Real Estate

Georgetowner • June 18, 2015

1611 31st Street NW

Located near Tudor Place, this stunning residence in a coveted historic block has four bedrooms, five and a half baths and three fireplaces. On the entry level are an office with built-in bookshelves, a bedroom with an en-suite bath and a spacious family room. The generous main floor includes a renovated kitchen and a dining room/living room leading to a large patio. The stunning master suite is on the upper level. Outside, there is an enchanting garden perfect for elegant entertaining or escape.

Offered at $4,550,000
Washington Fine Properties
Nancy Taylor Bubes
804-432-4303
nancy.taylorbubes@wfp.com

Georgetowner • June 3, 2015

Christie’s

“Benefits Supervisor Resting”

Lucian Freud (1922 – 2011)

Auction Date: May 13

Estimate: $30 million – $50 million

Final Selling Price: $56.2 million

Sotheby’s

San Ildefonso Polychrome Lidded Jar

Tony Da (1940 – 2008)

Auction Date: May 21

Estimate: $25,000 – $35,000

Final Selling Price: $68,750

Bonhams

“…Emerging into an opening that appeared to have been formed partly by the ravages of the wind, and partly by those of fire”

N. C. Wyeth (1882 – 1945)

Auction Date: May 20

Estimate: $400,000 – $600,000

Final Selling Price: $1,325,000

Freeman’s

Napoleon III Twin-Handled Urn

Auction Date: May 19

Estimate: $30,000 – $50,000

Final Selling Price: $131,000

Georgetowner •

The Potomack Company

“Indian Capturing an Eagle, No 5”

John Joseph Boyle (1852 – 1917)

Estimate: $15,000 – $25,000

Auction Date: June 13

“Indian Capturing an Eagle, No. 5,” by renowned American artist John Joseph Boyle, depicts a young Native American man kneeling over an eagle and plucking a feather pensively from his catch. The sculpture was cast by New York’s Roman Bronze Works and presented in 1908 as a gift from Boyle to his friend, the industrial artist and art educator Leslie W. Miller

Freeman’s

Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887-1976)

“Peel Park, Salford”

Estimate: $250,000-$350,000

Auction Date: June 16

Lowry’s paintings, featuring factories and textile mills in northern England populated by his iconic “matchstick” men and women, are by no means as naive or simplistic as they appear on first look. The throngs that haunt the canvases were, according to the artist, “part of a private beauty that haunted (me).” Peel Park, Salford, was one of his best-loved subjects. This work will be offered as part of the European Art & Old Master auction.

Christie’s

Grand and Petite Sonnerie Desk Clock,

c. 1925

Cartier, Paris

Estimate: $30,000 – $50,000

Auction Date: June 17

The dial and case of the clock are signed Cartier, Paris, and the movement and case are numbered. Part of Christie’s Auction of Important Watches, this superb piece has several exquisite features, including a white enamel dial, Roman numerals, an outer minute track with Arabic five-minute divisions, diamond-set hands, and a green guilloché case with white enamel border, the top with diamond-set initials.

Sotheby’s

Singing Bird Scent Flask, c. 1790

Estimate: $800,000 – $1,200,000

Auction Date: June 11

Unseen for generations, many of the timepieces in the Swiss Mechanical Marvels collection were created by preeminent artists of the late 18th and early 19th century, such as Jacquet-Droz and Piguet & Meylan. The highlight of the collection is the Singing Bird Scent Flask, a gold-enameled, pearl-and-gem-set piece, made specifically for the Chinese market. Music plays from the bird through a miniature six-pipe organ. The bird’s beak moves realistically, the body swivels and the tail goes up and down

Doyle New York

Gold and White Enamel Bangle Bracelet

Tiffany & Co., Schlumberger, France

Estimate: $8,000 – $12,000

Auction Date: June 11

This 18-kt. gold bracelet, signed Tiffany & Co., is part of Doyle New York’s Auction of Fine Jewelry. Including over 650 lots with more moderate estimates than in the Important Jewelry sales, the showcase includes glittering creations set with diamonds, colored stones and pearls, as well as gold, jewelry, fine watches and gentlemen’s accessories. Among the selection of fine watches for ladies and gentlemen are examples by Patek Philippe, Rolex, Boucheron, Graff, Cartier, Bulgari, Piaget, Blancpain and Tiffany & Co.

Christie’s

Diamond Rivière Necklace

Estimate: $ 1.4 million – $1.8 million

Auction Date: June 22

Part of Bonham New York’s Fine Jewelry Sale, this spectacular rivière comprises a graduated line of 51 round brilliant-cut diamonds weighing more than 70 carats, joined by a heart-shaped clasp weighing 2.04 carats and mounted in platinum. Each of the round diamonds in the necklace have ‘excellent’ grades from the Gemological Institute of America for polish, symmetry and cut — known in the industry as ‘Triple X’ (needless to say, this is extremely rare).

Caitlin Franz • May 22, 2015

Throughout its 125 years, the Secor Group, formerly known as Security Storage Company of Washington, has been led by just six individuals. Chuck Lawrence, who has been with the company for 26 years, is its current leader.

“We’ve reinvented it, while maintaining its history,” Lawrence said.

Secor Group recently revamped its logo and marketing campaigns to mark the milestone. But there will be no celebrations until the fall.

“This is our peak season,” Lawrence said of the summer. “We won’t have an anniversary party until September.”

A global force, the company operates in New Delhi, Belgium, 14 African nations and many other places around the world. About 40 percent of Secor Group’s business comes from D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Connecticut.

With its corporate headquarters on Florida Avenue, adjacent to Adams Morgan, Secor Group has large storage facilities at Dulles Airport and throughout the District, as well as 100,000 square feet of storage in Connecticut.

The company moved our most recent presidents into the White House. Its massive logistical operations support not only the movement of possessions, but also complete relocation services, including finding new housing at the destination, helping to close on the current property, locating schools and activities for children and setting up utilities for new homes.

The company motto has evolved along with its services: from “Keeping in safe custody” in its Security Storage Company of Washington days to “Assurance delivered” under the Secor Group umbrella.

According to Lawrence, it is the technology at the center of these operations that holds the company together. Secor Group is responsible for RedSky, the only software that creates a global database to track all elements of moving and relocation services.

This technology proved to be particularly important during the company’s involvement with shipping resources to West African countries on behalf of the U.S. government during the Ebola crisis.

The software allows clients, such as Anheuser Busch and the Department of State, to monitor the movement of their products and belongings, as well as to stay in constant contact with Secor Group staff.

Lawrence sees opportunities for growth through the acquisition of other companies. Secor recently purchased MilitaryOneClick, a website that receives two million hits a month and aims to provide military families with news and job listings. The company has also started working with Hiring Our Heroes to place veterans in positions throughout its transportation and relocation departments.

“We look to become more actively involved with the military,” Lawrence said.

Locally based and internationally minded, Secor Group appears to have hit on the perfect formula for continued success. All partnerships are highly integrated.

“It’s become like a family for a lot of us,” Lawrence said.

Peter Murray • May 21, 2015

Dubbed the “Queen of Laser” last year by the Washington Post, celebrity dermatologist Tina Alster lives in Georgetown with husband and lobbyist Paul Frazer. Their Federal-style townhome on N and Potomac Streets has been featured in the pages of Architectural Digest and the Wall Street Journal. In various earlier decades, it was a hideout for British spies, persons escaping from slavery and Confederate soldiers. One of its most famous owners was Herman Wouk, author of “The Caine Mutiny,” “The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance.”

Owners after Wouk, Alster and Frazer redesigned the interiors to be simple, modern, elegant and sunny. The N Street house has been on the market for a few months, since Alster and Frazer purchased the penthouse in the Anthony Lanier-developed condo building on Wisconsin Avenue next to the C&O Canal.

If Alster and Frazer end up moving closer to the canal, they’ll be neighbors with National Public Radio CEO Jarl Mohn, who just moved into the same building. Mohn began his storied media career with almost 20 years as a radio DJ, then jumped to an executive position at MTV in the mid-1980s. Years later, he became president and CEO of E! Entertainment Television, best known these days for “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.” He served stints on the boards of XM Radio and the Southern California ACLU, and currently sits on the boards at ComScore (a web analytics company), KPCC Southern California Public Radio and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Another media powerhouse, Fred Ryan, has been living in Georgetown for several years. Ryan, who served as chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan and helped found Politico, transitioned to a new role as publisher of the Washington Post at the end of 2014. He last made news in the neighborhood when he bought the Guards sign that used to identify that famous restaurant, which closed in 2012. The Guards was located at 2915 M St. NW, now the address of Maxime. Ryan lives on Q Street near 30th Street.

Donna Evers • May 11, 2015

Ralph Blane, co-composer with Hugh Martin of “The Trolley Song” – made famous by the 1944 film “Meet Me in St. Louis” – said he was inspired to write the award-winning song after he saw a photo of a trolley car in a 1900 newspaper, captioned, “Clang, clang, clang went the trolley.”

The concept that trolley cars, or streetcars, are nostalgic reminders of a romantic past must be what caught the imagination of at least three recent mayors of Washington, D.C., and that of many of the city’s inhabitants. But before we commit to the current proposed trolley lines, maybe we should take a look at the District’s checkered history with this mode of transportation.

The first form of public transportation in many U.S. cities, including Washington, was horse-drawn trolley cars that had steel tires and ran on rails flush with the pavement. These were popular from the 1860s through the 1890s, when they were replaced with electric trolley cars – a lot cleaner and easier to keep than horses. And, unlike the horse-drawn streetcars, they could climb steep hills, leading to the ever-expanding boundaries of the city and up Wisconsin and Connecticut Avenues to the new suburb of Chevy Chase.

When Congress approved the switch to electric streetcars, it prohibited overhead wiring and insisted that the electric cables be buried in the roads next to the tracks. This caused the system to suffer from the expansion and contraction caused by the summer heat and the winter cold. Historian Robert C. Post noted that the “demands of routine maintenance were relentless.” Nevertheless, streetcars were the main mode of public transportation for Washingtonians for many years.

The streetcars’ demise came about when a perfect storm of problems finally became insurmountable. By 1933, the consolidation of many streetcar companies resulted in the Capital Transit Company, which, in the beginning, had ample funds to deal with the constant repair problems, even though the increase in family-owned automobiles continued to chip away at streetcar ridership. As the number of riders decreased, the company was sold to a group of investors. Paying much less than the company’s value, these investors commenced to reward themselves with large dividends, depleting company reserves.

At the same time, the unions decided that their streetcar workers had gotten cheated out of their share of the riches. In 1951, they went on strike, creating what the AP reported to be “the biggest traffic jam in history,” with people abandoning their cars in the middle of downtown streets next to empty streetcars and trudging the rest of the way to work in the stifling summer heat.

After strikes erupted again in 1955, Congress decided to step in and take the company away from the greedy investors. It was sold to O. Roy Chalk, a New York entrepreneur who had to promise to close down the streetcar system and change it to 100-percent bus service, which he did. The last streetcar line went out of service in 1962. Schoolchildren were given the treat of riding on the last trolley, after which it was shrouded with black crepe and a mourning wreath.

We can only hope that if trolley service ever actually returns to the District, there won’t be a repetition of this history. Meanwhile, we can get in the mood to embrace the concept by singing “The Trolley Song” with Judy Garland, or the song in which Tony Bennett made the little cable cars of San Francisco so unforgettable.

Donna Evers is the owner and broker of Evers & Co Real Estate Inc., the largest woman-owned and woman-run real estate firm in the metropolitan area, and the proprietor of Twin Oaks Tavern Winery in Bluemont, Virginia. Reach her at devers@eversco.com.

Michelle Galler • May 7, 2015

The hobos feared the tramps and the tramps viewed the hobos as suckers for work. Hobos, wandering migrant workers, stopped in a place long enough to do a job and then moved on. Although tramps were traveling men, too, they rarely lifted a finger unless coerced. Yet, in the late 1800s, itinerants of both persuasions jumped the same trains, were locked up in the same jail cells and ate and slept in the same hobo “jungles.”

As they warmed themselves around the campfires and shared stories of their daily survival, the hobos whittled and the tramps carved intricate, and sometimes whimsical, objects that have come to be known as Tramp Art.

From the 1870s to the 1930s, this relatively little-known folk art blossomed. Although it may have originated with displaced individuals, many a farmer, factory worker and laborer turned out his own version of chip-carved and layered pieces in his own home-based workshops.

Actually, the name Tramp Art was applied to this art form in the 1950s. There were more than 40 ethnic groups creating this art in this country. There is even evidence of retired Civil War soldiers making tramp art in their later years.

Also known as chip art, tramp art shares its vocabulary with quilts, since both traditions use salvaged materials cut into geometric shapes and layered together to create utilitarian objects. Using recycled wood, primarily from the then-ubiquitous cigar boxes or produce crates, and with simple pocketknives as their primary tool, these unschooled artisans carved the discarded wood pieces into objects of every conceivable shape.

The art form was driven by the abundance of wooden cigar boxes and their availability to the artists. The wooden boxes were used for cigar sales in the 1850s, and – since revenue laws did not permit the boxes to be used a second time for cigars – enterprising souls found new uses for the boxes. Since the boxes were plentiful, free and easily carved, ornamenting them by chip carving became popular.

The technique consisted of notch-carving each piece of cigar-box wood with consecutive Vs around its edges. Then it was layered with another piece that had been notched similarly, each layer a bit smaller than the preceding one. The artist then had to assemble the individual pieces of carved wood into a recognizable object. Layer upon layer of decorated wood would become a decorative and, typically, functional item.

Another tramp art technique, called the “crown of thorns,” involved the interlocking of small, notched pieces of wood, much like a log cabin is built. The interlocking pieces were layered and formed a star effect.

Tramp art was an “everyman” craft, practiced by humble men who made objects for their own use or, sometimes, for barter: a picture frame for a daughter’s wedding; a jewelry box, festooned with hearts, for a beloved wife; a gift for a friend. These pieces spoke of devotion and love and the need for these workers to make things of beauty. The heart motif is a common one, as were stars and crucifixes.

Many dealers of folk art and antiques sell the myriad forms of tramp art, including boxes, picture frames, religious artifacts and even larger pieces of furniture. Some pieces were painted, and, these days, anything with the rich patina of old paint is sought-after. Many pieces were clear-coated to show the wood grain.

Prices for tramp art have increased significantly within the last decade, especially since American folk art has gained a huge following with collectors and decorators. Folk art – and tramp art, specifically – seems to attract many younger collectors, perhaps due to its whimsical nature.

The value of a piece reflects the intricacy of the object, the uniqueness of the form and the condition, but, generally, good quality examples can range from a couple hundred dollars for a box up to several thousand for an altar or a cabinet. The beauty of collecting this vintage art of hardscrabble origins is in appreciating how such humble materials have yielded such a tremendous breadth of very distinctive work.

Michelle Galler has been an antiques dealer for more than 25 years. Her shop is in Rare Finds, 211 Main Street, Washington, Virginia. She also consults from her 19th century-home in Washington. Reach her at antiques.and.whimsies@gmail.com.
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Georgetowner • May 6, 2015

Sotheby’s
San Ildefonso Polychrome Lidded Jar, New Mexico
Tony Da (1940-2008)
Estimate: $25,000 – $35,000
Auction Date: May 21

Sotheby’s sale of American Indian Art is distinguished by the Charles and Sharon Aberle Collection, which features early and exceptionally fine Navajo blankets. The sale also includes diverse works of Native art from the Great Lakes to the Northwest Coast, comprising basketry, pottery, carvings and jewelry.

Freeman’s
Monumental Napoleon III Bronze Twin-Handled Urn
Estimate: $30,000 – $50,000
Auction Date: May 19

Mounted on a rouge griotte marble pedestal, this urn is offered as part of Freeman’s upcoming sale of English & Continental Furniture and Decorative Arts. The sale will feature rare works of 18th-century porcelain by Chelsea and Worcester, speaking to a period of production that was guided by a fascination with natural forms, driven by advances both in botany and in taste.

Bonhams
“…Emerging into an opening that appeared to have been formed partly by the ravages of the wind, and partly by those of fire,” 1925
Oil on canvas
N. C. Wyeth (American, 1882-1945)
Estimate: $400,000 – $600,000
Auction Date: May 20

The father of Andrew Wyeth, Newell Convers Wyeth was one of the great American illustrators. His “Treasure Island” illustrations are widely considered to be among the greatest of all time. During his lifetime, Wyeth created over 3,000 paintings and illustrated 112 books. The present painting is an illustration from “The Deerslayer” by James Fenimore Cooper.

Doyle New York
Russian Silver Gilt and Cloisonné Enamel Coffee Pot
Workmaster Fedor Ruckert, Moscow, c. 1896-1908
Estimate: $40,000 – $50,000
Auction Date: June 3

Enameled silver is one of Russia’s greatest artistic legacies. The acknowledged master of this work was Fedor Ruckert (1840-1917), a silversmith of German origin working in Moscow in the final years of Romanov rule. This exquisite piece is part of Doyle New York’s auction of 19th- and 20th-century fine and decorative arts, reflecting the opulence of the Belle Époque.

Christie’s
“Benefits Supervisor Resting”
Lucian Freud (1922-2011)
Estimate: $30 million – $50 million
Auction Date: May 13

As part of Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale, this landmark painting by Lucian Freud will go on sale alongside equally monumental works by Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Franz Kline, Hans Hoffman, Jeff Koons, David Smith, Roy Lichtenstein, Wayne Thiebaud, Francis Bacon and others.

Bringing the Hammer Down
Final selling prices for last month’s featured Auction Block items.

Doyle New York
Frida Kahlo Archive
Auction Date: April 15
Estimate: $80,000 – $120,000??
Final Selling Price: $137,000?

Christie’s
Napoleon III Japanese Imari Porcelain Torchères
Auction Date: April 16
Estimate: $120,000 – $180,000
Final Selling Price: $149,000

Bonhams
Fair Copy of Enola Gay Log Book
Auction Date: April 29
Final Selling Price: $50,000

Sotheby’s
“Silent Seasons – Summer No. II”
Will Barnet (1911-2012)
Auction Date: April 23
Estimate: $60,000 – $90,000
Final Selling Price: $118,750

Freeman’s
Special Minguren I Coffee Table
George Nakashima (1905-1990)
Auction Date: April 22
Estimate: $30,000 – $50,000?
Final Selling Price: $55,000

Sallie Lewis • April 28, 2015

This year’s Georgetown House Tour offers a wide range of residences in Washington’s oldest neighborhood. A star on the tour is at 35th and Prospect Streets: Quality Hill-Worthington House, built in 1798. Sen. Clairborne Pell, D-R.I., and his wife Nuala lived there from the 1960s to about 10 years ago. As with the other places on the tour, what a story this house with its occupants in mind could tell, besides the lesson in architecture and design. Books, such as “The Georgetown Set,” “Aspects of Georgetown” or even the novel, “Prospect Street,” can add to the conversation. Your chance to hear such whispers by the windows comes this Saturday.

With spring in full bloom, Georgetown has never looked better. Every year, the neighborhood charms locals and visitors alike with its historic buildings and distinct panache. The streets are famously colored with homes in every hue, from lavender to canary yellow – and classic red brick – but this diversity extends well beyond the playful color palette.

A closer inspection of Georgetown homes reveals the range of architectural styles that have influenced the neighborhood over the course of its rich history. The Georgetown House Tour, which celebrates its 84th anniversary this year, is a unique opportunity for people to go back in time and witness this stylistic diversity firsthand.

This year, the tour includes ten stops, each with its own architectural flair. Clues to each home’s time period and style can be found in many different places, from the design of the roof to the amount of cornice ornamentation.

“There’s really something charming and magical about being able to go into all these old homes in one day,” said the Rev. Gini Gerbasi, the new rector at St. John’s Church, which hosts the tour.

When Georgetown was founded in 1751, Georgian design was the ubiquitous architectural style. Up until the Revolutionary War, homes were classically designed, with square or rectangular facades and symmetrically spaced windows. Front doors were paneled and accompanied by decorative pilasters and a transom light. This year, the first stop on the tour is the Quality Hill mansion, built in classic Georgian style, with a storied history to match.

Federal architecture followed, influenced by the lines of its Georgian predecessor. Most homes were two to three stories tall, with box-shaped, symmetrical exteriors, yet there were several distinguishing modifications.

Larger panes of glass were used in the windows and louvered shutters were introduced. Front doors became more expressive, with semicircular or elliptical fanlights and narrow side lights. Entry porticos or porches were commonly added, as were three-part Palladian windows, generally on the second story above the entrance.

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Washingtonians welcomed new architectural ideas and embraced worldly influences. One example of this is the Italianate style, a departure from classicism and an acceptance of artistic freedom. Italianate homes have a sense of romantic lavishness to them, with their elaborate moldings, overhanging eaves and high stoops. Stop #5 on the tour is a fitting example, with its rich ornamentation, including detailed cornice brackets and lintels.

Stop #7 is the Renwick Chapel at Georgetown’s famed Oak Hill Cemetery. Notice the gates and the gatehouse, which are Italianate in style, while the chapel design is Gothic Revival. The Gothic Revival style came about in the mid 19th century as designers became increasingly influenced by medieval motifs and themes. Inside the chapel, visitors will notice the pointed arches, steeply pitched roof, gilded decorative plaster ceiling bosses and stunning Gothic windows.

By the 1880s, many architectural elements of the Georgian era were being embraced and revitalized in a style appropriately known as Colonial Revival. This was a conscious return to American’s past architectural heritage and colonial beginnings.

Gerbasi loves the neighborhood’s rich history and is particularly drawn to St. John’s roots, which go back more than 200 years. The world has changed around it over the decades, but the church’s mission of serving the neighborhood has remained constant. Every year, the house tour helps the church maintain its historic building and supports its aid to communities inside and outside the parish.

“St. John’s is a de facto community center,” said Barbara Wolf, co-chair of the House Tour. Among the nonprofit community service organizations – with a focus on homelessness, education, workplace development and seniors – that the Georgetown House Tour helps provide for are the Georgetown Ministry Center, Bright Beginnings, Jubilee Jobs and the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project.

The 2015 Georgetown House Tour, on Saturday, April 25, is sponsored by TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, Beasley Real Estate, Christie’s Long & Foster, Doyle New York and Farrow & Ball.

Locations of the properties listed in the Georgetown House Tour book. Tickets are available online for $50 and at St. John’s for $55. GeorgtownHouseTour.com

Sallie Lewis • April 23, 2015

Susan C. Piedmont-Palladino is an architect, a professor of architecture and a curator at the National Building Museum. Here she answers some of our questions on sustainability in D.C.:

The Georgetowner: At the National Building Museum, you tell stories of architecture, design and engineering. Is sustainable architecture historic or is this a new phenomenon?

Piedmont-Palladino: In many ways, sustainability is a rebranding of what we used to call common sense. For most of human history, we designed and built as if our survival was at stake, because it was. Had our ancestors not been so successful at sustainable architecture, we wouldn’t be here.

The coal-fired industrial revolutions, and then the age of oil, made it possible to do things we couldn’t do before: extract, transport and construct with materials from far away, heat and cool homes, chill food and water. Those are all wonderful achievements, but over the past few generations we forgot how to build sustainably.

One of my favorite examples of this forgetting – I call it “technology-induced amnesia” – is right on the outside walls of so many Washington houses: wooden shutters. Everyone loves how they look, but no one uses them anymore to do what they do best, which is keep the hot sun out, but let the breezes in.

The Georgetowner: What do you think the future of sustainable architecture entails, especially in D.C.?

Piedmont-Palladino: Washington is well positioned for a greener future for many reasons. First, the city has made green building a priority in new construction through a series of laws beginning with the Green Building Act in 2006, and more recently the 2014 Green Building Code. The city is home to the headquarters of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the organization that developed the LEED system. It’s not just single buildings, though, that make a difference in the environment. We have to address energy, water and air quality at the scale of the city. Public transportation, sidewalks with trees and rain gardens, bicycle lanes – all these are crucial.

The Georgetowner: What does LEED mean?

Piedmont-Palladino: LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.” Designing a building involves a mind-boggling number of decisions, so when you see that plaque on the wall, it means the team that designed and constructed the building made those decisions with energy and environmental stewardship as their top priority.
Designing to LEED standards prompts architects and their clients to think not only about energy efficiency but also indoor air quality, where all the rainwater goes, how the building’s inhabitants get to work, where all the materials come from. There are different levels of LEED certification, with LEED Platinum being the highest.

The Georgetowner: How do you think D.C. is doing as far as getting on board with the green movement?

Piedmont-Palladino: One of the important reasons that our city is increasingly seen as a leader in sustainability is that we’re experiencing a big change in attitude. That has to happen in order for sustainability to stick. Think of historic preservation: we now think twice before we demolish an old building. We have standards and institutions to help us assess the value of a building, to decide whether it deserves protection. That was a huge shift in attitude from the midcentury attitude of “tear it all down and make it new.” Not only is historic preservation a model for how we can recalibrate our opinions of what’s beautiful and valuable, it’s also an indispensable partner in sustainability.

The Georgetowner: If we took a green building tour in D.C., where should we stop?

Piedmont-Palladino: The USGBC’s website is a great place to start. You can search by location and see all the LEED buildings in that area. Many on the list are office buildings, where you might be able to peek into a great lobby, like the one that Gensler designed at 800 17th St., but there are also LEED charter schools, grocery stores and hotels.

My list of must-sees would include the embassies of Finland and Canada, the National Portrait Gallery and each of the District’s renovated branch libraries. What’s great about that beginning list is that these aren’t just environmentally responsible buildings, they’re wonderful places to be, and they contribute to the life of the city. That’s real sustainability.

For more information, visit nbm.org.