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James Wright | 10/2/2013, 3 p.m.
FOM Challenges Bowser
The Friends of McMillan Park (FOM) want D.C. Council member Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) to use her clout as the chair of the D.C. Council's Committee on Economic Development to ask D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray to hold an international design competition to select the best proposal for the development of the historic McMillan Park Sand Filiation Site in Northwest.
The FOM thinks that the Gray administration-backed Vision McMillan Partners proposal, which includes 12-story buildings, is out of character for the neighborhoods surrounding it and that the development process needs to be open to all who are interested in it, not just the sole-source, no-bid manner in which the contract was awarded.
"Our hope is that open competition will produce a plan that both preserves this national landmark Olmsted Park, and encourages a sophisticated development, taking advantage of the site's many unique qualities, such as the breathtaking vaulted arcades in the underground filtration chambers," Anna Simon, speaking on behalf of FOM, said. "We are asking for Council member Bowser to help stop the suburban-like, cookie-cutter development plans proposed by the Gray administration and open up McMillan's future to the best, most creative thinking possible."
Bowser, 41, is a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for mayor in 2014 and has shown a keen interest in economic development projects.
The FOM has talked, at some level, with Bowser's opponents D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) and Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) and is working to educate residents citywide about what is going on with the McMillan site.
See this subsequent comment from Ward 4 resident Andrea Rossen:
From: "Andrea Rosen" <aerie@rcn.com>
Date: Oct 4, 2013 4:26 PM
Subject: [ChevyChase] International design competition for McMillan Park
To: "ChevyChaseCommunityListserv@yahoogroups.com" <ChevyChaseCommunityListserv@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: <jevans@dccouncil.us>, <twells@dccouncil.us>, "Bowser, Muriel (Council)" <MBowser@dccouncil.us>
All the news of citizen activism that the Washington Post, Washington City
Paper, and other business-oriented periodicals see fit to ignore can be
found in publications with shorter reach throughout our city. Happily, the
Washington Informer¹s interest was piqued by a press release sent out by the
citizens¹ group, Friends of McMillan Park. McMillan Park is the 25-acre
green swath punctuated by mysterious ivy-draped towers that sits atop the
decommissioned Slow Sands Filtration water treatment plant, which cleansed
D.C. water for more than three-quarters of the 20th century. Connected to
the McMillan Reservoir and bordered on the north by Michigan Avenue, on the
east by North Capitol Street, on the south by Channing Street, and on the
west by First Street, the formerly public park was designed by Frederick Law
Olmsted, Jr., son of New York¹s Central Park Olmsted, in the early 20th
century as an expression of City Beautiful ideals. To protect the water
treatment facility during World War II, it was fenced and largely abandoned
to its fate, although shortly after the Federal government ceded it to the
District in the early 1990s, the then-mayor had the trees cut down to soften
it for development. Nonetheless, for its technological and design
significance, McMillan Park, including its underground catacombs, has been
named to a D.C. Historic Landmark and was recently added to the National
Register of Historic Places.
We aspire to be a world capital; let¹s act like one.
Andrea Rosen
Chevy Chase, Ward 4
Paper, and other business-oriented periodicals see fit to ignore can be
found in publications with shorter reach throughout our city. Happily, the
Washington Informer¹s interest was piqued by a press release sent out by the
citizens¹ group, Friends of McMillan Park. McMillan Park is the 25-acre
green swath punctuated by mysterious ivy-draped towers that sits atop the
decommissioned Slow Sands Filtration water treatment plant, which cleansed
D.C. water for more than three-quarters of the 20th century. Connected to
the McMillan Reservoir and bordered on the north by Michigan Avenue, on the
east by North Capitol Street, on the south by Channing Street, and on the
west by First Street, the formerly public park was designed by Frederick Law
Olmsted, Jr., son of New York¹s Central Park Olmsted, in the early 20th
century as an expression of City Beautiful ideals. To protect the water
treatment facility during World War II, it was fenced and largely abandoned
to its fate, although shortly after the Federal government ceded it to the
District in the early 1990s, the then-mayor had the trees cut down to soften
it for development. Nonetheless, for its technological and design
significance, McMillan Park, including its underground catacombs, has been
named to a D.C. Historic Landmark and was recently added to the National
Register of Historic Places.
We aspire to be a world capital; let¹s act like one.
Andrea Rosen
Chevy Chase, Ward 4
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