See the first few paragraphs from this post at the DC Metro Urban Diary (DC MUD) blog regarding the M M Washington School at 27 O Street NW.
So it looks like the school will be developed into affordable senior housing + some community space.
M.M. Washington Goes to Urban Matters and Mission First
Posted by Shaun on 3/15/2010 04:40:00 PM
[http://dcmud.blogspot.com/2010/03/mm-washington-goes-to-urban-matters-and.html]
Today D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty made the not-entirely-surprising announcement that the winning group to redevelop the M.M. Washington Career High School at 27 O Street N.W. will be a team made up of Urban Matters, Mission First Development, Mt. Lebanon Community Development Corporation and Square 134 Architects. Responses to the RFP for M.M. Washington, one of many excess schools offered up in 2009, were due March 27, 2009. The winning team submitted one of only two responses; the other coming from the Cultural Development Corporation (CuDC).
The school will be developed into 90+ units of affordable senior housing, The House of Lebanon, and 15,000 s.f. of community space with an estimated project cost of $25 to $30 million. CuDC`s project would have brought mixed-use office and artists` studios to the neighborhood.
Also involved in the 94,000 s.f. project is the Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church, which sits just a few blocks away from the project site and is part of the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN). WIN also received the development rights for the Dix Street properties recently. Fenty reminisced about WIN saying the group “has come a long way“since he first began meeting with them, adding that WIN is now a “full-fledged community partner and developer.“
The story here may be more in what will not be developed. The CuDC`s plan is similar to the RFP the group released seeking development partners to build arts-oriented projects to catalyze neighborhood development. When reached for comment this morning about the pending announcement in favor of the opposing team, Anne Corbett, Executive Director for CuDC, had some revelations about the project. CuDC had not heard anything formally from DMPED`s office about the RFP application in almost six months, and Corbett said she was “frustrated that a media advisory went out“ without the District notifying her she had lost the bid. Oops.
Corbett described the project her team submitted as a mix of artists studios and creative commercial office spaces for “folks craving something with a rougher, more industrial aesthetic with more affordable price tags.“ Significant about the arts project, Corbett added, was that it required only an initial seed contribution from the District government, but would not need “ongoing public subsidy. “It was a sustainable plan,“ explained Corbett, that would have created “a fair amount of tax revenue [for] the District; but apparently that was not the preference.“
Click on the DCMUD blog link above to read the entire blog entry.
So what do you think of this announcement?
Bates Area Civic Association 
Fenty FAIL. This will contribute little–if anything–to the community. It also ignores the community’s clear wish not to have more low-income housing on top of the many social services already located here. Very frustrating and another major setback for hopes to revitalize N Capitol St.
Disappointing but unfortunately not surprising.
There is another issue that may delay this project however. Dunbar is scheduled to be demolished in 2012. The city may be using the local schools as swing schools to house the Dunbar students until the new school is finished. Let’s see how this plays out.
as a believer in sustainable plans, tax revenue for the city, a local artist, a huge supporter of the work of Anne Corbett and the CuDC, i’m very disappointed.