Hine Junior High Site
Note: Stanton-Eastbanc Developers have created a website for the Hine Project with links to the design, HPRB submissions, etc. Click on this address: http://www.hineschool.com/
Other documents:
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OVERVIEW OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION REVIEW
BOARD
PROCESS
Comments at April 5 Meeting of Presentation of Hine School
Plans
• Up to this point the chief city
player in the
Hine School redevelopment process has been the Office
of the
Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development which
issued the
Request For Proposals, selected the developer, and
negotiated the
agreement. That office will keep watch on the
project as it
progresses. The City Council approved the
selection of the
developer and the agreement.
• The project moves now to consideration
by the
city’s Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) since the
site is
within the Capitol Hill Historic District. The
Zoning
Commission will consider the project later to address the
rezoning
request, Planned Unit Development issues
http://bit.ly/e7WuE2 , and
other zoning-related matters.
• Because this is new construction rather
than an
alteration of an existing building, the HPRB will focus on
the
compatibility of the project with the character of the
historic
district as it conducts its review. The city’s
Guideline on New
Construction in Historic Districts explains some of the
terms and
concepts that are applicable in considering projects.
The
Guideline was written using a single building in a historic
district as
the example. Since the Hine project deals with
many
buildings and a site plan, this is much more complex than
the example
given but concepts such as scale, proportion,
setback,
rhythm, size, height, materials remain relevant.
• This is a concept review which allows
for a
discussion about the direction of the project – its general
architectural expression, the site plan, massing – before
the
applicants commit to the expensive detailed permit
drawings. It
is an opportunity for the HPRB to understand the project, to
consider
the historic preservation issues involved, to hear comments
from the
community, and then to help shape the project to meet the
criteria for
compatibility.
The way it all works:
• What we will see this evening will
be
essentially what the HPRB will be discussing on the
28th.
Everyone will be on the same page, so that when you read the
staff
report later this month, you can relate it to the drawings
or if you
send in comments to the HPRB, members can relate those
comments to the
plans. I understand the Hine School website will
be updated
Thursday the 7th so that everyone will be able to study the
same set of
plans.
• The next city deadline is Wednesday,
April 20,
which is the date by which the city’s Historic
Preservation
Office must receive letters if they are to be included in
the Board
packets which are sent to HPRB members a week before their
meeting and
includes relevant information on each case. A
representative of
an ANC or other organization as well as community members
are also
welcome to give brief comments at the meeting.
On the CHRS
website there is a document titled “Tips for
Presentations”. It gives hints about comments
delivered in
person at hearings but the advice is also relevant to
letters.
• Expect that a staff report and
timed agenda
will be posted on the Historic Preservation Office website
(http://preservation.dc.gov), likely some time on Friday,
April
22. The staff report summarizes information about the
project,
frames the historic preservation issues, and makes
recommendations. It provides the basis for HPRB
discussion.
• Since the Board will be looking for
compatibility
with the character of the historic district, the context
becomes more
than simply the buildings immediately next to the
project.
Capitol Hill is a very diverse historic district and
development
patterns throughout the historic district are
relevant. The Board will also probably be
aware of a
number of goals included in the city’s Comprehensive Plan
which talks
about transit-oriented development and affordable
housing as well
as protecting the character of the historic
district. These
are all, to some degree, part of the discussion.
• At HPRB’s April 28
meeting there
will probably be an emphasis on the “big picture” items --
design
principles such as the site plan, setbacks, orientation,
scale,
massing, height and general architectural
expression. The
Board may indicate areas that need to be restudied as well
as areas
that it feels are moving in the right direction.
• Topics such as loss of light and air,
parking, and
traffic are zoning issues and are not part of the Historic
Preservation
law so, as important as they are, the HPRB does not address
those
issues but they will be considered by the Zoning Commission.
• After the HPRB provides its feedback at
the April
28 meeting, the developers and their design team will
study,
reconsider, react to the Board’s comments, and refine the
project
before bringing it back to the HPRB for further
consideration, most
likely in June.
• At some point, the Board will be
satisfied with the
shape, general direction and architectural expressions
of the
project and will approve the concept as consistent
with the
Historic Preservation Act, with details and final approval
delegated to
the staff. And then the project moves to the Zoning
Commission.
Nancy Metzger
Chair, Historic Preservation Committee
HINE SCHOOL MEETING DATES AND CONTACT INFORMATION
March
30,
2011
HINE SCHOOL SITE DEVELOPMENT:
The
Compatibility Question
With the formal submission of plans to the Historic
Preservation Review Board (HPRB) by the development team of
Stanton-Eastbanc,
the redevelopment of the Hine School site at Seventh and
Pennsylvania
SE enters
a new phase – review of the proposal for compatibility with
the
character of the
Capitol Hill Historic District. It
is
important to remember that the current proposal is only the
first
iteration and
will certainly evolve as the HPRB considers this concept.
After HPRB has given conceptual approval, the
project must go through the zoning review process before the
Zoning
Commission.
HPRB’s attention in initial review will
likely be focused on the larger-scale elements of the project
– site
plan, general
architectural character, massing, setback from the street,
scale and
height. If past experience
guides, the
project will return to the Board as these elements are refined
in
response to
comments and as other design features that affect
compatibility are
included, such
as materials, color, proportion, rhythm, details,
ornamentation and
landscape
features. In addition to
welcoming the
comments of the ANC and other community groups, the Historic
Preservation
Review Board appreciates the perspectives of individuals as
well. The Board’s decisions are
informed by the
city’s Historic Preservation Law, associated Guidelines, a
project’s
specific
context, and the Secretary of the
Interior’s Standards. (Standard
#9 is
particularly relevant in this case.) Input
from
citizens is a part of the process.
Because a community and a city do not often have the challenge
of
redeveloping such a large area in the middle of an established
historic
district, CHRS is devoting this section of its web site to
helping its
members and other residents understand and participate in the
review
process. You will find links to a number of
resources, such
as :
Based on phone calls and conversations with residents over
the past several weeks, we feel many people have questions
about the
Historic
Preservation review process, particularly for this large
project that
will also
be considered later by the Zoning Commission as a Planned Unit
Development
(PUD). We would like to address
some of
those questions and will keep adding more
information to this site.
Finally,
as always, CHRS encourages its members to contact us with your
questions and
thoughts [CapHRS@aol.com; 202-543-0425].
March 30, 2011
CHANGING CAPITOL HILL:
What
Does the History of the Capitol Hill Historic District
Tell Us about
Compatibility?
New
construction
in
a
historic
district
has
a difficult mandate to
meet: it must be “compatible with the character of the
historic
district” without
necessarily duplicating existing buildings.
It must respect its particular environment while
contributing a
sense of
its own time. DC’s historic
districts
aren’t meant to be embalmed at a certain point in time, yet
their
significant
historic, cultural and physical attributes must be protected
and
enhanced. One of the basic
requirements in
compatibility is demonstrating an understanding of the
context of the
project,
whether the context is simply a few neighboring buildings,
several
blocks of a
historic district, or an entire neighborhood.
For a project the size of the Hine School site,
looking at the
development of the neighborhood is an important element in
understanding the neighborhood
context.
About
five years ago,
in considering a project in the 1200 block of Pennsylvania
Avenue,
CHRS’s
Historic Preservation Committee looked at the development
along the
Avenue, not
only what still remains but also what had been taken down.
It was a vivid reminder that what we now know
as the Capitol Hill Historic District has been constantly
changing, not
only in
size of buildings but also in styles of buildings.
The “contemporary” buildings of the 1880s
were the bay-fronted Queen Anne houses or the Romanesque
Revival house
with a
tower. They replaced the
“contemporary”
flat-front
Italianate and the side-gable “federal” buildings of earlier
decades. By 1910 and 1920,
Wardman-style porch-front
houses celebrated the latest “contemporary” styles and were
built both
as
single houses and in long rows. Large
apartment
houses
joined the mix, as well as department stores and movie
theaters.
By
taking a look at
Pennsylvania Avenue both now and through old maps,
particularly the
1903
Sanborn map (http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl;
see
Vol.2,
images
83,
84,
114-116),
we can gain a sense of the
neighborhood’s
changes over time. The
Pennsylvania
Avenue spine through the historic district is a sort of
accordion-like
presence
all along the avenue with the sides of the avenue compressed
in places
by row
houses, stores, and apartments built close to the avenue and
then,
where other
avenues intersect, open space and longer vistas appear.
Some
of
the
most
iconic
buildings
of
the
nation
form the backdrop of our
community and
provide a dramatic contrast to the Historic District.
Many
of the residential blocks
closest to the
Capitol were totally cleared as new buildings were built for
the
Capitol
complex. Included in the sweep
of
demolition were both early Federal houses and later larger
buildings
such as
the Butler Mansion, which was a
four-story granite duplex mansion that stood next to the
equally
imposing three-story
Coast and Geodetic Survey building at Independence [then
known as B
Street] and
New Jersey avenues, SE.
This
is
one
of
the
blocks
of
green that open up
along Pennsylvania Avenue where a diagonal avenue – in this
case North
Carolina
Avenue – crosses Pennsylvania. Stately
three-story
Victorian-era
houses predominate, used mostly for dwellings.
Today, there is later infill on the north of four-story apartment buildings and
on the
south another apartment house and a modern church with
spire. An 1890s red-brick
church sits on a high hill
and contributes its own presence in the SW corner of the
square.
3. 600
Block of Pennsylvania Avenue:
Another one of
the “open
stretches” where, in 1903, the
four-block
square of park (reservations)
bisected by both Pennsylvania and South Carolina avenues
provided a
green setting
for Wallach School, Towers School, and Eastern High School.
When built in 1864 facing
Pennsylvania Avenue
between 7th and 8th, Wallach School
was the
city’s first
modern school building, large enough for 600 students.
Designed by Adolph Cluss, architect of
Eastern Market, and his partner Joseph Kammerheuber, the
building had
ten
classrooms with 15-foot ceilings and innovative ventilation
techniques. (Following 19th
century practice,
boys and girls had separate classrooms.)
Towers School was built in 1887 on the NE corner (8th
& C
streets) of the same square and Eastern High School was
built on the NW
corner
(7th & C streets) in 1892.
These two were combined to form the first Hine Junior
High
School in
1929. All three historic
schools were
demolished c. 1950 and replaced by the present Hine Junior
High School
and
playgrounds. Interestingly, the four-story wing of Hine
stands at 58’,
which is
a little lower than the roof height of the three-story
Eastern High
School was.
Elegant two-
and three-story tall houses line D Street along the north
side of the
park
square; the Grace Baptist Church and two-story houses are on
the east,
and two-
and three-story buildings used
mostly as
dwellings in 1903 make the southern boundary.
In 1922, the Southeast Library was built on the high
ground to
the west
and around the same time the three-story red-brick building
at the SW
corner of
7th and Pennsylvania was replaced by a one-story
Art Deco
Peoples
Drug Store. The four-story
Haines
Department Store, built in 1892, occupies the SE corner of 8th
and
Pennsylvania. The most dramatic
change,
apart from the demolition of the Adoph Cluss-designed
Wallach School
and the
other school buildings, was the closing of South Carolina
Avenue from 7th
to 9th and the building of the Eastern Market
Metro station,
transforming relatively quiet, leafy green spaces into open
plazas
bustling
with residents, commuters and visitors using the Metro,
buses, bikes,
and taxis.
Opposite the
1866 Naval
Hospital (900 block) was a row of 14 two-story
bay-front houses while in the 1000 block there was a row of
13
three-story buildings,
both flat-front and bay front. These
two
blocks remain much the same as they were in 1903, except for
Butterfield
House, a five-story condo at the corner of 11th,
that
recently
replaced a Shell station which had earlier replaced five of
the
three-story buildings,
returning that corner to approximately the same height as it
was a
century ago.
The Amoco station on the south, just west of the
hospital, occupies the site of a very early tavern, which
later became
a
substantial private home and garden and then a beer garden
before it
was torn
down.
TIPS
FOR PRESENTATIONS BEFORE THE
COUNCIL, BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS
1.
Maximize
your
effectiveness
by submitting a pre-hearing statement
outlining your positions and concerns. You can
elaborate at a
hearing with illustrations or other material.
However, if the
materials that you are presenting are complex, commission,
board and
council members often appreciate more time to become
familiar with them
before a hearing. Also, at some hearings there may
be a time
limit of 2 – 3 minutes, so you may not be able to say
everything.
2.
Be specific
about the issues that are troublesome. Don’t expect
a board or
commission member to know what you mean when you say,
“It’s just so
ugly. I don’t want to see that every morning.”
“It’s just
too #@% big” is also not very helpful. They can’t
respond to such
vague comments and need you to be more specific about your
concerns. For example, “It would be three stories
taller than any
other building in the historic district” or “The proposed
addition is
twice as large as the existing house” would give them a
context for
your concern.
3. Use photographs or
other
illustrations to help you make your points when
possible.
Sometimes it is difficult to explain exactly what your
concerns are,
what similar projects you think are successful, or
what elements
of a building should be re-studied. You don’t have
to propose a
solution but you do need to be as precise as possible
about the
problem.
4. Be civil.
Board members
can’t solve outstanding neighborhood quarrels.
Personal
attacks on applicants or other parties simply makes people
nervous and
uncomfortable, undercutting your effectiveness.
5. Know the types of
issues that a
board or commission may address. It’s no use talking
to the
Historic Preservation Review Board about parking, traffic
concerns, or
intended uses. Likewise, the Zoning Commission does
not consider
architectural style or façade materials.
6. Be aware that there may be a time
limit on
comments so that everyone can speak. Boards,
commissions, and
council members welcome comments from an individual
presenting the
comments of a group and sometimes allow such a
representative a
few more minutes. It is important to emphasize
your most
important points first but you may also wish to associate
yourself with
comments made by others, freeing time to highlight other
considerations. Avoid simply repeating what
has already
been said.
(Adapted
from Tips for Presentations distributed at
“Contemporary and Compatible: A
Symposium
on
Contextual Modern Design in Historic Neighborhoods”
sponsored by the
Historic
Districts Coalition, Historic Preservation Office and
National Trust
for
Historic Preservation in March 2009)
July
2008
Second
Community
Meeting:
The
Future
of Hine Junior High Site
Please join me for our second community meeting and conversation about the future of the Hine Jr. High site. At our first meeting, over 200 neighbors attended to share their ideas and priorities in creating a shared vision for the future use of this site. You can read a summary report of this first meeting by visiting my website: http://www.tommywells.org/content/view/404/30/.
A significant number of residents highlighted both a need to create useable green and open space, as well as integrate any future redevelopment with our Historic Eastern Market and adjacent Metro station. For our 2nd community meeting, I’ve arranged for a presentation and discussion on Eastern Market Metro Plaza redevelopment plans, followed by a discussion to help us refine the list of community amenities and priorities you generated at our earlier meeting.
Because of Hine’s closure and the building being vacated, our meeting will be held at nearby Tyler Elementary (more details below). And as before, we will be joined by representatives from the District’s Office of Planning, Deputy Mayor for Education, and Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development.
2nd Community Meeting: The
Future of Hine Junior
High Site
Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 7:00 - 8:30 pm
Tyler Elementary School Auditorium, 1001 G Street, SE
I appreciate your continued input in shaping how we move forward. If you have any questions about this meeting, please feel free to give me a call at 202-724-8072.
Tommy Wells, Councilmember, Ward 6
June
2008
Hine
Junior
High
Site
Meeting
Results
by Gary Peterson
The community meeting on the future use of Hine Junior High
School,
hosted by Councilmember Tommy Wells, took place on April 30,
2008.
Although no official count was made, there were over 100
people
present. Neil Albert, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic
Development, attended the meeting. Wells made a brief
statement about
the closing of Hine and asked for ideas for what to do with
the site.
The audience was then divided into small working groups to
propose
ideas for the use of the site. Each group was then asked to
report on
its recommendations.
Several points of consensus were clear from the reports:
Accompanying this story is a draft plan
that achieves some of
the ideas. This does not reflect all of the ideas, nor is it
a final
decision or recommendation. There will soon be another
community
meeting to discuss the next actions regarding the site.
March
2008
CHRS Endorses Guidelines for Use of Hine School Site
School Closure Announced
by Gary Peterson
CHRS has joined ANC6B in attempting to insure that the
future use of
the Hine School site is compatible with the neighborhood and
that those
responsible for making that decision take into account the
concerns of
the community.
On February 1, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Chancellor Michelle Rhee announced the final school closure recommendations. In Ward 6, three schools are on the final list of recommended closures; Hine Junior High School is the only Capitol Hill school slated to be closed. On the same day, Councilmember Tommy Wells announced his support for the school closures and asked community organizations to make recommendations as to the future use of the Hine site. ANC6B quickly passed a resolution stating that any future use of the site should match the scale and character of the surrounding neighborhood and include community amenities.
At the February 19 board meeting, the CHRS Board passed the following resolution:
“CHRS supports the closing and then demolition of Hine School and development of the site in coordination with the Town Center development of the Eastern Market Metro Plaza. Making Eastern Market Metro the town square connecting Seventh and Eighth Streets will link the Natatorium and the Eastern Market on the North with the Navy Yard on the South. Any development of the Hine site must be consistent with the character of the Capitol Hill Historic District and must respect existing heights, density and uses. Any development proposal should:
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