Art History 101: Paintings Record Our Changing Neighborhood

Brett Busang's "Steep Stair, 3rd Street," left, and "Along 3rd" were painted on the west side of the 1000 block of Third Street in Northeast Washington.

The Washington Post Magazine featured neighborhood artist Brett Busang in an article last Sunday. Formerly a resident of Richmond, he had his studio open during last October's Greater Capitol Hill Artwalk.

"For Busang, who has spent much of his career painting pictures of neglected structures, the sight of old buildings being dismantled was troubling, but also tempting. He began portraying the boarded-up buildings, their piece-by-piece demolition and the gaps they left behind. Over the course of a few months last year, he created almost a dozen views of the blocks around Third and K, often in a race against demolition."

One house (pictured in the article, not online) "was torn down less than a week after he painted it. He admits there's an element of nostalgia to his work, and he wishes the buildings could have been preserved. 'Things that are old get this interesting patina, these layers. The notion that they've lasted gives them a certain stature,' he says. Besides, he just prefers the way old houses look: Back then, 'they built buildings with more organic materials. They took bricks out of the earth,' he says."

The project that the Cohen Companies intend to build on this site is discussed in "Developer's patience pays off with Union Place." (Note that in order to proceed, the developer must renew the PUD zoning for this project. The developer has petitioned the Board of Zoning Adjustment to move forward.)

From the plans I've seen, the project is nothing special (meaning not a high-quality site plan with middling attention to urban design principles), and the community amenities that were negotiated 13 years ago when this project was first proposed are out-of-date compared to the neighborhood's current circumstances.

In "Complex Brings Work, Shops Close to Home" this article from the Washington Post demonstrates that the Cohen Companies are capable of quality work, even if this article shows that they have to be forced into it. The project in our neighborhood, north of the $125-150 million Senate Square Project from Abdo Development, two blocks from the New York Avenue-Florida Avenue-Gallaudet University Metro station, across the street from a 300 unit condominium project, and kitty corner from a 40 unit condo project, is worth doing right.

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A broad social and cultural history of the H Street neighborhood was written by architectural historian Nancy Schwartz with the assistance of Donna Hanousek, Lee Rogers, and others. This document was published as a series of articles in Voice of the Hill.

The history study was sponsored by Near Northeast Citizens, adminstered by Richard Layman, and funded through the Historic Preservation Office of the DC Office of Planning, from the Federal Historic Preservation Fund, with additional financial support from the Capitol Hill Restoration Society. (The Society, primarily through the willing assistance of Nancy Metzger, also has provided a great deal of valuable technical advice on neighborhood preservation issues.)

The next phase of the study, which will document individual buildings, should begin sometime this spring. People interested in volunteering should contact Richard Layman.