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Photo Tour: Inside LivingSocial’s Awesome New Building in DC

Posted on: February 24th, 2012 by David Garber 5 Comments

Walking into LivingSocial's new live events venue at 918 F Street, NW in Washington, DC, is like walking into a posh hotel. Fashionable concierge, glossy black trim, giant HD screen showing off all that the young company has to offer. But this isn't a new building. Like a lot of creative firms around the country/world (can someone do a study on this please?), LivingSocial chose to place themselves into a historic building.

Built in 1890 for the National Union Insurance Company, the Georgian Romanesque building has sustained many uses and stories over the years (see Ghosts of DC's post on the building), and had been altered at various points - most notably at the storefront and open-air vestibule, which LivingSocial brought back to its original look using drawings and photos from newspaper clippings.

As you probably know, LivingSocial is a web-based company that offers deals on everything from dinners out to house cleanings to mani-pedis. The company recently launched "live event" deals, in which customers can purchase things like cupcake classes with local celebrity chefs, small-venue concert tickets, and photography lessons. This building's interior was restored/redesigned specifically for these live events.

On the inside, the building is a grand mix of very old and very new. One of the coolest features is the original cage elevator - one of the last in DC - now painted a high-gloss black and backlit with blue lights.

More tour and photos after the jump...... Read More →

David Garber

David Garber is the blog editor at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He is a native of Washington, DC, and loves the intersection of preservation, innovation, and sustainability.

An Unexpected Find Along a Well-Worn Route

Posted on: February 24th, 2012 by Priya Chhaya 4 Comments

Yesterday morning I walked to the office along a well-worn route. It's a route I've taken many times before, each building and curb and patio duly noted a hundred times before. When I lived further away, this was the path I would take when I stayed with a friend in the city, but since moving closer in, it’s been less frequently trod.

The grand and very well-preserved Heurich House. (Photo: National Trust for Historic Preservation)

One of the reasons I chose this particular path (aside from distance and directness) was that it ends near the Heurich House, a Victorian home once owned by Christian Heurich, a Washington, DC, brew master. The interior is opulent, boasting a variety of technological marvels, and there is a gated garden in the back that is open for visitors on beautiful spring days. On this particular day, I had just enough time to smile at the building before barreling past.

It was then that I was struck speechless by a sudden jolt of creative happiness, because sometime in the last six months a commissioned mural had gone up across the street.

The colors are vivid, with bright emotion pulling passersby out of whatever day dream in which they're absorbed. You stop, stare. Shift your position to pull you closer to the fence, and stare again.

Peeking through to the mural. (Photo: National Trust for Historic Preservation)

It’s a relatively simple tableau - a toy theater set with a view of two of the first mansions built in the surrounding historic district. Commissioned by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and designed and painted by Peter Waddell and a group of aspiring artists, the mural is an unexpected burst of joy.

Seeing this, however, made me think: What else do I not see amidst the familiar, the well worn, and the everyday? What exactly is it about the built environment that gives me (and I know others feel the same way) that rush of euphoria much like seeing the sun after days of rain?

The full Toy Theatre mural, in all it's vibrant glory. (Photo: National Trust for Historic Preservation)

Over the long weekend my sisters and I talked about place and happiness - about how much where we live and the particular spaces we inhabit affect our moods and contentment. Since we were in New York City, we discussed how for some people the city spurs on creativity and provides excitement, while for others it is often filled with loneliness and a lifestyle that is so fast it’s hard to catch your breath.

We talked about Frank Lloyd Wright and his use of using space to push where we lived out into nature, to have his homes be more organic, or as is the case with Taliesin West, mimic the flow of music - each detail meant to connect, to settle, and to allow us to thrive.

Place is just as important as the people you're with or the job you work in. So next time you’re walking along your well worn route, look to the left instead of the right or look up when you usually stare at the ground. Step over to another side of the street for a new perspective. You might just see something to remind you why this place, this city, this town is a part of your heart.

Priya Chhaya

Priya Chhaya is an Online Content Coordinator in the Preservation Division at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. A public historian at heart, she sees history wherever she goes and believes that it is an important part of the American identity.

Slave to Free: My Family’s History in Montgomery County, MD

Posted on: February 23rd, 2012 by National Trust for Historic Preservation 3 Comments

Written by Jessica Pumphrey

Imagine growing up in the same town where your ancestors once worked as slaves. Then imagine visiting the plantation house, now in ruins, where your ancestors worked and wondering if they ever imagined that one day their family would expand into one of the most accomplished and respected African American families in North America. All while staying in touch with each other and acknowledging the rich history that brought us to this place.

The Howard-Holland reunion of 1992. (Photo: Sandy Spring Museum)

As the 9th generation of the Howard-Holland family in Montgomery County, Maryland, I am honored to know where I came from and the importance of preserving not just my oral history, but also the built history that has been a part of my upbringing from the very beginning.

I grew up in Ashton, Maryland, a small town in the same county where my family’s history was traced back to the early 1800s. We are descendents of Jack and Polly Howard, slaves that worked on the plantations of the Gaithers, Howse, and Griffith families in Montgomery County. Jack and Polly had eight children, one of which - Eliza Howard - is my direct ancestor. The stories about Eliza were that she was a "hard woman" - someone who you didn’t ever want to cross. I’ll never forget the first time I saw her photograph. Let’s just say that from the looks of things, there were no exaggerations.

Of Polly and Jack Howard’s eight children, two brothers decided to escape slavery by following the North Star on the Underground Railroad to Ontario, Canada, where they changed their last name from Howard to Holland. Over the next 100 years, the Howard-Holland family expanded across North America, challenging injustice and discrimination by buying their own freedom, petitioning the local government to build African American schools, making their mark in the Harlem Renaissance, and even founding one of America’s great black newspapers, the Afro-American.

For over 20 years, the descendants of Jack and Polly’s eight children have come together bi-annually for reunions that rotate from Montgomery County to Ontario. During our reunions, we are fortunate enough to visit museums that mention our history, as well as visit sites like the historic Howard Chapel Cemetery in Montgomery County, which was built by my ancestor John Henry Howard in 1889.

As a preservationist, I know the power of saving historic places as a way to bring people together - and not just families, but communities as a whole. Growing up walking the grounds of old plantation houses, visiting museums that included my family history, and even just talking to relatives who have researched these long-ago people and places, I've been inspired to share my history with friends and bring them with me to experience it.

Jessica Pumphrey is the public affairs coordinator at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded non-profit organization, works to save America's historic places.

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Is Miami Marine Stadium the Next High Line?

Posted on: February 21st, 2012 by David Garber

It seems like everyone's talking about "the next High Line." And why not? Who wouldn't want to see the same wild success that the redevelopment of New York City's abandoned elevated rail structure into a unique linear park has brought? What began as an unpopular - to the city, at least - preservation issue has now catapulted into one of the city's top tourist and resident attractions and has sparked over $2 billion in surrounding private investment.

Miami Marine Stadium looking towards the city. (Photo: Vik Cuban on Flickr)

The Miami Marine Stadium, one of our 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2009, is one of those "next cool place" contenders. Built in 1963, the waterfront stadium has many of the same ingredients that the High Line had before getting its green makeover: passionate supporters, urban grit, awesome views, and a distinctive architectural foundation.

Looking up at the stands and the stadium's iconic roofline. (Photo: Vik Cuban on Flickr)

But one of the biggest lessons from the adaptive reuse of the High Line is that it takes more than passion, interest, and big ideas to get massive projects like these off the ground. Unless 100% private funding falls into place, there has to be a marriage of public interest and public funding. Fortunately for Miami, that marriage is already producing results.

Significant work would need to be done to bring the stadium to any modern use. (Photo: Vik Cuban on Flickr)

This past weekend, The Miami Herald featured a story on Friends of the High Line founder Robert Hammond's visit to Miami Marine Stadium and what needs to happen to bring this project to life:

Not coincidentally, Hammond’s visit came at a critical moment for the four-year-old marine stadium campaign, which has proceeded in fits and starts. Activists have succeeded in saving the 1963 structure from the wrecking ball, won historic landmark protection for it and generated worldwide admiration for its still-dazzling architecture and engineering.

Leaders of the nonprofit Friends group had hoped to also formally announce an agreement with the city granting the organization the right to undertake the stadium’s renovation, but that has been delayed amid disagreement over details of the deal.

Last year, stadium supporters were ready to walk away in frustration over what they said in a letter were “obstacles’’ imposed by the city, but they now say the deal should be approved soon by the city commission.

The agreement would give the Friends organization, an offshoot of Dade Heritage Trust, two years to raise an estimated $30 million to renovate the stadium, shuttered by the city in 1992 after it was damaged by Hurricane Andrew. Worth said the group has secured more than $10 million of that, including $3 million in public funds.

“The advocacy battle has been won, and we’re at the cusp of the next stage,’’ Friends co-founder Don Worth said. “Now we have to do it.’’

Read the full article "Can the Miami Marine Stadium become the next High Line phenom?" to learn more and see pictures of Hammond's visit to the site.

David Garber is the blog editor at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

David Garber

David Garber is the blog editor at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He is a native of Washington, DC, and loves the intersection of preservation, innovation, and sustainability.

Thompson Falls High Bridge: National Preservation Award Winner

Posted on: February 16th, 2012 by National Trust for Historic Preservation

Nominations are now open for the 2012 Richard H. Driehaus National Preservation Awards. We’ll be highlighting a few of our favorites from last year here on the blog to give you a sense of what’s won in the past, and hope to see some of your projects here when the winners are announced at the 2012 National Preservation Conference in Spokane, Washington, on November 2!

Thompson Falls High Bridge – Thompson Falls, Montana
2011 Honor Award

Spanning 588 feet between the towns of Cherry Creek and Island Park, Montana, the 80-foot high Parker-Pratt-style Thompson Falls High Bridge has connected two remote communities on opposite shores of the Clark Fork River for nearly 70 years. The structure remained a local link until it was closed to motorized traffic in the early 1970s due to significant deterioration of the wood deck. The bridge was closed to bicycle and pedestrian access in 1979.

For the next 30 years, county leaders patiently saved Transportation Enhancement funding and secured federal, state and private grants, while rallying local support by forming a "Bridge the Gap" steering committee. The bridge was finally renovated during the winter of 2009 and 2010, and is now open once again for pedestrian and bike access between the neighboring towns.

Each year the National Trust for Historic Preservation celebrates the best of preservation by presenting the Richard H. Driehaus National Preservation Awards to individuals and organizations whose contributions demonstrate excellence in historic preservation. We invite you to nominate a deserving individual, organization, agency, or project for a Richard H. Driehaus National Preservation Award. The nomination deadline for all awards is March 15, 2012.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded non-profit organization, works to save America's historic places.