notes about the idea of decking over North Capitol Street

The neighborhood resident spearheading the effort to deck over part of North Capitol Street between Bloomingdale and Eckington is Thaddeus Thaler.

He provided an update at this past Monday's Bloomingdale Civic Association meeting held at St. George's Episcopal Church.

He has kindly provided his notes:

After gaining ZGF Architects managing partner support last week, the head office in Portland has officially allocated the 102 hours. That is, our application for pro bono services provided by ZGF has been approved. This effort is part of the 1+ Program that ZGF uses to give design services to back to communities. Every office within ZGF has a set number of pro bono hours to facilitate these projects. As non-profits reach out to ZGF, an application can be made by the non-profit and ZGF staff involved in order to secure the hours for services. The services that ZGF will provide are Architectural Design Services (typical Design services that an architectural firm will provide, i.e. Programming, schematic design, etc.) and Capital Campaign Materials to help strategize funding that we would need to petition for (funders are more likely to support a project they can visualize and get excited about by understanding what the project will look like, how it will impact the space, and what it will cost).

The hourly breakdown of pro bono services to be provided is as follows, and we will have two ZGF representatives working on the project (one of whom lives on Crispus Attucks Park):

Design Services: Programming, Architectural Design Services, Consultation, Capital Campaign Materials Consultation, Preliminary vision and program development, public presentation – 12 Hours

Illustratives of the OverDeck – 46 Hours
Illustrative Plans of the Overdeck – 20 hours
Corridor Diagram Plan – 20 Hours
Lean in – 4 Hours

ZGF has a rich history of giving and is committed to supporting the clients and communities we serve through financial contributions, in-kind donations and volunteerism. Our pillars of giving have focused on the arts and architecture, education, health and wellness, community services [social services, business and civic organizations] and sustainability. In 2014, understanding that time is the most precious currency in today’s world, ZGF partnered with The 1+ program of Public Architecture (formerly 1% program), offering design professionals an opportunity to address the most challenging problems their communities’ face, by pledging their working hours to pro bono design services.

The initial site survey to officially begin the pro bono services is scheduled to take place around noon on October 27, 2018. A community conversation with ZGF representatives to share ideas for the deck over is being planned. Stay tuned!                       

A motion was made to proceed.  The motion was seconded.  The motion passed 21 to 0.