Town Topics

Robert Sacheli • November 3, 2011

The lure of history and architecture has led Marston Luce into some less-than-attractive places — with some beautiful results.

In the early 1980s, he would “prowl D.C. in areas where buildings were being torn down” and he vividly recalls the rats that often scurried around as he was on the lookout for the decorative brickwork and architectural ornaments that his excursions would unearth. (“I was recycling before it was fashionable,” he chuckles. “I’m an environmentalist.”) His finds were sold from the trunk of a red MG at the Georgetown Flea Market.

Today, the stock of his eponymous upper Wisconsin Avenue shop, which opened in 2001, comes from far more congenial spots. “I do my buying in France, where I have a house in the Dordogne, and some in England and in Sweden.”

His eye, though, still is trained on the beautiful, no matter the source. He describes his aesthetic as “humble elegance.”

“I deal with very elegant things, but they have a humble soul. I like the tension between the two.” He points to an early-19th-century English bulls-eye mirror as a perfect example of that outlook. The elaborately carved frame is not gilded, the way a grander piece might be. Instead, it gets its character from a warm white finish that gives it a welcoming lightness.

Look around Luce’s airy, light-filled shop (which he shares with Dink, a Jack Russell terrier, and Penny, a schnauzer) and you’ll find tabletop arrangements that mix refined objects, folk art and furniture ranging from a Swedish comb-painted armoire to an iron table fashioned from industrial salvage from Belgium. You’ll also see charming juxtapositions, such as a 19th-century French tin weathervane in the shape of a rooster and a cement version of the same animal that sports an equally extravagant curving tail.

That sense of combination is part of a trend that Luce sees among his customers: “People are buying fewer things, but better quality, and they are mixing styles more.”

On a recent visit, a shop associate was unfolding a circa-1800 painted French screen that depicts a hunting expedition in a tropical landscape. Who knows what those long-ago gentlemen may be stalking? It might be fun to imagine that they, like Marston Luce, are on the trail of something beautiful.

Marston Luce
1651 Wisconsin Ave.
202-333-6800
www.marstonluce.com

GEORGETOWN’S ANTIQUES:

Christian Zapatka: Reinventing the Georgetown Townhouse
Frank Randolph: Interior Designer Extraordinaire
John Rosselli: Georgetown’s Antique Aficionado
Marston Luce: In Search of Elegance
Scandinavian Antiques & Living: International Accents
Susquehanna Antique Company: Redefining Tradition
Sixteen Fifty Nine: A Mid-Century Renaissance

Ari Post •

Let New York City have New Years. Chicago can keep St. Patrick’s Day. No one does the Fourth of July like Washington, D.C.

There is no venue more fitting wherein to celebrate this country’s Independence Day than the nation’s capital. July 4 celebrations in Washington are among the most attended events of the year. The National Mall, swept with national monuments and the US Capitol, is a beautiful backdrop for the city’s all-day event schedule, ending, of course, with a dazzling fireworks display over the Washington Monument.

Everyone this side of the equator knows of Washington’s infamous fireworks celebration, but there is also a wealth of activities going on throughout the day. Public access to the Mall begins at 10 a.m., so get your sunscreen and get ready.

11:45 a.m. marks the start of the Independence Day Parade, featuring marching bands, military and specialty units, floats and VIPs. Running along Constitution Avenue, the parade usually draws a sizable crowd, so get there a little early to secure a good view.

The Airmen of Note will perform at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in the Kogod Courtyard from 1 to 3 p.m. The band will play Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and other classics from the American Big Band era. The event celebrates the opening of a related exhibit, “Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.”

Once again, the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival will be celebrating the cultures of all the lands that helped shape this country. Though the festival runs in two weekend segments, it culminates around the 4th. Music, food, crafts and performances will take place at this year’s event, focused on Asian Pacific Americans and the “Smithsonian, Inside Out.” Visitors are invited to look at how things work at the institution in four areas of concentration: “Unlocking the Mysteris of the Universe,” “Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet,” “Valuing World Cultures,” and “Understanding the American Experience.” The festival also focuses on Mexico and will hold a special tribute to Haiti. The event begins at 11 a.m. and goes until 5 p.m.

The W Hotel presents Boom With A View at 7 p.m. Music will be provided by The Honey Brothers, D.S. Posner, DJ Sky Nellor, a premium open bar, hors d’oeuvres and a great view of the fireworks. The event will take place on the P.O.V. Roof Terrace and Lounge on top of the W.

The National Archives will host its traditional family programming, celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This year, NBC News National Correspondent Bob Dotson will be the MC. Including a dramatic reading of the Declaration by historical reenactors and free family activities and entertainment for all ages.

At the White House Visitor Center, National Park Service rangers and volunteers will give people the opportunity to sample the sights, sounds, activities and personages that helped finalize the Declaration of Independence. Then, at 6 p.m., the US Army Concert Band and the US Army Band Downrange will play on the southwest corner of the grounds of the Washington Monument.

Leading right up to the fireworks, a live concert by the National Symphony Orchestra and several pop artists, “A Capitol Fourth,” will perform patriotic music on the West Lawn of the Capitol Building. The concert is free and open to the public. No tickets necessary. The annual event will also be broadcast on PBS and National Public Radio on WAMU 88.5 FM.

And then, of course, the fireworks. Throughout the day, beginning in the early morning, families toting coolers and lawn chairs stake out prime real estate on the Mall’s lawn for the best views of the fireworks. And it is quite a sight. A smorgasbord of colors and light at the apex of dusk, the Capitol Building being the only other thing in sight, every dazzled eye gets lost in moments of transient patriotism. On top of the memorials lining the Mall and the US Capitol, there are other sites to enjoy the fireworks. East Potomac Park is a wonderfully fun semi-secret, and if you’re willing to ante up for tickets, the Southwest Waterfront 4th of July Festival, the Rooftop of the W Hotel, or a cruise along the Potomac River are all premier venues.

Robert Sacheli •

Enter Georgetown’s newest antiques shop, Scandinavian Antiques & Living, and you’re struck by the colorfully eclectic selection of merchandise and the warm welcome of its owner, Elisabeth Wulff Wine.

Wine, who opened her store a month ago, is a native of Denmark who spent a number of years in Milan as an art and antiques dealer and decorator before moving to Washington a year and a half ago.

Her distinctive eye is reflected in tablescapes whose elements cross the boundaries of countries and centuries. For example, one desktop display combines an 1810 bronze ormolu clock and a pair of Swedish empire candlesticks with a 1950s toilet set and a 1960s Murano glass platter in swirling pastels.

The shop’s walls, too, are home to an array of art that ranges from mid-century modern abstracts to 19th-century portraits and flower paintings.

That sense of aesthetic freedom is at the heart of Wine’s shop: “Today we mix antiques with other objects,” she says. “A home today does not have to be the same — there are so many possibilities.”

Swedish furniture forms the centerpiece of the store’s collection, and Wine is understandably fond of its distinctive style. “I love the Swedish look. It’s so simple and so elegant. And it looks nice to mix it.”

One of her favorite pieces is a Gustavian clock cabinet, a drop-front secretary topped with a clock framed in soft curves. (The Gustavian style takes its name from a late 18th-century Swedish monarch.) More graceful curves characterize a standing clock, whose case has been weathered to a beautiful pale turquoise since it was made in 1750, and Wine has chosen it for her shop’s logo.

There’s an elegant sense of femininity to much of the shop’s stock, such as a fanciful Italian crystal-beaded chandelier in the shape of a pagoda (perfect for a fabric-tented boudoir, perhaps) and sensuously shaped Murano glass torchieres. Along with objects such as vivid Murano glass vases from the middle of the last century, these play off the pastel tones and neoclassical lines of the Scandinavian furniture to create a lively, unexpected harmony.

It’s exactly that sense of personal expression that Wine emphasizes as she sums up her outlook on décor: “People’s own taste is very important, even when working with a decorator. That’s what makes a home very personal.”

Scandinavian Antiques & Living
3231 P St.
202-450-5894

GEORGETOWN’S ANTIQUES:

Christian Zapatka: Reinventing the Georgetown Townhouse
Frank Randolph: Interior Designer Extraordinaire
John Rosselli: Georgetown’s Antique Aficionado
Marston Luce: In Search of Elegance
Scandinavian Antiques & Living: International Accents
Susquehanna Antique Company: Redefining Tradition
Sixteen Fifty Nine: A Mid-Century Renaissance

Robert Sacheli •

Don Draper and his fellow “Mad Men” have been very good for Mike Johnson.
The hit series has kicked off a renaissance of interest in mid-century modern furnishings and the swanky decorative accessories of the 60s — exactly the focus of Johnson’s Wisconsin Avenue shop, Sixteen Fifty Nine.

Antiques run in Johnson’s family — his grandmother owned a shop in Michigan — and he recalls “going to auctions since I was a little kid.” It wasn’t until he left a long career in corporate sales, though, that his passion for collecting turned into a full-time business. Sixteen Fifty Nine has just hit the seven-year mark.

He started the shop because “I had been collecting mid-century modern, but felt the lines I was looking for were not as accessible as they could be” in existing outlets.
Johnson specializes in iconic designers like Dorothy Draper, T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Paul Frankl, and Donald Deskey, creators whose work is not being commercially reproduced today.

Draper (Dorothy, not Don) is currently represented at Sixteen Fifty Nine by a striking jade-green lacquered dresser with white accents and nine-ringed drawer pulls. (A similar pair in a black-and-gold color scheme made an appearance in Candice Bergen’s fictional Vogue office in the “Sex and the City” movie.)

You also can’t miss a pair of Bernhardt loveseats, produced in the 1950s by the company’s Flair division, upholstered in an eye-popping lime-blue and green (which had, in true ’50s style, been preserved under plastic slipcovers). The pieces would not look out of place in a contemporary showroom.

“I like to do things that are very clean-lined, that come across as a current piece of
furniture,” Johnson says of his collector’s eye. “I always try to throw odds and ends into the mix” as well — such as his array of mid-century pottery, paintings and photos.

As more buyers and dealers climb on the sleek mid-century modern bandwagon,
Johnson finds that locating top-quality merchandise is becoming more difficult. “I get excited when I find a big-name piece of furniture.”

Johnson points to a massive buffet in Sixteen Fifty Nine’s window as a current favorite among his pieces, describing in detail its provenance from Michigan’s Mastercraft Furniture Company. With four doors elaborately paneled in Carpathian burled elm and a travertine marble inset top, it is indeed a beauty.

And it’s exactly the type of piece you could imagine Don Draper lounging beside.

Sixteen Fifty Nine
1659 Wisconsin Ave.
202-333-1480
www.sixteenfiftynine.com

GEORGETOWN’S ANTIQUES:

Christian Zapatka: Reinventing the Georgetown Townhouse
Frank Randolph: Interior Designer Extraordinaire
John Rosselli: Georgetown’s Antique Aficionado
Marston Luce: In Search of Elegance
Scandinavian Antiques & Living: International Accents
Susquehanna Antique Company: Redefining Tradition
Sixteen Fifty Nine: A Mid-Century Renaissance
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Gary Tischler •

As February comes to a cold, long end, with it ends the annual celebration, commemoration and acknowledgement that we call Black History Month, celebrated and noted in an especially strong and defining way in Washington, D.C.

Events throughout the month noted one aspect of black history or another — Frederick Douglass’ birthday and Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, because the two leaders are intertwined and wrapped up in the times of their time, the agony of the Civil War, the triumph of Emancipation. At Mount Vernon, there were commemorative services and wreath-layings for the slaves at the first president’s Virginia plantation.

The Smithsonian Black History Month Family Day Celebration will be held Feb. 27, rescheduled from an earlier day in the month and featuring the theme “Tapestry of Cultural Rhythms.” The idea of a black history month, first begun as far back as 1926 by historian Carter G. Woodson as “Negro History Week” before becoming what we know as Black History Month, remains strangely controversial. Some of this is, of course, due to the lingering feeling that the very existence of a black history month forces people to think about, and often actually talk about, race in America. In Washington, the longer you live here, the more the idea of Black History Month seems hardly novel at all, as natural as breathing. This city, in function, culture, politics, economics, identity and social structure, is so Sybil-like, schizoid, diverse, multi-faceted and multi-tasked that it resists a wholesale identity. It is the capital of the United States, politically and governmentally, but that doesn’t necessarily amount to an identity. The White House, Capitol Hill and Congress are hard-core presences of the city’s function. They are not its heart and soul.
That honor belongs to us: we the people that live here. If the city has a defining identity, in terms of history, the idea of black history has played itself out here from the beginning. How black and white residents have built, lived, worked, created a social and cultural environment here tells you an enormous amount about the history of race in America.

In this city, you don’t ask the question of whether there is a black history here, because you’re living it every day, and confront it, embrace it, see it in every neighborhood and ward of the city. One of the things you find, past the historic homes and buildings, past the large number of churches, many of them built from the ground up after emancipation by black pastors and ministers, is that black history is everybody’s history in this city, it is, as a young essay contest winner wrote, “American history.”

This is the city where in all the time of Jim Crow, local blacks, their number swollen by the great migration to northern cities in the first decades of the 20th century, created a thriving black community apart from all the places in the city where they could not shop, eat , hear music or go to school. Thus a large section of Washington, spurred by Howard University, had its own lawyers and doctors, its shops and shopkeepers and businesses, its culture.

While lots of major urban centers in America have large black populations, Washington is different because of its politics and structure. Until the 1970s, it had no self-rule of any sort, and even now has no voting rights in Congress. Its history of home rule is brief, only some 40 years or so.

Every street, and maybe every street corner, and certainly every neighborhood large and small, is a part of black history. Three of the major churches in Georgetown on or near P Street are reminders of a large black population that existed early in the century and thrived for decades before dispersing into the suburbs.

Walk the African Heritage Trail, a guide to the entire city’s heritage of black history, and you’ll discovery all of our history here, along with the rich contributions of African American civil rights leaders, educators, teachers, politicians, political leaders, athletes and artists. Memories of segregation and Jim Crow live in memory here.

In almost every ward and neighborhood of this city, you’ll find the strong presence of African American men and women who made history, who helped create institutions, movements and ideas that live on, who lived here, day in and day out, who created or were leaders in their communities.

Black history resounds in the homes, buildings, institutions and churches of Washington: at Howard University, at the Lincoln Theater and the True Reformer Building in Greater U Street, where Duke Ellington lived early in his life, at the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum at the old Howard Theater, the Black Fashion Museum and the Whitelaw Hotel, at the Supreme Court where Thurgood Marshall became a towering figure.

You can find it at the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, the first headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women, which Bethune founded, and which is still led by the indomitable civil rights leader Dorothy Height, who in turned founded the Black Family Reunions held annually on the Mall and across the country. It lives in the Shiloh Baptist Church in Shaw, in the slave cemeteries in Georgetown, at the DAR Constitution Hall, where Marian Anderson was not allowed to sing by the DAR, and at the Lincoln Memorial. It’s in the Frederick Douglass National Historic City at 14th and W Streets SE, at Fort Stevens in Brightwood and at the Summer School Museum and Archives.

And all along the Heritage Trail, you’ll find the names and homes of familiar historic figures: Willis Richardson, Paul Dunbar, Anna Julia Cooper, Christian Fleetwood, Ernest Everett Just, Charles Manuel “Sweet Daddy” Grace, Alain Locke, Mary Jane Patterson Carter G. Woodson, Anthony Bowen, Benjamin Banneker, Howard Woodson, Lois Mailou Jones and many others.

The National Mall is where the Revered Martin Luther King gave his resounding “I Have a Dream” speech, which energized the entire country and fired up the imagination of generations to come. His assassination in 1968 sparked a full-scale war and deadly, destructive riots — known simply as “the riots” — the effects of which devastated the local economy for years to come. That too is black history.

All the changes — downtown development, the decline of black population, the rise of condoland, our loyalties to schools and sports — make up the common knowledge of living here. We all see this all of the time, yet, it’s fair to say, we — black and white — don’t know as much about each other and interact as much as we should, and certainly could. Race is an integral, if not integrated, part of this city, and black history is also a history of race in America. This is a city where, in one mayoral election consisting entirely of black candidates, one of them was designated by others as the “white candidate.” Major political, emotional and cultural discussions about crime and education inevitably have components of class and race to them.

But our city’s history is a shared one. It exists for all of us in memory, if we access it. It snows on everyone, on all the neighborhoods, even though some might fare better than others when it comes to snow removal. We are a string of connected neighborhoods, with a history that we all own and share. Whatever you might say about our transit system, it moves on tracks that criss-cross every part of the city and outside of it too.

All of us lead daily lives, and in this way, we are more closely connected to each other, like a family, than to any temporary residents in the White House, in Congress and on K Street.
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Donna Evers •

Washingtonians may be surprised to know that the first computers were invented right here in Georgetown, and if you go to 1054 31st Street (now Canal Square), you will find a plaque marking the place where Herman Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine Company was located at the turn of the last century.

It all started when the federal government ran into problems taking the national census in 1880. The process took too long and was full of mistakes. So in 1886, the U.S. Census Office decided to hold a contest to see who could come up with a better system.

Herman Hollerith would have seemed an unlikely winner of such a contest when he was in grade school in Buffalo, NY. He had such a hard time in school that he used to hide from his teacher. His German immigrant parents took him out of school and got him a tutor, and this helped him realize his amazing potential. He entered college at the age of 15 and got a degree in mining engineering at the age of 19. Eventually, he got a doctorate from Columbia University, where he wrote his thesis about a very special invention of his, an electric tabulating machine. He got the idea from his girlfriend’s father, who told him about the French jacquard weaving machines which were set up with punch cards to automatically weave intricate repetitive patterns. Hollerith created his own punch card system of tabulation, and got a patent for the invention in 1889. When he entered the census office contest, his sample census took a fraction of the time of his nearest competitor. So instead of seven and a half years to do the U.S. census, Hollerith finished the initial count in six weeks, with the final tabulations completed in two and a half years. Better yet, he saved the government $5,000,000, which was a huge sum at that time.

In 1896, Hollerith started the Tabulating Machine Company. The first factory employed mostly women, who worked on their individual tabulators in a large open room. These women were called “computers,” because that was their job description. Hollerith’s business thrived, and his machines were sold to countries around the world for census taking. His fortunes grew, too, and he built a grand mansion in Georgetown at 1617 29th Street, overlooking the Potomac River. By the way, the home, which stayed in the family for 80 years, was on the market recently for $22,000,000.

While his magical machine was a big success, other innovators came up with similar inventions. He merged his company to diversify and broaden its hold on a diminishing market. When Herman retired in 1921, his successor, who happened to be a marketing ace, merged the company again and changed its name to International Business Machines. Yes, that’s IBM, otherwise known as Big Blue. And so, our own Herman Hollerith, the child who couldn’t spell in elementary school, went on to become the father of the modern computer, an invention that has made a revolutionary impact on the way we live and work.

Veena Trehan • August 8, 2011

Dr. Richard Goldberg is a 21st Century Renaissance Man. The Georgetown University Hospital President explores next-generation technology and psychiatry by day, rides motorbikes on his vacations, and reads the classics for fun. At RIS last week, he shared insights that he has gained during 42 years at Georgetown.

From Psychiatrist to President

When asked about his career path, going from mind doctor to hospital president, he gave a sigh of appreciation. “It’s an interesting journey because psychiatry is frequently at the bottom of the food chain,” he said.

His choice of a psychosomatic specialty brought him to other hospital physicians and their patients, aiding a progression from resident to faculty member to department chair. And in the financially challenging times of late 1990s he became (simultaneously and for the same salary) dean of clinical affairs, dean of graduate medical education, chair of psychiatry, and president of the 450-doctor faculty practice group, the last that lay the groundwork for promotion.

His practice area may not have the reputation as a hospital power broker, but it often confers leadership ability. “As a psychiatrist—as long as you don’t behave like a psychiatrist—you have a certain degree of emotional intelligence about people and how they best work together…It’s very helpful in managing a hospital, managing a physician, managing people.”

In 2000, Medstar bought the Georgetown University Hospital and faculty practice, and Goldberg began overseeing hospital quality and safety as vice president of medical affairs, a position he jokingly compares with serving as an assistant principal in a high school with wayward physicians. He’s held the hospital presidency for two years.

Over the last decade the hospital has changed deficits into surpluses, gained leverage with equipment suppliers through Medstar, and earned the number 3 ranking among the 57 DC Metropolitan hospitals, as well as the only “Magnet” status (for nursing excellence).

Goldberg’s DC life is a far cry from his childhood along the New York shore. The Long Beach resident played basketball and baseball with Billy Crystal (who showed Oscar promise even as high school variety show MC) and frolicked by the bay, but according to him the island life was insular. “I thought everyone was from Brooklyn. It turns out that’s not the case.”

Along with his worldview, this city and hospital have transformed over several decades. Visiting DC in the 1950s, he admits being shocked by the Washington Monument’s separate restrooms and water fountains for blacks and whites. Georgetown Medical School in the late 1960s was likewise wholly different from today: 98 men were paired with two women per class, there were no CAT scans and head scans, doctors mixed their own IVs, and psychiatry focused on psychotherapy. He relishes many of the changes, describing 50/50 student ratio as “humanizing” and new technology and drugs as “outstanding” in their potential impact.

The Future of Health Care

Goldberg believes computers will shape our future through nanotechnology, robotics and genetics, trends emerging in medicine. In a new era of personalized medicine, he explains, doctors will use genetics to identify the likelihood of developing a disease and the best medications for an individual. It will be possible to inject patients with nanorobot sensors, which will float around the blood system and organs, giving feedback to detection devices to indicate if an illness has occurred or tell about a treatment’s progression.

Robots like the da Vinci Surgical System will allow doctors to operate easily and intuitively for prostrate and thoracic cancer, and other ailments treated at the Lombardi Cancer Center.

Viruses packed with chemotherapy will use receptors to find and join cancer cells and release the chemotherapy while sparing normal tissue, increasing the survivability for a broad range of cancer disorders.

Yet there is a huge paradox in health care. The underserved population and Jesuit traditions contrast with a depersonalized and potentially costly high-tech future.

The hospital relies on its heritage for guidance. While Jesuits, a Catholic order that stresses lifelong education, are less visible than in the past, they guided the mission adopted in 2007. “Cura personalis” (meaning care of the whole person) is a reminder that pills and technology must serve the broader goal of satisfying emotional, spiritual and physical needs.

The giving nature of the order also prompts charity care for the poor. A children’s van goes out to the most underserved areas of Washington DC, treating kids who wouldn’t ordinarily get medical care, and the hospital offers free cancer screenings to adults.

Goldberg sees many gaps in the health care system but says he is optimistic that a country as great as ours can meet them.

“We need to have more accessible care for individuals,” he says. “We need to cover more individuals. We need to have more emphasis on wellness than sickness.

“We need to be more aware of care as not just a single episode, but a continuity of care. We need to be safer and higher quality in terms of or care.”

But as with most things, he understands that progress will be incremental. “I don’t think can be created de novo out of somebody’s head. It has to, like any good system, evolve.”

From Motorcycles to Mahatma Gandhi

One way he deals with work pressure is to exit his element. For 25 years—starting with a Harley Sportster, now on a BMW 3 Touring Bike—he has cycled the country. His fascination with human narrative is given broader play, meeting people like those recently out of prison that would otherwise be unlikely confidantes. He also enjoys communing with the environment, whether the national parks of the Southwest or the seascape of Key West.

“There’s something about being on a motorcycle that is relaxed concentration,” he says. “You have to concentrate all the time, but you’re in this zone, you’re participating with the road and nature rather than observing it.”

If motorcycling is a social and spiritual quest, his literary projects are an intellectual journey. His free time is not occupied by friends, restaurants and movies. Rather, he has taken on a sort of literary project. He reads classics and listens to biographies (currently Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography) while he exercises on his Octane seated elliptical machine. The biographies have provided personal instruction, including two major life lessons.

“Every person no matter how successful or how much we idealize them has incredible unevenness. They can have great contributions in some areas and weaknesses in other areas,” he says.

“And they have been down and out at various times in their life,” he adds. “The path to greatness is not a straight line. Its really enduring and learning how to get out of those troughs in your life, whatever they are.”

“Aging well is about being adaptable, learning how to find meaning in activities that you might not have been interested in before, but that you can now do.”

He summarizes with a common phrase given deeper resonance by his inspiring example in psychiatry, literature, and leadership. “That’s what life is about – meaning.”

To Listen to interview, click here

Corrie Dyke • July 26, 2011

Washington’s relationship with Japan is exemplified in the National Cherry Blossom Festival. With the recent Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami devastating Japan, Washington is offering support to the country that planted the seeds for the festival, and the culture that is honored throughout the celebration. Below is a list of things you can do around town to help out and donate to Japan relief efforts.

Red Cross Online Donation
The Festival has joined the Red Cross in supporting the nation of Japan. Online donations can be made at NationalCherryBlossomFestival.org.

Stand With Japan
March 24 6:30 p.m.
Beginning at the Sylvan Theater, walkers will make their way to the Tidal Basin. All donations received during the fundraising effort will go to the National Cherry Blossom Red Cross Online Donation Site.

The walk around the tidal basin will be a time of reflection in midst of the Cherry Blossom trees gifted to Washington by the Japanese in 1912. The evening of hope and perseverance inaugurates the Festival, celebrating the friendship between the two countries.

Online Auction
The National Cherry Blossom Festival Online Auction is open through March 27. Proceeds from the auction will be split between the Red Cross and the Festival’s year-round programs. Items in the auction include, two tickets to OpenSkies Business Airlines to Paris, dining certificate for Buddha Bar, a Weekend Getaway to the Normandy Hotel, dining certificate to II Canale, Georgetown and a number of others.

DC Help Japan Now Auction
A number of DC restaurants are joining the cause in an eBay auction with proceeds benefiting Red Cross. Restaurants include KAZ Sushi Bistro, Perry’s, The Tabard Inn, Oyamel Cocina Mexicana, Passion Food, Masa 14, The Source by Wolfgang Puck, Restaurant Nora, Peacock Café, Marcels, Brasserie Beck/Mussel Bar, and Café Atlantico. More restaurants are joining in to support so check eBay frequently.

Kaz Sushi Bistro Raises Funds
In addition to the eBay Auction, Kaz is supporting Japan with various fundraising events. The restaurant is currently holding a raffle through April 16. Kaz is located between 19th and 20th on I Street NW.

Capital Hearts for Japan
Capital Hearts for Japan will be holding a fundraising night at The Park at Fourteenth (920 14th St. NW) March 26. Doors open at 6 p.m. The night will include a silent auction, performances from local artists and drink specials. All donations will be given to Save the Children, an international aid organization that provides emergency relief for children affected by disaster and devastation. The Park is donating $3 per person that comes to the event. Capital Hearts for Japan is a coalition of diverse organizations in the DC metro area and was formed to help provide immediate and long-term relief for Japan.

Ari Post •

On Monday April 4, Hines|Archstone’s CityCenter broke ground at the site of the former DC convention center, with the simultaneous announcement of a full equity investment from Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co. (QatariDiar), reports Real Estate Bisnow and The Washington Post. Mayor Vincent Gray and members of the DC City Council met at the area, currently a parking lot, to celebrate the beginning of the site’s construction.

Gray called CityCenter, “one of the most important projects in the history of the District of Columbia,” in a lavish tent where reporters, developers, neighbors, businesspeople and District officials gathered for the celebration.

CityCenter DC is a 10-acre, mixed-use development, located in the heart of downtown Washington on a 4.5-block parcel bounded by New York Avenue, 9th, H and 11th Streets NW. A total of six buildings are to be put up over the next three years as phase 1 of the project, according to the Washington Post, split between apartments, condos and office space, all connected by a public courtyard. Shops and restaurants will line the street level with four levels of underground parking, and 10th and I Streets will be reopened to reconnect the city’s street grid. A second phase of the project is planned to include an upscale hotel, along with additional square feet of retail.

The project is an enormous undertaking for the city, and promises to transform the east end of Downtown, however its history of development troubled financing and development has kept that area of the town in limbo for years. According to the Washington Business Journal, Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans joked about meeting to discuss the project years ago with Bill Alsup (of Hines, based in Houston), George Washington and Pierre L’Enfant.

But with financing plans now in place, Gray is already touting the achievement of CityCenter as “the last piece of the puzzle for downtown Washington.” If successful, CityCenter would accordingly transform Downtown into a more substantial neighborhood, where citizens don’t only work and go out, but live.

Anchor investor QatariDiar is the real estate investment arm of the Qatari Investment Authority. Barwa Bank’s investment banking subsidiary, The First Investor (TFI), financed the project. TFI will co-invest in and manage the dedicated TFI U.S. Real Estate Fund.

“This effort has been almost a decade in the making, and we look forward to the progress that will be made on the site of the old convention center as this last missing piece of our downtown is redeveloped,” Mayor Gray said. “I am excited about the more than 190 District Certified Business Entities that are involved in the planning, design and construction of this project, and the thousands of construction and permanent jobs that it will create. This is a huge development for the residents of and visitors to our city.”

According to the Washington Post, construction is not scheduled to finish until 2014, and phase 2 will not be done until late 2015 (though it is probably fair to assume unexpected delays and hurdles, as par for the course).

Gray, touting the job opportunities within the project, expects it to create 1,700 construction jobs and almost 4,000 permanent jobs. Nearly 100 local companies have already secured contracts with the development team. [gallery ids="99644,105274" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler •

On any given Sunday, there’s always some foot traffic on Massachusetts Avenue along Embassy Row, especially if the weather is ideal and spring-sunny as it was on May 7.

But hey, what was this: crowds pouring into the British Embassy and coming out with tote bags emblazoned with the flag of England? What were the lines of people snaking around the block, making their way to the Embassy of Greece, the Embassy of Ireland, or the Latvian Embassy? And just what was going on at the Embassy of Finland?

It was the beginning of the fourth annual Passport DC celebration, an ever-increasingly popular city-wide event produced by Cultural Tourism DC, with the participation of over 60 embassies, which fling open their doors to the general public in a wildly successful annual event that celebrates the international presence of world embassies in our city.

Looking at the crowds, you could well agree with Cultural Tourism DC Director Linda Harper, who said: “Passport DC is a chance to honor and explore the many cultures that are represented in Washington, DC. There is no better place to have this grand celebration…a truly global city.”

This all began four years ago when member embassies representing the European Union decided, without out much elaborate planning, to hold open houses for most of their embassies, allowing tourists and residents to come in and visit, meet embassy officials, and share in the cultural offerings and history of the respective countries. Some 70,000 people showed up.

The European Union folks knew they were on to something and joined up with Cultural Tourism DC to produce what is now a month-long celebration of international culture and conviviality. Last year, around 160,000 people participated in the events that make up Passport DC.

Round one was another edition spearheaded by the European Unions called Shortcut to Europe, and the British effort looked to be the splashiest affair, like a sweet hangover from the recent nuptials of Prince William and his Katherine. You could tour the English gardens, which included an impressive, essence-of-horse-nobility sculpture of a horse reputed to be a famous British racehorse whose kidnapping was never solved.

British soldiers, real ones and dressed up ones were there. There was whiskey tasting, music and a bit of English pudding, and it was all very English—proving once again that we may have rebelled against the king to form a more perfect union, but we still love our cousins across the pond.

The embassies were far flung: Ireland, the Brits, Iceland, Latvia, Greece, Luxembourg, Portugal, Finland (all along Mass Ave.), and the Embassy of Austria and Slovakia at International Square, France and Germany on MacArthur Boulevard, and the list goes on. From the looks of it, the celebration will probably exceed last year’s crowds, the weather gods permitting.

This weekend, it’s the All Around the World Embassy Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. all over the city, featuring 35 embassies from six continents. Needless to say, the embassies won’t just be from all over the world, but will be located all over the city. They included the Bahamas—a very popular destination last year where the annual festivities of Juckanoo will play a key part; Australia where you can hear the didgeridoo, an Aboriginal musical instrument, among other activities; Bolivia, which is now called the Plurinational State of Bolivia; Ghana, with a splendid display of its unique arts and crafts; and the Republic of Iraq, a free democracy. In fact, you can blaze a trail through the countries most affected by recent upheavals from Egypt to Bahrain. History in this city is alive and moving full steam ahead.

There will be shuttles available and special bus stops to the various embassies and residences which are scattered throughout the city

Other upcoming events in May include the National Asian Heritage Festival and the Fiesta Asia Street Fair, May 21 at Pennsylvania Avenue between 3rd and 6th Streets, which also celebrates Asian Pacific Heritage Month. Live music, dancing, Pan-Asian Cuisine

May 21 will also feature the annual Meridian International Children’s Festival, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

There will also be special events on a daily basis at embassies, museums, and international cultural centers like the Goethe Institute and the Mexican Cultural Center, including jazz concerts, Kids World Cinema, Embassy Series concerts, the Eurovision Song Contest, workshop and classical music, film and so on.

For a complete list of all the events, times, schedules and locations for Passport DC, go to the Passport DC section of the Cultural Tourism website at www.culturaltourismdc.org