Tuesday, May 24, 2016

"a typical bait and switch at McMillan"

See this 05-24-2016 message from an unhappy Bloomingdale resident:

The beautiful park water fall planned for McMillan Park has been scratched. It will NOT be built. Neither will the fountain that was planned. This was presented to the community as a selling point for the park, and now Vision McMillan is "pulling the plug"! UNACCEPTABLE!

There won't be any water features at McMillan Park!

Here is the Historic Preservation Office staff report about the water features:

"For budget and maintenance reasons, the pedestrian entrance into the south service court from North Capitol Street has been modified to eliminate the large water wall fountain but would retain a generous publicly-scaled stair into the site. For similar reasons, the fountain at the west entrance to the north service court has also been eliminated and converted to a tiered planted area that will incorporate several of the sculptural sand washers from elsewhere on the site".


9 comments:

PalacePool said...

It seems like a pretty key component if you are trying to link the past of WATER filtration to the new development.

Nate said...

Not entirely accurate to say there will be no water features. There still is a pond, albeit a smaller for the initial plans, which is too bad. Its still there though.

Scott Roberts of Bloomingdale said...

Nate: Thanks for clarifying about the pond.

Bloomingdale Resident said...

The new plan "maintains stormwater retention pond and natural bio-filtration". The pond is so much smaller that I cannot see it in the plans - I only see what looks like plant-filled catch basins. A concrete-looking plaza replaces the pond.

They have eliminated two water features, one in the North Service Court, and the major one in the South Service Court, which is being replaced by large concrete-looking steps.

From the OP report: "For budget and maintenance reasons, the pedestrian entrance into the south service court from North Capitol Street has been modified to eliminate the large water wall fountain but would retain a generous publicly-scaled stair into the site." Guess this is what happens when you draw up flashy plans, make a flyover video, then distribute video and plans to the Council and the media, and THEN come up with a budget.

Quite a change for an historic site that was dedicated to water.

Nate said...

Page 5 and 7 of the new materials; pretty clearly a pond.

Bloomingdale Resident said...

A tiny pond, perhaps, that is just water. On page 15, it looks like the area is primarily rain gardens filled with plants.

Absolutely no resemblance to what was presented to the DC Council.

Jenifer said...

Why more stairs? Why not a gentle sloping ramp for our wheekchair and stroller and walker users? This outdoor designing for able-bodied 22 year olds has to stop! So fed up with VMP!

Jenifer said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Nate said...

The primary park entry is a gentle sloping ramp.