FATTENING UP THE HOOD: The Tour de Fat is this Saturday at Yards Park, so get your bike and your liver tuned up.
* CROWDING IN THE HOOD: DDOT recently released the M Street Southeast/Southwest Special Events Study final report, which looks at the traffic impact along M Street of a number of potential entertainment venues, including of course Nats Park but also the potential new soccer stadium at Buzzard Point, all the attractions to come at the Wharf, and the movie theater eventually coming to the DC Water site. (The entire report is an 81 MB PDF, so get a cup of coffee.)
 

Yards Park Water Features Still Offline; Long Term Solution Sought
During the flooding a few weeks ago, there was damage to the pump room that handles the water features at the Yards Park. At the time, the Capitol Riverfront BID (which handles the park's maintenance) had hoped that the waterfall, splash pool, and fountains would be up and running by Memorial Day weekend.
Alas, in a letter being posted at the park, the BID says that there is now no time frame for when these features will be back in action. It still has not been determined whether the damaged pumps can be fixed or will need to be replaced altogether.
The BID does say that their goal "is to find a long-term solution and to take steps that will prevent this kind of incident from happening again in the future."
Comments (2)
More posts: The Yards, Yards Park
 

WC Smith Announces Park Chelsea's Topping Out
 

Down the Rabbit Hole: Redesigning JDLand, Finally
While I have appeared mostly AWOL from these parts for the past 10 days or so, I've actually been working harder on JDLand than I have in years, as out of nowhere the psychological energy arrived to drive a desperately needed redesign of the site's interior pages.
Click on one of the links on the map at the top right of the home page, or maybe go here or here or here, and you'll see what's going on:
* White space! Lots of it!
* Fewer words!
* A design that responds to your device--if you're on a big monitor, you'll see a rail of links to the latest news on a project. If you're on your phone, you'll see the basics (without having to drag the page around). With plenty of changes in between.
* For larger devices, the "peek" link at the left of the header box on project pages brings you a nifty (and not small) look back in time.
I've also been tinkering with the home page, but still have some things I want to do and so it's not quite as "responsive" as the interior pages. However, starting today you'll also see that clicking on photos in blog posts pops up a larger version, without having to load a new page.
I've done my best to test, but I'm sure there are configurations where this will all look pretty ghastly. If so, please let me know your browser and device, so I can troubleshoot.
There are also still a fair number of pages with the old design, and no doubt bugs aplenty, plus I may have been a bit too draconian in some of the content removal on the project pages. I'll be mopping up for a while yet.
It won't please everyone, of course, but it was definitely time for a change. And I've garnered a lot of enjoyment out of all of this work, which maybe isn't a feeling I've had related to JDLand very often in the past few years or so.
And now the In the Weeds discussion of the redesign, for those who might be interested:
It's safe to say that web design has changed just a smidge since I threw together my first pages about Near Southeast back in 2003, but since I've known for years exactly how enormous the task would be to implement a new design, I just closed my eyes to the aging look and feel and concentrated on, you know, the actual content.
This wasn't a matter of just changing some code at the top and bottom of a template somewhere--thanks to the rather, ahem, organic way that JDLand grew over the years, the code (and the site, really) had become embarrassingly dense and messy.
I've had to go into more than 100 pages and rip out the old web 1.0/table-based layout approach and replace it with boatloads of CSS. Which meant that pretty much every element on every one of those pages needed editing. (At least now this means the NEXT redesign will be simpler.)
And since I was editing every page, this also was finally my chance to move away from a navigation configuration that had worked well early on but had left me increasingly hamstrung, where, say, the Velocity and River Parc pages were both subsections of a Square 699N page. Now I've pretty much given every project its own page. But that meant building about 20 new pages.
I also found myself sort of arriving back full circle at where JDLand began a billion years ago--as a project about a changing neighborhood, with an eye toward being more of a historical document and less of a breathless minute-by-minute tracking of minutiae. (Though I admit the breathless minute-by-minute tracking was fun for a few years there!)
And even though I've barely come up for air while working on this, it's been a great process, and reminded me of how much my enjoyment of JDLand used to also come from back-end development, such as when I built the automated photo archive on the site, or the even more massive full archive I keep elsewhere.
There's more I need to think about--it may be time to go to larger photos across the site, but that's about 10,000 photos that would need to be re-saved at higher resolutions. So maybe not this week. But I admit that picking out the huge header photos--looking for the oldest ones of each particular site--made me want to think about a better way to have everyone be able to look at the large versions--while still protecting them from nefarious non-approved uses.
I'll still be tinkering plenty--for instance, the notion of going to a "lightbox" display of blog post photos came to me while I was starting to write this entry, so I had to scurry off and implement that before I could go any further. It never ends.
So, it's best to remember that, at heart, JDLand will always really be just my own history-photography-writing-web development hobby, which of course leaves the site much more vulnerable to my mercurial whims than a real business would ever be. But that's how I roll.
And, who knows, maybe someday another flash of sudden psychological energy will strike at the actual blogging portion of JDLand....
Comments (12)
More posts: JDLand stuff
 

A Peek at the Plans for 50 M's Homewood Suites Hotel
Last week developers submitted to the Zoning Commission plans and drawings for the Homewood Suites Hotel being developed at 50 M Street, on the northeast corner of Half and M SE, one block north of Nationals Park.
This is part of the Capitol Gateway Overlay Review that projects in many parts of the neighborhood are required to go through, to make sure that new buildings meet the many goals for design that were set when the area was just a gleam in the Office of Planning's eye.
The filing mentions the basics: the hotel will be 11 stories/40,000 square feet, of which about 4,800 square feet will be reserved for ground-floor retail. There will be a pool and fitness center, a rooftop terrace, and a green roof. And if the current design becomes the final design, the project would most likely meet LEED Silver requirements.
Also included were some early elevations, such as the one at right and a few others that I snagged and have put on a newly thrown-together 50 M Street project page. (And yes, it's in the new JDLand design format--I can't be bothered to build a separate one in the old layout. If it's not displaying right for you, drop me a line and tell me what browser you're using.)
The only special exception to the CG Overlay being sought is that the developers are asking to include only 40 parking spaces, when 53 would be the normal base requirement, because of the hotel's "urban location" directly across from the west entrance of the Navy Yard-Ballpark Metro station. Judging from the drawings, the underground parking entrance will be on Cushing Street; and the developers stated in the filings that they would be building a new sidewalk along the property's frontage on that street.
ANC 6D will be reviewing the project at its next meeting, on Monday, May 12 at 7 pm at 200 I St. SE., in advance of the Zoning Commission's as-yet unscheduled hearing.
 

Is a Pet Store Coming to the Boilermaker Shops?
The Washington Business Journal reports today that a "retail pet establishment" has been proposed for the Boilermaker Shops at 300 Tingey St. SE in the Yards.
No deal has been announced by Forest City, so no retailer is officially named, but WBJ does ponder the notion of perhaps the smaller, more boutique "Unleashed by Petco" being the potential tenant.
This would apparently be different from the veterinary offering that may be coming to the Twelve12 apartment building a few steps away, as was discussed during zoning hearings a few months back to tweak the rules so that a vet could be allowed.
We shall see....!
 

Going Down, Down, Down at the Yards, Times Two
Time to check in again on the conscious uncoupling of Building 213 from the rest of the neighborhood.
The 1st Street frontage now has quite a bite taken out of it (om nom nom), and some demolition is also now underway at the corner of New Jersey and Tingey.
A few closeups, from 1st Street on the left and New Jersey on the right:
Meanwhile, three blocks to the east, on the site of the still-as-yet-officially-named-apartment-project-we-are-forced-to-continue-calling Parcel N, there's a fair amount of downward action as well:
(Beta pages here and here, if you want the open-and-airy version of the details.)
And, for the heck of it, here's what the entrance to the Harris Teeter from M just east of 4th is looking like, with the new bite out of the historic brick wall finished:
 

Alert: Lofts at Capitol Quarter Ground Actually Being Broken!
It was on March 5 that a large number of Very Important Persons gathered at 601 L St. SE to ceremonially break ground on the Lofts at Capitol Quarter, the 195-unit mixed-income apartment building that's the next step in the redevelopment of Capper/Carrollsburg. It's not unusual that there's a bit of a lag between the celebration and the actual start of work, but I admit my toes were starting to tap a bit as to when the real digging would begin.
And, lo and behold, this week the heavy machinery arrived, the northern half of Nats Lot W is roped off, and I witnessed with my very own eyes the breaking of ground. And there is plenty of ground to break:
PS: If folks have a minute and want to peek at the beta version of my Lofts at Capitol Quarter page, and report whether your browser freaks out--or if it doesn't--that'd be keen. (This includes mobile access.)
 

Tuesday Tidbits: Beta Edition
* RESULTS: Last week I mentioned how concerned parents and neighbors were organizing a drive to call David Catania's office on May 1 to impress upon him the importance of opening Van Ness Elementary as scheduled in 2015. It didn't even take until the end of the day to get results, as evidenced by this quote sent to the Van Ness Parents Group from Catania's office: "[Councilmember Catania] supports the on-time opening and modernization of Van Ness. And while the Committee does not finalize and markup its budget until May 15th, it is the Councilmember’s intention to keep Van Ness’ $15 million FY15 renovation in the budget as proposed. Thank you again for your hard work and advocacy!"
* AWARDS: The US Green Building Council has officially awarded LEED Gold status to Canal Park, thanks to its sustainable development design that includes electric car charging stations, an extensive storm water collection and reuse system, as well as tree boxes and bio swales that provide filtration for street-level runoff surrounding the park.
* SPOTLIGHTS: The spring edition of the 11th Street Bridges newsletter is out, without any actual news on the project but instead spotlighting the small and local businesses that have partnered with DDOT on the project.
* TWEEPING: If you are wanting to keep up with the ever-growing lineup of nearby businesses and organizations, feel free to bookmark my Near Southeast Businesses Twitter list, as an easy way to quickly scan their latest missives in one spot.
* PROPERTY FOR SALE!: Over the years I've had a lot of people contact me desperate for leads on available property. I finally have acres of empty land to offer, but the commute might be a bit rough.
* BETA TO THE MAX: I've been down the rabbit hole over the past few days, as I have finally begun to redesign the interior pages of JDLand, which have needed a refresh since about 2006. (I already mentioned my first cut at redesigning the home page.)
It's a pretty mammoth undertaking, and will take a while to implement, but if you want to see an early prototype of what I'm going for, you can look at the Community Center page, or the Square 701 page, or the Akridge Half Street page, or my Past News page for Yards Parcel A. Note that some stuff will be broken as of now, but the pages do respond to different screen sizes, which also means that the non-blog portion of the site should become much more mobile friendly. As of now it's probably a bit screwy in older browsers, but should be okay if you're using up-to-date Chrome, Firefox, or IE. And the irony isn't lost on me that I haven't been posting much work on JDLand over the past few days because I've been working so much on JDLand.
 

DCHA Releases Survey on Community Center Desires
As promised at a community meeting a few days back, the DC Housing Authority has now released its survey to help get input from neighbors of the soon-to-be-constructed community center at 5th and K SE.
The survey is being passed out in the neighborhood in printed form (though you kids may not know what "printed" is), but it also can be filled out online. Responses are due by May 16.
And, to goose participation, DCHA is offering a chance to win one of six $50 gift cards if you complete the survey.
I wrote last week about the first public meeting in the agency's "engagement process" , in which they are working to determine what programming will be offered at the center once it opens, by late 2015 or early 2016. Another public meeting will be held in June, followed by a final report.
Comments (0)
More posts: Capper, Community Center
 

To-Do Tidbits: La La La La La Edition
Let's sing our way into the weekend and the summer:
* KILL THE WABBIT: Don't forget that Opera in the Outfield returns tomorrow (Saturday, May 3), with a simulcast of Mozart's "The Magic Flute." The show is at 7 pm, but the gates open at 5 pm for the variety of "pre-game" activities, including a coloring station, a meet and greet with M&M's Miss Brown (!) and the living statue of Babe Ruth (!!), and more.
* HEY THERE, DELILAH: The NatsLive lineup for this summer has been announced. Mark your calendars for the Plain White T’s on June 5, Austin Mahone on July 19, and Martina McBride on August 16. The concerts are free for anyone who has a ticket to that day's game.
* TAKE ME TO THE RIVER: The Ballpark Boathouse at Diamond Teague Park opens for its second season tomorrow (Saturday, May 3). Kayaks and canoes will be available for rental, if you want to explore the shores of the neighborhood from the other side.
* BUY ME SOME PEANUTS: The Nationals really want you to come to see the team play the Dodgers next week. The Tuesday, May 6 game is "Federal Workforce Day," plus the first 25,000 fans will receive an MLB Network eco-friendly shopping bag. Then on Wednesday, May 7, it's Weather Day, at which the Fox5 weather team "will conduct an interactive presentation to educate local students on the various types of weather conditions in the region and how they affect a Nationals baseball game." It's a 1:05 game, but the weather-related festivities begin at 9:45 am. There's also discounted tickets; see the Nats Weather Day page for details.
 

Flooding Damages Yards Park Pump Room; Water Features Impacted
The Capitol Riverfront BID has just sent out an update on the condition of The Parks (Yards and Canal) in the wake of the heavy rain and flooding of the past few days.
The flood wall apparently performed as it should have, protecting the majority of the park from flooding, though a small portion of the boardwalk was under water before the high levels started to recede. There was no damage to any of the restaurants, and the boardwalk and bridge are open.
However, water did get into the park's pump room, damaging the mechanical and electrical systems there. Sayeth the BID: "systems. As a result, the following Yards Park water features will be closed until further notice – the Canal Basin pool, the dancing fountains and the waterfall."
This puts a damper (sorry) on the original plans to re-open the water features in time for the beginning of the Friday night concerts on May 9. At this point, they don't expect the pool, fountains, and waterfall to open before May 23rd.
On the bright side, Canal Park did not suffer any flooding, and today the fountains there have been turned on for the summer.
Comments (0)
More posts: The Yards, Yards Park
 

Virginia Avenue Tunnel Hearing: Media Coverage Roundup
Yesterday was the day that opponents of the Virginia Avenue Tunnel got to testify before the DC council about their concerns.
While the hearing was technically about a proposed resolution asking Congress to hold their own hearing on the project, those opposed to the plan and CSX both used the time to go through the pro and con arguments that have been aired many times in recent months.
The media was very much in attendance: the Washington Post, City Paper, NBC4, and WUSA9 all covered the event.
If you want to watch the hearing for yourself, you can watch the on-demand video, once it's actually posted.
At this point, everything is pretty much in a holding pattern until the Environmental Impact Statement is released, which should be, as you'd expect, Any Minute Now.
 

Wednesday Tidbits: Soaking Wet Edition
* RANDOM PHOTO 1: Progress on the new exit ramp from the eastbound Southeast Freeway down to 11th Street SE, which is expected to open this summer. A lot nicer than getting off at 6th Street for anyone needing to get to the eastern end of the neighborhood.
* VAN NESS LOBBYING: Members of the Van Ness Parents Group are urging interested parties to pick up the phone on Thursday, May 1 and call councilmember David Catania's office to urge that the full $15 million earmarked for the modernization of Van Ness Elementary be kept in next year's budget. Back on April 17, Catania, who chairs the Education Committee, commented that he would consider reallocating all of the Van Ness funds to other schools, postponing the school's reopening until Fall 2016, which would be a significant blow to the parents who have been working for a number of years to get the neighborhood's elementary school reopened. The Hill Rag has more on this issue, along with other current issues affecting nearby schools.
* RANDOM PHOTO 2: It seems hard to believe that construction of the long-delayed Capper Community Center could actually be about to start, but this sign erected at 5th and L last week would appear to be another step in that direction.
* TASTE OF 8TH: It's a little outside the JDLand lines, but since hunger knows no boundaries, I'll mention that Taste of 8th is back, on Saturday, May 3, from 1 to 4 pm. For $5 for a single taste or $20 for a five-pack, you can get an appetizer-sized "taste" from many of the restaurants along Barracks Row.
* TINKERING: In my quest to never leave well enough alone, I'm doing some work on the site that may cause things to look (unintentionally) odd. Hopefully if that happens, I'll notice relatively quickly, but I'd be happy if you'd let me know. And, if you're brave, feel free to test out a beta version of the home page that resizes various elements based on your screen width. (Rejoice, ultra-big-screen users!) Just remember that "beta" means I may break it while working on it.
 

Forest City to Spooky Building 213: Om Nom Nom
If I were in control of this demolition, I'd have started by punching through right in front of the mouth of the dinosaur on the south end, but that's just me.
I've started an expanded photo archive that isn't too extensive right now but eventually will include before-and-afters of most every vantage point that this building is visible from--as I've said before, I'm not sure people will realize how much this building dominates the neighborhood until it's gone. I can't wait to not see it. And I'll certainly be continuing to document its demise.
For those not following along, once this building is gone Forest City will remake this block (known as the Yards's Parcel A) by creating a temporary public park, along with a new home for the trapeze school and a parking lot.
Comments (7)
 
3095 Posts:
Go to Page: 1 | ... 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 ... 310
Search JDLand Blog Posts by Date or Category




                  © Copyright 2025 JD.