Part 2 of WAMU-FM 88.5 Metro Connection story on McMillan

Here is Part 2 of the WAMU-FM 88.5 Metro Connection story on McMillan.

You can click on the link to read the entire story (I have only copied in a few paragraphs here).

Anne Corbett, Tony Norman and Kirby Vining are interviewed.

You can listen to this story here.

How Much History Should Be Preserved At D.C.'s McMillan Site?

By: Jonathan Wilson
January 24, 2014
                                                                                                                                                              

This is the second part of a two-part story on the McMillan Sand Filter Project. To find out more about the history and inner workings of the site, read Part 1.

The historic McMillan Sand Filtration site is a place that has come to be thought of as the District's version of Stonehenge. But now the McMillan site, just off of North Capitol Street NW, is on the verge of getting its own fresh start, but not everyone is happy about that.

Annie Corbett says she's spent a good part of the past two years dispelling myths and rumors about the McMillan Sand Filtration property.

"The level of misinformation about this site is staggering," she says.

Corbett is the project coordinator for Vision McMillan Partners, the public-private collaboration between the Mayor's office and a team of developers, engineers and architects. She says it makes sense that there are so many different narratives surrounding the McMillan site.

"It has sat, unchanged and unused, for more than two decades," Corbett says.

And the last time it was open to the public was before World War II.

"In the development process, there's 20+ years of storytelling around who said what, and who intended what, and who controls what — and 'what used to happen when my grandma lived there,'" Corbett says.

As far as Corbett and her team are concerned, the McMillan Sand Filtration Site was an industrial property, cleverly designed to look as park-like as possible.

This is Anne Corbett.

...

The Vision McMillan plan's next hurdle is a significant one.

Though the District's historic preservation office approved the design last fall, the seven-member body also found that the plan would require substantial demolition of the historic landmark.

That means ultimately the property's fate is in the hands of a city official known as the Mayor's Agent, who'll have to make a delicate decision about whether to preserve history, promote growth — or try to achieve some balance between the two.