From: Anne Corbett
To: Dianne Barnes; Ronnie Edwards
Cc: Tania Jackson; Michael Henderson; Scott Roberts; Anne Corbett <alc@envisionmcmillan.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2013 11:27 PM
Subject: McMillan | HPRB Submission
To: Dianne Barnes; Ronnie Edwards
Cc: Tania Jackson; Michael Henderson; Scott Roberts; Anne Corbett <alc@envisionmcmillan.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2013 11:27 PM
Subject: McMillan | HPRB Submission
Chairpersons Barnes and Edwards,
I am emailing you the Masterplan submission made to HPRB today. It was literally being tweaked until this morning. NO substantive changes from our presentations, mostly additional diagrams and renderings to depict our intentions. Pay special attention to pages 7, 19, 20 & 21 which should give you a really nice sense of where we are going with the community center embedded in the plain and connected to preserved cell area that you can see from the lower level of the center, as well as a new rendering of the pond/amphitheatre area. Note: we are not sure if the preserved cell will be accessible yet — it hasn't been structurally assessed yet.
Would you forward it on to your respective commissioners? Feel free to have them email tania if they require a printed version. [I am hoping to save taxpayer dollars by not printing 20 copies. :)]
I am including Michael Henderson and Scott Roberts on this email as this is public information and they may distribute it as they see fit.
Enjoy the scoop, gentlemen.
Also note, VMP will be heard on April 4th, not March 28th — Callcott notified us just yesterday of this change in the agenda though that is not published yet.
Cheers,
Anne Corbett
Project Director
VISION MCMILLAN PARTNERS
EYA · JAIR LYNCH Development Partners · Trammell Crow Company
202.494.7523 | alc@envisionmcmillan.com
3 comments:
There * have * to be some comments on this revised Vision McMillan Partners (VMP) master plan...
We need to emulate Manhattan’s Central Park, one of the world's “Great Places”. Over 500 acres, declining in the 1970s, where a conservancy joined with the City of New York for a 26-year public-private partnership to restore, manage, and enhance the magnificent park. It is hard to accept the District fencing off McMillan, our Olmsted park, wasting this "Great Place" and over $17 million for over a quarter of a century.Then spending over $250,000 annually to mow a lawn, no one could ever sit on, picnic on, stroll on or in any way benefit from! How could they leave this precious , large tract of parkland to waste, instead of simply planting trees which by now would have already grown into a tall lush forest with all its critical benefits to the environment, the storm water retention, the air, and the health of the community.
In any city including the preferred upper NW section of DC, with proper planning, the millions of dollars would have supported a McMillan Park Conservancy, and funded the restoration of the park and all its activities for our city, years ago. The complete waste of McMillan Park demonstrates the neglect and contempt the DC government has for DC's eastern section, under-served for generations, with one fifth the park space as the NW section, always given preferences. The Vision McMillan Partners development which destroys most of the historic landmark continues this unacceptable imbalance. I encourage the HPRB to reject the city’s development plans.
The McMillan Site is protected under the Landmark and Historic District Act of 1978, DC Law 2-144, the entire site and its context "PROTECTED!" VMP itself commissioned the Historic Preservation Report by EHT Traceries, Inc. which states "this level of development, is inconsistent with historic preservation of the site," AND THAT IS SELF EVIDENT!
We need all of this park space, our land, even more we need an expanded park system, for critical community activities and recreation. We need the vision of Sen. McMillan to restore and complete "The Emerald Necklace" of green space, woods, and trails for the health of our central city. For a higher quality of life, like the upper income areas of DC have enjoyed, since Olmsted designed Rock Creek Park in 1890.
Our wasteful city govt., sucking every dollar it can out of the tax paying residents, and pleading about increasing its revenue from McMillan. But the richest government in the world can increase its tax revenue as the parkside property values rise and the concessions, performances, art classes and a huge City Market generate tax revenue and fees in McMillan Park.
Revenue and benefits to our city will also come from the new residents, who do not buy condos on our parkland, but who buy and rent in alternative locations and renovate derelict properties, thus returning them to the tax rolls. Medical offices can be built across the street at Washington Hospital Center, where they belong. While patients from all the hospitals, especially Children's National Medical Center, and their families, get some fresh air, take a nice walk, and help their recovery in a "Healing Garden" at McMillan. City residents and our visitors need parks, destinations, and "Great Places." The real McMillan (Senator from Michigan) had that vision over 100 years ago. Nothing about this miserable failure, by the DC govt.,recommends them to develop, pave over, and sell out our park. McMillan should never have been lopped off in the first place. When the federal government offered it to DC for free if they maintained it as green space. The best option is to now revert to federal control where National Park Service and McMillan Park Conservancy can restore and provide recreation along the Glen Echo Model.
I have to say: YAWN.
at first i was blown away by the size of the park. I'll limit my observations to that portion only....the rest is crap development a la anything else you'd expect to see anywhere else in strip mall hell. So let's only talk park... However, VMG still is being pretty clear that they aren't going very "upscale"....this is a pretty boring and underwelming design for this site. This landscape architect is capable of MUCH more than this....i mean this type of design throws back to those disasterous IM Pei Brutalist designs of the 60s where they try to "modernize" the outdoors... NEWS FLASH: THAT FAILED....it ends up being completely soul-less...and nobody goes there. Nature wasn't intended to be geometric and bounded on all sides by cement. C'mon guys.... if you want to see what this should look like, look at the Reedy River Park in Greenville South Carolina. That is an example of wonderous urban landscape design. This is just a freakin dog's breakfast on a plate.
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