The NorThwesT CurreNTWednesday, February 3, 2016 Serving Communities in Northwest Washington Since 1967 Vol. XLIX, No. 5

Calendar/20Classifieds/29 District Digest/5Exhibits/21In Your Neighborhood/18Opinion/8

Police Report/6Real Estate/17School Dispatches/16Service Directory/27Sports/11Week Ahead/3

INDEXBUSINESS

Meat-light BeefsteakVeggie-focused eatery set to add Tenley location to join Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom sites / Page 3

NEWS

Renovation advancesContentious overhaul of Friendship Rec Center set for completion this fall / Page 2 Tips? Contact us at newsdesk@currentnewspapers.com

SPORTS

Sidwell snaps streakQuakers boys basketball defeats local archrival Maret for the first time in three years / Page 11

By MARK LIEBERMANCurrent Staff Writer

Jeff Clemens spent almost half a year recovering from a life-threatening illness at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He spent much of his free time regaining his physical and emotional strength in the campus’s historic chapel.

“It spoke to my heart, it healed my body and answered my spirit,” Clemens said.

Now Clemens, a longtime Army chaplain who returned from the war in Afghanistan in 2011, wants to see the 1931 building remain a functioning house of worship for future generations of military mem-bers.

And now that the Walter Reed campus has been closed and slated for redevelopment — with the area around the chapel being turned over to the State

Department for a complex of embassies — Clemens wants the chapel to be relocated. His dream is for it to join the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Va., in time to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I in November 2018.

But he’ll face significant legal hurdles in his pur-See Chapel/Page 4

Chaplain seeks to move chapel at Walter Reed

Brian Kapur/The CurrentDespite requests to move the 1931 chapel to Virginia, officials say preservation rules mean it will likely stay in place at the former Army campus.

By MARK LIEBERMANCurrent Staff Writer

The fledgling Van Ness Main Streets group hired its first execu-tive director last month after an exhaustive search that initially narrowed down 22 candidates. But if the organization’s president, Mary Beth Ray, hadn’t procrasti-nated, the outcome might have been different.

At one point last year Ray, who is also a Forest Hills advisory

neighborhood commissioner, planned to participate in a webinar about cultural development hosted by the national Main Streets orga-nization. But she took her time signing up. “It’s not like they’re going to run out of chairs,” Ray said.

They did, though. To catch up on what she missed, Ray decided to reach out to the instructor, whom she assumed would be in a faraway city like New York or Chicago. To her surprise, the response came nearby Silver Spring, Md.

After hitting it off on the phone, See Van Ness/Page 15

Van Ness Main Streets head aims to boost arts activities

By CUNEYT DILCurrent Correspondent

In a departure from many pre-vious at-large D.C. Council races, this year’s Democratic field has remained narrow, with the two opponents challenging incumbent Vincent Orange promising a com-

petitive contest. David Garber, a former Navy Yard advisory neighborhood com-missioner, filed to run in August. Joining the pack in December was 2014 at-large candidate Robert White, who most recently was director of community outreach for D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine. The latest fundraising totals available from the Office of Campaign Finance Monday show Orange with a war chest of

$145,479 on hand, while White and Garber each have roughly $50,000 cash remaining after expenditures. With the March 16 deadline approaching for candidates to file for the primary, the city is also waiting to see what former Mayor Vincent Gray decides to do. After federal investigators dropped the nearly five-year-long investiga-tion into his 2010 mayoral cam-

See Council/Page 14

Dems see three-way race for at-large

By MARK LIEBERMANCurrent Staff Writer

Wilson High School students have been generat-ing a lot of headlines lately — but not for the reasons the community might want.

Just last week, six Wilson students — five male and one female — were arrested in the Woodley Park Metro station after allegedly punching a fellow rider at the Gallery Place-Chinatown station. Around 30 minors were kicked out of the Metro at Woodley Park, according to media reports.

This incident comes a little more than a week after another Metro-related crime on Jan. 20, when a Wil-son student was stabbed outside the Tenleytown sta-tion shortly after school let out. Wilson also made headlines in December, when a student brought a semiautomatic handgun into the school.

The events have inspired a range of responses from community members. Some believe the high

school should be held responsible for its students’ behavior even outside of its halls. Others caution that the incidents represent a small fraction of the Wilson population.

See Wilson/Page 15

Arrests yield call for Wilson safety focus

■ Politics: Gray said to plan bid in Ward 7, not citywide

Brian Kapur/Current file photoSome parents and community leaders say Wilson High’s administrators should do more to address students’ off-campus behavior.

■ Business: Director brings experience on national level

Brian Kapur/The CurrentAlthough last week’s blizzard delayed the start of the annual Washington Auto Show, visitors of all ages were able to get behind the wheel of a slew of vehicles, ranging from sporty Chevrolet Corvettes to off-road rides. The event opened on Jan. 26 and ended Sunday.

SHOW CAR

The jewel-like mid-century modernist home at 3025 Arizona Ave. NW proves

that big things come in small

packages. Although the home is 2,450 square feet inside, the wide outdoor patio, multi-level yard and walls of windows stretch the living space from inside to out-side. Like a Mondrian painting, with white-and-black grids and splashes of color, this house packs a design punch. Students of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius designed it in 1961, while recent renovations made the living spac-es more comfortable and versa-tile. This art-lover’s dream house on a third-of-an-acre lot in the Palisades/Kent area is listed for $1,899,000. The house perches on a hill on the well-landscaped lot with enough trees to offer privacy, while wraparound windows on the second floor reflect the sur-rounding greenery to create an illusion of structure emerging out of a forest. A rock garden tucked

beside the walkway continues the interplay of spontaneity and order right to the orange front door. The first floor features a guest suite with a sunny bedroom and a bathroom with double sinks and walk-in shower, as well as a sepa-rate sitting area and a second bathroom. The hidden bonus is the kitchenette, with full-size refrigerator and freezer, making this versatile space suitable for both short- and long-term guests. The whole interior of the house offers intuitive design with Eastern and Western influence. A European open staircase leads from the first floor to the second, where the open-floor-plan living/

dining/kitchen area has a distinct-ly Northern European feel, a nod to the Bauhaus roots. Sliding and pocket doors throughout the house add an Asian touch and create space efficiency. Because the home fits into a hillside, the first floor sits above ground only on the front and sides; the second floor opens directly onto the backyard through the living, dining and kitchen area. The design of this combined family area melts the divides between social and work spaces, and between indoor and outdoor. The entire back wall of the second floor is glass, which — combined with a wall of mir-

rors and windows beside the can-tilevered fireplace, plus a skylight — creates a sense of sitting out-side in the elements. Watching a rainstorm or snowfall in this house would be an immersive experience. The kitchen continues the East-meets-West theme, through custom-built European solid wood cabinetry and a collection of Miele appliances suitable for cuisines from both sides of the globe. Each panel in the kitchen opens to reveal ingenious storage, or hidden appliances, like the

Miele refrigerator and freezer. Highlights are two combination ovens — convection, microwave and steam — as well as an ener-gy-efficient induction teppanyaki-style grill and wok cooktop. A Liebherr wine cooler stands with-in reach for entertaining. The master bedroom furthers the dynamic of the outdoors brought in, with floor-to-ceiling windows that transition into full transom windows. As in the whole of the house, the wall space is deliberately apportioned

A Look at the Market in Northwest Washington February 3, 2016 ■ Page 17

Modernist home packs a lot into small space

Photos courtesy of Long & Foster Real EstateThis three-bedroom, four-bath mid-century modernist home at 3025 Arizona Ave. NW is priced at $1,899,000.

ON THE MARKET LEE cannon

See Arizona/Page 26

17 Real Estate

26 wedNesday, February 3, 2016 The CurreNT

as cars, Star Wars or board games. After all the clubs are announced, students go back to their respec-tive classrooms and fill out an online form with their top three choices for clubs. After voting, there is a ringing of voices in the halls of St. Albans. Everyone is asking his friends, “What clubs did you pick?” There are many new clubs this year. Poker club, which is reserved for eighth-graders, has been revived after a short hiatus. There is a new club for students inter-ested in ancient Rome. The knit-ting club is for kids who want to try something new — maybe they can learn to make sweaters! Final-ly, Coffee Talk is a discussion cir-cle where members drink coffee

and learn about current issues. We are all looking forward to another fantastic club season.

— Will Kiernan, Form II (eighth-grader)

St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School On Jan. 14, St Patrick’s upper school students participated in the annual National Geographic Geography Bee. To qualify for the event, students first competed in their own classrooms. In the sec-ond round, each class winner com-peted against other class winners from the same grade. The grade-level winners moved onto the schoolwide finals on Thursday. The school-wide winners will go to the state finals, and the state-wide winners will go to the nation-al competition. The winner of the national competition will get a scholarship to any college as a

prize. In the first round, we answered questions about continents, coun-tries, regions and states. Four of my friends moved on to the sec-ond round. The next day, we lined up to go to another classroom for the grade-wide finals. As we filed in, the teacher read instructions. The class winners sat down on chairs facing different directions, and the spectators sat in rows by class on the floor. The contestants were handed whiteboards, mark-ers and erasers. Each contestant had three strikes. If a contestant answered incorrectly three times, he or she was disqualified. Contestants heard questions, wrote their answers and, when asked, showed the judges. This went on until only four contestants were left. The winners were my friends Julian and Robby. The third per-

son would serve as a backup, and the fourth would be a “backup for the backup.” Everybody congratu-lated them for winning and wished them good luck in the school finals! — Joshua Ballenger, fourth-grader

Sheridan School Currently the fifth-grade class at Sheridan School is learning about economics. As part of our learning, three economists visited us. They work for the International Monetary Fund. They talked to us about supply and demand. Supply and demand is how the amount of goods and/or services relates to the amount of consumers wanting to buy the services and/or goods. One thing they showed us was the supply and demand curve. The three economists told us about what would happen if the supply went up or down, and what would

happen if the demand went up or down. They also gave us many scenarios of supply and demand. We also had conversations about the problems with supply and demand and how we could fix them. Another thing we talked about was supply and demand in other countries. I thought the talk was very interesting and I learned a lot. I think that talking to people who work on the economy every day gave me another perspective on the economy. Having multiple per-spectives on the economy will help me learn about the economy because I will be able to think dif-ferently and have more questions and new ideas. In conclusion, I think this was an inspiring and educational talk, and it helped my classmates and me learn about the economy.

— Gwyneth Field, fifth-grader

DISPATCHESFrom Page 16

another middle school. After the expansion, said Reem, “they can go to middle school in the community that they love, that they’ve been part of since they were 5 years old.” The changes affect only the campus at 16th Street and Fort Stevens Drive NW, where stu-dents begin in the second grade. Younger students are housed in a separate campus about a mile south, at 4715 16th St. NW, which isn’t slated for any changes. Private school expansions are often controversial affairs in D.C. neighborhoods, with nearby resi-dents worried about extra noise, density and traffic. But the Jewish Primary Day School won letters of support from the Shepherd Park Citizens Association, the Brightwood Community Association, the 16th Street Heights Civic Association and these communities’ advisory neighborhood commission, ANC 4A. The support did not go unno-ticed at the Board of Zoning Adjustment’s Jan. 12 hearing. “It’s kind of unusual to get an enrollment cap changed before the BZA without people raising con-cerns, either from the ANC or the immediate neighbors or what have you,” board member Peter May told school officials. “So whatever you did to make this work, you’ve done very well and it’s commend-able.” Asked in the interview what the trick was to avoiding opposi-tion, Reem responded: “There’s no trick — it’s a lot of hard work. … We really work hard in mini-mizing the impact to the neighbor-hood, and our neighbors recognize that.” To mitigate traffic concerns, Jewish Primary encourages car-pooling and has already provided 40 percent subsidies for students

who ride buses to school. Trans-portation consultant Nicole White recently told residents that as of last spring, 48 percent of the cur-rent student body came by bus, 25 percent in carpools and 27 percent were driven alone. Additionally, the school will provide 25 off-site parking spaces for staff at a Chevy Chase, Md., synagogue. At the zoning board hearing, ANC 4A commissioner Dave Wil-son praised both the bus subsidies and the off-site parking spaces. “We’re in agreement that they are doing all the right things to mini-mize the impact of traffic on the neighborhood,” he testified. As part of Jewish Primary’s zoning approval, only a certain number of average daily vehicle trips are allowed for the campus, and the school must implement more stringent transportation demand management strategies if those limits are exceeded. In addition to the transportation and enrollment matters, the school received permission to construct a three-story addition on the east side of the existing building; to tear down a multipurpose room on the south end of the existing build-ing to construct a regulation gym with a playing field on its roof; to build a small addition and third floor on the north side of the exist-ing building; and to reconstruct the center of the building to create a chapel with an entrance to 16th Street. Reem, the head of school, said officials are currently in the midst of a $500,000 fundraising cam-paign to cover most remaining costs of the expansion. The school hopes to break ground in June 2017, with construction lasting 14 months. “We are excited and we are looking forward to staying in the community for a very long time,” she said. Current staff contributed to this report.

EXPANSION: Jewish Primary DayFrom Page 3

to create spaces for works of art, making it ideal for collectors. A separate master bathroom offers a free-standing soaking tub and glassed-in shower. The vanity pro-vides countertop space between sinks fitted with Duravit fixtures. The third bedroom, also on the second floor, mir-rors the L-shaped window pattern. In the adjacent bathroom, back-to-back doors can close off the space to create an en-suite room, or open it up to the family area. In addition to appealing to art and architecture aficionados, this home is a good match for nature lov-ers looking to spend half their time outdoors. The spacious patio and elevated backyard — accessible via a zigzagging rock stack and gravel pathway — are just as inviting as the home’s interior. This house would ideally suit a couple, a small family or empty nesters looking to transition into a new lifestyle. The convenient location is close to MacArthur Boulevard NW restaurants, Key Elemen-tary and Chain Bridge; it’s a short drive, bus trip or

bike ride away from American University, Whole Foods and the Tenleytown Metro station. The three-bedroom, four-bath house at 3025 Ari-zona Ave. NW is listed for $1,899,000 by Long & Foster Real Estate. For details, contact Michael Shapiro at moderncapital@gmail.com or 301-503-6171 or Sean Satkus at seansatkus@me.com or 703-887-2116.

ARIZONA: Modernist home packs in amenitiesFrom Page 17

As described by Williams, Benedict Jost immigrated from Sweden and arrived in Washington sometime around 1847. He earned enough money with his wholesale wine business downtown to pur-chase the 42-acre lot, building the country villa there for rentals in 1859.

After Jost died in 1882, fellow downtown business owner Gustav Kuhn and his family acquired the house, living there for the next 27 years. By the beginning of the 20th century, real estate develop-ment had grown popular in that part of the city, leading Kuhn to sell the property to James Holmes. The Holmes Realty firm organized the Jost-Kuhn house and several other adjacent properties into a complex called the 16th Street Highlands. Holmes owned it until 1919, when he sold the entire Highlands property.

Eventually the house fell into the hands of Bowen, now retired from a job at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The Crest-wood resident now spends the equivalent of a full-time job fixing and restoring properties he’s accrued over his decades in the city. He also owns rental proper-ties at 1352 Madison, next door to the Jost-Kuhn house, as well as another historic landmark at 1421 W St. NW in Shaw.

“It keeps me busy,” Bowen said. “It gives me something to do.”

The Jost-Kuhn House joins the Second Empire-style Van View property at 7714 13th St. NW and the Lightfoot House at 1329 Mis-souri Ave. NW among recently designated historic landmarks commemorating a bucolic past. Washington County encompassed areas outside the federal district of downtown Washington and the port of Georgetown until 1871,

when Congress consolidated the county, Georgetown and Washing-ton City under a newly constituted government of the District of Columbia.

Historic preservation board members offered unanimous sup-port for the landmark designation following Williams’ presentation at Thursday’s meeting.

“There aren’t too many of these left, and I think it’s important to preserve them,” board member Andrew Aurbach said. “It does show the development of the city.”

The Scheele-Brown Farmhouse at 2207 Foxhall Road NW, another relic of the Washington County era, remains under consideration for historic landmark status.

Though Bowen said he has had less energy to devote to his his-toric properties recently, he’s eager to see the unique character of the Jost-Kuhn House formally recog-nized. “It just adds to the character of the neighborhood,” he said.

LANDMARK: Country villa earns historic designationFrom Page 3

Photo courtesy of Long & Foster Real EstateThis Arizona Avenue NW home was designed by students of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius.

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