Tempers, Tensions Rise Over Ellington Project

Summer is coming to Georgetown, school terms are ending and things are heating up. Tempers and tensions, if not temperatures (so far), are rising along with the stunning new Duke Ellington School for the Arts, encompassing an entire block at 35th and R Streets. The project is seriously behind schedule and coming in more than double its intended budget of $78 million. After more than three years of construction, the new Duke Ellington is scheduled to be completed by the end of July, with move-in in August.

There are no more construction extension options left, said Ed Solomon, a Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner. That’s because the Ellington-displaced students must move out of their temporary digs at Meyer Elementary School across town. Contractors will be getting Meyer ready for Georgetown’s Hyde-Addison Elementary School students, who will move there (under parental protest) when their school on O Street shuts down for a two-year construction project in September.

“Everything is budgeted. Big money has been allocated,” said Solomon, who lives one block away from Duke Ellington. He is at the epicenter of years of neighborhood complaints about the construction. This spring, contractors began to rev up the work.

According to Solomon, neighbors reported that more than 300 workers, their trucks and private cars converge in the neighborhood’s narrow streets, including on Sundays, sometimes as early as 5:30 a.m. Residents’ cars have been damaged and unneighborly incidents have occurred. Hundreds of illegal parking citations have been issued. An earlier arrangement by Sigal Construction to have workers park at RFK Memorial Stadium and be shuttled to Georgetown is still “under review,” according to Solomon.

On May 4, a group of neighbors, including Solomon, demanded that the Department of Public Works stop the construction until some of their demands were met. They have an agreement with DPW but are waiting for a written letter of agreement.

Residents in general are in favor of — even excited by — what will be a state-of-the-art performing arts academy at the historic school, once known as Western High School, Solomon said. “But contract agreements to control disruptions to the neighborhood will be seriously reviewed and monitored in the future.”