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Friday, April 20, 2012

Envision McMillan website just announced

See this brief message from Teri Janine Quinn, President, Bloomingdale Civic Association:
 

The developers put together a website that includes information pertaining to the current development plan for McMillan.

Here's the site: http://www.envisionmcmillan.com

 
 

6 comments:

  1. First impression: Busy website - lots of clicking around - had hoped to find the whole plan to flip through. One of the first pages I clicked on had a picture of Adams Morgan - not a great sales pitch for me. Guess it could have been worse and had a pic of Columbia Heights' DC USA.

    Is there any historical information there, or just references to the fact that it is historic? What did Traceries provide?

    Sorry, Scott et al, but a link to this blog does not really tell that much about the neighborhood.

    Hope to see lots of people at the meeting Saturday afternoon!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, the plans shows that the developers know what good ideas should be included...(except the references to Columbia Heights!) but with in fact very little commitment to anything. This document is just blah blah blah...just marketing for the company. Just because we know what good ideas should be included does not mean that anything remotely like this will be funded or constructed. Further, the architecture proposed is lackluster...boring, boring, boring.... All the character of every other suburban neo strip mall erected in the past 15 years in Shirlington, Bethesda (they even show Bethesda Row). Come on people...this site doesn't deserve the same old fancy strip mall crap....can't we show the way to something better?

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  2. I suspect that this new website will get more meat added to it soon.

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  3. here's a pdf of the plan
    http://envisionmcmillan.lamp1.merricktowle.com/sites/default/files/Conceptual_Plan.pdf

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  4. Thanks for the link - I saw that page, but I was hoping to see the whole plan - a copy of the plan they gave to MAG members last month - that I could scroll or flip through. Did you find that? Maybe they will have more info at the Saturday afternoon meeting. After all this time, it seems like there should be more meat - unless this is a vegan McMillan. sorry

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  5. I posted the news about the new www.EnvisionMcMillan website at the Historic Washington list at Yahoogroups. There has been two responses, which I am pasting here:

    1) Re: [HistoricWashington] Website for McMillan development plans

    One doesn`t ``develop`` a park designed by the Olmsted firm, one restores and maintains it. Can anyone think of another city in the nation that would fence off an Olmsted Park for 60 years and then talk about paving it over with buildings?

    Mary Farrell McCoy

    2) Website for McMillan development plans
    Posted by: ``Tania Jackson`` create_communitas @ yahoo.com create_communitas
    Sat Apr 21, 2012 9:38 am (PDT)

    As many on this list know, I`m a consultant to the Vision McMillan Partners on this project.

    In point of fact the site in question is the Sand Filtration site. The ``park`` where people had access prior to World War II was on the adjacent reservoir site, which is owned by the federal government and remains closed to public access, with no plans for opening any time soon. The Sand Filtration site was always a plant for water processing, and never in use as a park. Olmstead designed a natural walk around it, but there was never actually access to it.

    It is sad that it`s taken this long (since the purchase of the site by the District Government) to come up with a viable plan for development. What`s great is that the plan is more open space than built environment, and includes several public park places--large and small--that would give everyone access to the site. McMillan is a jewel in the heart of the city and deserves to be treated as such. I hope people will participate in our meeting series to understand more about what is proposed and how the project will look upon completion.

    Tania B. Jackson
    Create Communitas Consulting
    1124 Columbia Road, NW
    Washington, DC 20009
    (202) 355 then 8998

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