RSS FeedPlay With Your Food
This weekend, stop by the National Building Museum (401 F St., NW) and check out Canstruction. The international event has teams of local engineering, design and construction experts working with canned food to build intricate structures for awards and bragging rights. This year’s theme is “Play With Your Food.” Be sure to contribute your vote for the People’s Choice award. Finished structures will be on display until September 5. All canned goods are then donated to Capital Area Food Bank.
In other news, congratulations to Rose’s Luxury for being named the #1 restaurant in America by Bon Appetit. We ate there last week and enjoyed some of the most interesting and innovative food, like the sausage and lychee salad pictured above.
900 G St NW Looking Fine & Other Commercial Real Estate News
The 900 G St NW office building development (photo above) is looking fine these days as construction proceeds apace and workers have almost all of the glass facade in place. This morning they were putting glass onto the eastern face of the building. This building replaces the former YWCA building and while we lament the loss of the onsite swimming pool, we hope that a good retail tenant makes their home on the ground floor. Here’s the direct link to the photo gallery and the fly through video.
In other commercial real estate news:
- 600 Massachusetts Ave broke ground. This 400k square foot Gould development will go up on one of the last flat top parking lots in the area. Here’s the dedicated website link. [Downtown DC BID]
- Phillip Kennicott, the Washington Post’s architecture critic, reviews CityCenter. We agree with him about the public plaza aspect of the project. [WaPo]
- The Gospel Rescue Mission building at 808-810 5th Street won’t become high end condos. It will remain functioning as a shelter leased to DC’s Department of Human Services to provide temporary shelter, transitional housing, and supporting services. [Wash Business Journal]
- The MLK Central Library is on the hunt for space where it can temporarily operate during its upcoming renovation. [Wash Business Journal]
Robin Williams’ Portrait Added To National Portrait Gallery
We were saddened to hear about Robin Williams’ death this week. The tragic passing of a very gifted comedian and entertainer also shone a light on mental illness and more recently on Parkinson’s disease reviving the conversation once more about how a community gets help to those in need of health services.
We also learned that the National Portrait Gallery (8th and F St NW) added Williams’ portrait to the National Portrait Gallery on August 12. The notice follows:
Robin Williams’ Portrait Installed Today at the National Portrait Gallery
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery will install a photograph of celebrated American comedian and actor Robin Williams today. The work will be on view in the first-floor gallery where the museum memorializes the passing and celebrates the lives of people represented in the museum’s collection. The photograph was taken for Time magazine by Michael Dressler in 1979.
Williams was a madcap genius in performances of all types of entertainment, from stand-up to feature films. Known initially as a comedian, he surprised with his ability to play serious dramatic roles. His breakthrough came in the 1970s TV comedy Mork and Mindy; as the alien Mork, much of Williams’ dialogue was improvised, as would be the case in most of his comedic roles. Once established, Williams worked tirelessly in show business, going on to appear in many feature films, including Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993); he won an Oscar for his role as the psychologist in Good Will Hunting (1997). He played Teddy Roosevelt in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009). He also did voiceover work in animated films and returned to television with The Crazy Ones (2013-14).
National Portrait Gallery
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery tells the history of America through the individuals who have shaped its culture. Through the visual arts, performing arts and new media, the Portrait Gallery portrays poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists whose lives tell the American story.The National Portrait Gallery is part of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture at Eighth and F streets N.W., Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Information: (202) 633-1000.
Plan B Burger
Permit signage is up and there’s clearly build-out work going on inside, but what’s the plan for Plan B Burger’s opening in Market Square? Last we had heard, it was going to open in May. Any inquiring minds have the scoop?