Robert Devaney • September 12, 2013

At St. John’s Church, June 12, members of the Georgetown Senior Center got a extra treat for their lunchtime meeting: a festive array of picnic items for lunch — and even some yoga action before the lunch. The special event was by the Georgetown office of Long & Foster as part of its community service day. [gallery ids="119089,119102,119096" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

Tudor Place’s 21st annual Spring Garden Party on May 22 had a youthful feel to it. Of course, its longtime stalwarts were also there to help raise more $250,000 for the historic house and garden on 31st Street.

The party’s added zest was not doubt thanks to the work of event co-chairs, Page Evans and Colman Rackley Riddell, who kept things moving, drinks flowing and food abundant. The happy vibe mixed the serious purposes of preservation and philanthropy with a crowd of 450 simply glad to see each other.

The evening’s honoree was Phillips S. Peter, descendant of Major George Peter, brother of Thomas Peter who built Tudor Place. Ten years ago, Peter was president of Tudor Place’s board of trustee and is recognized for his extraordinary commitment to Georgetown’s national treasure. “I salute you for keeping Tudor Place alive and well,” Peter told the party-goers. “With your support, the best is yet to come.” Along with family and friends, Peter, who was a vice president General Electric, also brought his grandson, Phillips Peter III, who works for LinkedIn Corporation.

Robert Devaney •

You know Georgetown loves its trees. Here is your chance to share that love with the neighborhood. The Trees for Georgetown Spring Celebration takes place May 8 at the 29th Street home of Shelley and Bruce Ross-Larsen, a house once owned by Susan Mary Alsop.

The house and garden reception will launch “Georgetown Initiative for Family Trees,” a program to care for and sponsor trees, and it is also the main source of funds for tree that planted in Georgetown under the program.

The new program — aka GIFT — allows sponsors of each tree to tag it with a QR code that tells the story of the tree and its honoree, whether to remember a family member or mark a special milestone.

Founded in 1989 and an offshoot of the Citizens Association of Georgetown (pun intended), Trees for Georgetown has been partnering with the D.C. Urban Forestry Administration and Casey Trees in an innovative program to plant residential street trees. Species planted include honey locust, burr oak, chestnut oak, overcup oak, scarlet oak, northern red oak, swamp white oak, sweetgum, zelkova, hornbeam, and London plane.

Each tree costs approximately $800 to purchase and plant. Trees for Georgetown is a volunteer group funded entirely by gifts and grants. Please support the continuing effort to keep our neighborhood vibrant and green. Donations may be sent to Trees for Georgetown, c/o the Citizens Association of Georgetown. For more information, email Betsy Emes at Betsyemes@aol.com, or call the CAG office at 337-7313.

Tickets to the May 8 party are $150 for individuals; sponsorships range from $500 to $1,500. For more information about the GIFT program and the spring celebration, email GIFTtrees@gmail.com or call 202-345-2400.

Robert Devaney •

More than 160 neighbors and supporters attended the 18th annual Friends of Volta Park cocktail party June 7 — always a fun affair — raising more than $25,000 toward its annual goal of $50,000 to help with park expenses. Mayor Vincent Gray, Councilmember Jack Evans and Deputy Police Chief Patrick Burke were among the guests. The group will hold Volta Park Day in October; check VoltaPark.org. [gallery ids="101398,154117,154104,154113,154110" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

As per a Washington St. Patrick’s Day tradition, Irish Prime Minister (An Taoiseach) Edna Kenny was in town to meet President Barack Obama and others, especially those of Irish descent. The American Irish Fund met March 18 at the National Building Museum to honor Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Daniel Rooney and Irish Ambassador Michael Collins. Before a performance by flautist James Galway, Kenny touted a “celtic comeback” for Ireland. [gallery ids="119392,119365,119380,119386,119373" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

The Light The Night Awards Party celebrated the outstanding achievements of volunteers who raised more than $2.23 million dollars during 2012 Walks throughout the Washington metropolitan area for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which funds blood cancer research worldwide and provides free information and support services. Teams and sponsors met Jan. 31 at the House of Sweden and skated afterwards at Washington Harbour’s ice rink, one of Georgetown’s newest and most popular additions. [gallery ids="101176,142707,142691,142703,142698" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

Elizabeth Webster, staffer for At-large Councilman Vincent Orange, helps to look after business development in D.C., including persuading film crews to shoot here. So, her going to Los Angeles during Academy Awards week just seemed to be part of the job. The difference is that she believes so strongly in bringing more production work to D.C. that she funded the trip herself; no taxpayer money involved.

Sporting a Sue Wong wardrobe, Webster and friends made the scene at several parties throughout the weekend, all revolving around the Feb. 24 awards ceremony in the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. She met with actresses, celebrities and other notables, chatting up D.C. as a great film locale and staying out during Oscars night until 4:30 a.m., Pacific time. Webster was back in D.C. Tuesday morning for an all-day District Council hearing.
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Robert Devaney •

After inaugurating and showing off its newly re-worked fountains with water spouts, Washington Harbour has shut it down and begun the seasonal conversion of the elliptical space into an ice rink—to be ready for skaters before Nov. 22.

According to Washington Harbour’s owner MRP Realty, “The 11,800-square-foot Washington Harbour Ice Rink—larger than the rinks at Rockefeller Center in New York City or the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden in Washington—will be ready to welcome its first skaters before Thanksgiving. In addition to offering open skating, discounts to college students and the opportunity to skate with Santa Claus, the rink will accommodate parties and special events, such as birthdays, family gatherings and corporate events.”

“The ice rink is another new amenity to Washington Harbour which will continue to become one of the premier recreational destinations in the District,” said Bob Murphy, managing principal of MRP Realty. “We look forward to expanding the waterfront experience here to more families, visitors and residents from across the D.C. metro area, seeking a lively, safe and sophisticated skating experience throughout this winter.”

Hours of operation for the ice rink will be noon to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday; noon to 10 p.m., Friday; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday; and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday. Admission is $9 for adults, or $7 for children, seniors and military. Skate rental is $5, and skating lessons are available. The ice rink will end its season on or around March 1, when the facility will be seasonally converted into a fountain.

To view updates on the conversion process and be notified of upcoming offers and events at the Washington Harbour Ice Rink, connect via Facebook (facebook.com/TheWashHarbour) or Twitter (twitter.com/TheWashHarbour).
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Robert Devaney •

When biotech scientists Ryuji Ueno and Sachiko Kuno made headlines two years ago, local observers did not know what to make of them.

The married couple made a big splash in terms of luxe, Federal-style real estate: buying the Evermay estate on 28th Street in 2011 and Halcyon House on Prospect Street in March 2012. Georgetowners, ever aware of history and real estate, wanted to know: who are these pharmaceutical millionaires from Japan by way of Bethesda and what are these entrepreneurs doing in the most storied, oldest neighborhood in Washington, D.C.?

“There’s nothing to hide,” said Kuno, along with her husband, to one last question during an interview with the Georgetowner at Evermay last month.

They have lived in Potomac or Georgetown since the mid-1990s and are not so “mysterious” anymore, as one newspaper article tagged them last year. We know they founded Sucampo Pharmaceuticals in Bethesda and made millions of dollars, after approval by the Food and Drug Administration, on patented drugs that fight gastrointestinal problems, especially constipation, and, earlier during their work in Japan, eyedrops that treat glaucoma.

Ueno earned a medical degree along with other doctorate degrees. A biochemical engineer, Kuno holds several Ph.Ds. Because of this, those who work with them simply call them “the doctors.” Before they became a couple, the two worked together in Japan and then here. A second marriage for both, Ueno, 59, and Kuno, 58, married in 2002.

While remaining their reserved selves, the couple knows they are more public figures than ever before, especially when talking about the S&R Foundation which they founded in 2000. They are benefactors to the Cherry Blossom Festival, the Washington National Opera and the Smithsonian.

Theirs is an American story with a Washington theme that has played out before. Immigrant or not, inventors and innovators have come here to be near federal government agencies that approve as well as advise on new products. Consider why Alexander Graham Bell moved here and lived in Georgetown.

Ueno said that they decided on D.C. because the FDA, National Institutes of Health as well as the Patent Office are here. Sucampo Pharmaceuticals holds hundreds of exclusive patents. Both said they liked D.C. for its historic sites as well as its weather being similar to Japan.

“I love Washington, D.C., because it is an international city and a good size and historical,” Kuno said.

But the reason for all of it, really, appears to be the S&R Foundation, which takes its initials from the first names of Kuno and Ueno. Its offices are now at Evermay on 28th Street, N.W. Its mission is ambitious: “to support talented individuals with great potential and high aspirations in the arts and sciences, especially those who are furthering international cultural collaboration.”
“We were looking for a venue for the foundation,” said Kuno, its CEO. “We asked Mark McFadden,” a friend and real estate agent who handled the P Street house sale in 1996. (They sold that home a few months ago.) McFadden showed them Evermay in May 2011.
“Both of us fell in love with Evermay,” Kuno recalled. “In five to ten minutes, we made a decision [to buy it for $22 million]. Later, McFadden showed them Halcyon House. In 2012, it was theirs for $11 million in cash.

Both historic properties sold for half their original asking price: Evermay (1801) by the Belin family with gardens and three-and-a-half acres; the more urban Halcyon House (circa 1785) by the Dreyfuss family with twice as much interior space as Evermay.

Evermay holds many of the musical events for the S&R Foundation, while Halcyon House is being prepped for seminars and more for its global resilience programs.

According to the foundation, Halcyon House will have 40 meetings per year with fewer than 50 persons among other events.
“Neighbors are particularly concerned about traffic and parking issues associated with the proposed Halcyon events, and it is imperative that the new ownership resolve these concerns,” said Jeff Jones, an advisory neighborhood commissioner.

The foundation will meet with Georgetown’s ANC Sept. 3 and the D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustment Sept. 10 on how it plans to deal with events at Halcyon House and the surrounding neighborhood. Last year, it did the same and got approvals for Evermay.

“Evermay is everyone’s treasure,” Kuno said. “Halcyon House is the same thing. The preservation of Halcyon House is our mission and our responsibility as new owners. At the same time, if we can use Halcyon House together with our neighbors, it would be great. … We talk to neighbors to find a solution. Halcyon House has great potential.”

For some, it simply comes down to parking: it is a D.C. — especially Georgetown — thing. Events in town take away spots for nearby residents.

S&R Foundation attorney Alice Haase said the group is tailoring events to discourage parking near Halcyon House. “Street parking is never encouraged,” she said. “In fact, it is discouraged.” Haase has scheduled another meeting with Halcyon House neighbors for next week.

As it happens, the goals of Kuno and Ueno for the S&R Foundation go far beyond the problems of event management. The foundation is made up of several parts.

Its popular Overtures Series will host recitals at Evermay each of the four Friday evenings this September — two of which feature Canadian pianist Ryo Yanagitani, who has played and stayed at Evermay before.

With the Kyoto-D.C. Global Career Development Program, the foundation partners with Kyoto University to bring Japanese students to D.C. for a few weeks to learn about working in international organizations, such as NASA, the World Bank or NIH.
S&R has also begun its Illuminate program, which promotes and discusses the ideas of young entrepreneurs. On Aug. 22, Illuminate hosts the Millennial Train Project, a transcontinental journey of personal growth, and RocksBox, a jewelry subscription service. The foundation’s chief operating officer Kate Goodall views Illuminate as “a 21st-century salon,” which will be politically neutral as well as being “brave, innovative and engaging.”

The International Institute of Global Resilience, according to S&R, which launched in December 2012, is “a think tank dedicated to improving the readiness of the emergency management community through research and education” and will become a bigger player for the foundation. It is headquartered at Halcyon House.

“In founding this foundation, Ryuji and I looked back to our experience,” Kuno said. “We grew our company with a lot of support from the American people, including our neighbors in Bethesda and Washington, D.C. We like to return [such help] to the next generation. The reason we selected art as a major part for the foundation to support is that artists and scientists need to have inspiration and creativity. Both are so similar to each other.”

Is that how music led the way for the foundation? It was the husband not the wife who pushed the musical side with the ongoing Overtures Series. “I am the second generation to support what my father has done,” said Ueno, who has two sons from his first marriage. “He was crazy about music, especially chamber [and classical] music. He was a collector of musical instruments.” When Ueno spoke of his father, he became more animated, letting go of some of his formality. He reads music and plays the flute.

In Japan, Ueno’s father started a chemical company; his grandfather had an automobile company. “My father was an inventor,” Ueno said. “My grandfather was an inventor. I was born and raised in an inventor family.” His wealthy family hails from near Osaka.

What does a biotech tycoon do to relax? Besides houses, Ueno collects and restores cars. He reportedly owns about 60 and is building a garage for a few at Evermay. He likes the Ferrari Dino of the 1970s. “I love the design of the Corvette Stingray,” Kuno said.

Nowadays, their two golden retrievers, which they got as puppies at an Ambassadors Ball auction, determine the ride. The dogs grew too large for the Maserati, then too big for the Jaguar, Ueno said. Mario and Cherry ride in a Volkswagen Passat and might bark for a ride to family homes on the Eastern Shore, especially one in St. Michael’s, Md. Still, one of the household’s last very old cats, June from Japan, lives on.

Asked for vacation spots, the conscientious couple named Oxford and Kyoto, places with major universities. O.K., how about a favorite spot to eat in Georgetown? Bistrot Lepic, they allowed.

So, what was that last question asked? It was: what should Georgetowners know that they might not know about you?

Upon reflection, it was answered by Kuno: “I am very lucky that I was one of six female students of thousands at Kyoto University [30 years ago]. My professors and my parents were very supportive. They encouraged me. It was a unique opportunity for a women like me to go to Munich [to study].”

It is also Kuno who takes this life lesson to heart, and it is at the heart of the S&R Foundation: to give young persons opportunities and challenges. That is the heart of the story: Like the two cherry saplings from the Tidal Basin, growing at Evermay, in a circle of life, Japan to the U.S., back again and yet together.

Full disclosure: the author lived in Halcyon House from 2005 to 2012.
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Robert Devaney •

Water Taxi Connects Georgetown to National Mall, National Harbor

A new water taxi route — which began Aug. 31 — connects Georgetown to the National Mall. Part of the Potomac Riverboat Co. service which already connects Alexandria to National Harbor, the extended route will take the 49-passenger boat, Miss Sophie, to Washington Harbour.

From Georgetown, passengers can disembark at Ohio Drive at Potomac Park in Southwest or continue on to National Harbor. The service operates five times a day, Tuesday through Sunday, March through December. Depending on the trip ticket, prices range from $5 to $30.

El Centro Opens This Week

The Mexican restaurant, El Centro, will be open by the weekend. There will be soft opening nights mid-week, according to Greg Talcott, who is re-opening the new restaurant in the old Third Edition space under a new management arrangement with Richard Sandoval Restaurants. “We signed a 20-year lease four years ago,” Talcott told the Georgetowner in April. “I hope we continue as a Georgetown institution.”
El Centro touts its Mexican bona fides and adds that “Georgetown has a new hot spot.”
And it seems ready to please with a Sunday brunch as well as early-week specials: “Sangria Sundays: Half-priced sangria, 5 p.m. to close; Nacho Mondays: $5.95 nachos, 5 p.m. to close;Taco Tuesdays: $2 tacos, all night long; Margarita Wednesdays: $5 Margaritas, all night long.”

Italian Restaurant, Rialto, Coming to M Street

Another famous space — once the home of the legendary Guards restaurant which closed last summer — at 2915 M St., NW, is getting a new occupant: Rialto, an Italian eatery, owned by those who own Thunder Burger across the street, as first reported by Washingtonian. The chef will be Thunder Burger’s Ryan Fichter. A mid-September opening is planned.

Key Bridge Exxon Food Shop Shut Down

You know the D.C. Board of Health is really doing its job, when it shuts down a gas station convenience store. The Key Bridge Exxon’s food store was closed over the weekend by the District government. The gas station staff was cleaning the interior of the place Aug. 29, as the business — at Canal Road (M Street) and 36th Street — continued to sell gasoline and other non-food items, such as cigarettes.

T.J. Maxx Opens on Sunday

As previously reported, T.J. Maxx and HomeGoods, a new combo store at the Shops at Georgetown Park, will have a grand opening Sept. 8. At 3222 M St., NW., the clothing and housewares businesses will join the vibrant retail mix of commercial Georgetown. The opening day will run 8 a.m until 8 p.m.

Tugooh Toys Moves

Tugooh Toy, the eco-friendly toy shop, moved to 1319 Wisconsin Ave., NW, over the weekend. The educational toy store occupies its former Chic space.

Linen Store Opens on Book Hill

Sabun Home, a bedding and bathroom accessories shop, has opened at 1631 Wisconsin Ave., NW. Along with soaps and toiletries, most of the items are imported from Turkey, where the owners lived.

Cannon’s Fish Market Temporarily Closed

Cannon Fish Market — “purveyors of quality seafood since 1937” — closed Aug. 12. A window notice by the business at 1065 31st St., NW, read in part that Cannon’s “is closing for the next few months . . . for medical reasons.” Calls to the business have not yet been returned.
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