It's not all failure, sometimes there are victories...

A colleague always bugs me with the question, "well what do you accomplish?" One of the problems in having creative thinking capabilities is that you're ahead of the curve. Now I don't think I am all that original, but I am pretty good at synthesis and coming up with new directions., based on linking a wider variety of disciplines.

Anyway/1, I figure I touch hundreds of thousands of Canadian families subscribing to the Nutrition Action Healthletter. After all, the Canadian edition was my idea, even if it took the organization 6 years to do it--after I left--and now they make a couple million/year from it. That's just one itty bitty idea.

Anyway/2, I was dealing with this mathematician -- he got his PhD from Harvard at 19 -- involved in the computing industry, in the early 1990s, just as the multimedia web was coming to be. He wanted me to work with him, but I thought his idea was too diffuse. Now he didn't execute it, Sergey Brin and Larry Page did, but he had the idea to create something just like what Google is and is becoming -- just think how things could have been different for my wallet.

Hochemeyer Hall, 719 6th Street NW, Washington, DC. Photo by Peter Sefton.

This building was set to be demolished in favor of a Trammell Crow development. While a determination of eligibility was made that this building could be worthy of desgination, DC doesn't have a formal process that responds to such determinations. The buildings weren't included in the Downtown Historic District. Because of this, DC Preservation League didn't want to push a nomination to save the building, fearing that their "credibility" could be damaged--"if the building is so great, why isn't in the historic district already?"

But Peter Sefton felt differently and researched the building, which has a pretty fascinating history. It was a social hall and a center of activity for the German-American community centered in the East End of Downtown. Later it served as a labor hall and a location for various political organizations. The building is a great place to tell the story of the role of social halls in developing the once thriving participatory democracy based around associational connections that Tocqueville and others wrote about. (I wrote a short paper on this in association with the landmark nomination for this building. I hope Peter has a copy because I can't find mine.)

So Peter and others prepared a historic landmark nomination. DCPL agreed to file it. While the building has been saved, the nomination was pulled through negotiations. This allowed for things to happen to the building--including building above it, and punching a garage entrance into it--which wouldn't be approved had the building been designated.

Anyway/3, I just learned that the United German American Committee has purchased the building, and will bring it back as a center for German-American community. This was actually suggested to Trammell Crow by one of the ANC6C Planning and Zoning Committee members, in one of the hearings on this. She never got a commission, but she did make a difference.

The ANC didn't vote in favor of a nomination, but they didn't vote against it, either. It was a tie. That in itself was a victory since a "no" vote is "bad." And of course, EHT Traceries was retained to write a report that said the building had no historic merit. Read Peter Sefton's write-up about Hockemeyer Hall here, and see if you agree.

Anyway/4, there can be failure in victory because this is what Trammell Crow did on their next development site a few blocks away. They tore off the facades of eligible for designation buildings--calling it an "alteration"--to prevent the filing of landmark nominations. The buildings could have been moved. I can't prove it, but I am sure that Trammell Crow received wiley advice on this course of action from their land use lawyers...

439 Massachusetts Avenue NW -- After

439 Massachusetts Avenue NW -- Before