Shiloh Baptist Church hasn't made many friends in Shaw by keeping a string of five properties on 9th Street NW north of P Street—now prime real estate in the fast-changing neighborhood—vacant for about a decade. The neighbors might not even mind as much if the Church were at least open about their plans for the property, but they've been totally opaque (and, needless to say, haven't ever returned my calls or emails).

At Wednesday night's Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2C's meeting, the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs vacant property unit chief Reuben Pemberton detailed the Church's delinquence, and got an earful outside when his presentation ended from churchgoers who thought he was singling them out. "There are vacant properties all over the city!" one huffed. "It's not just Shiloh." Read more Why Shiloh Baptist Church Hangs On to Those Vacant Properties

Office workers of Washington! I need your help. I'm researching the changing role of the institutional cafeteria in this white collar city, and I want to know the best, the worst, the weirdest eateries that companies and government agencies maintain for their employees. Intelligence would be hugely appreciated, and access even more—if you can sign me into your building, I'll be forever grateful. You don't even have to eat with me, unless you want to.

Get in touch: ldepillis@washingtoncitypaper.com

Photo via flickr user SpecialKRB

Still sitting! (GSA)

About a year ago, House Republicans held a hearing on wasteful use of federal government buildings, using the location backdrop of the vacant Old Post Office annex to dramatize the issue. Soon after, the General Services Administration got its act together and invited bids for the costly building, drawing a flurry of proposals—with respondents including Donald Trump and Daniel Libeskind—when the deadline passed in July. They were supposed to have chosen by November, but then postponed it to the next year.

Why the delay? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that the person in charge of the process passed away in January. But no matter. The delay just gives Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Managemen chairman Jeff Denham another punching bag for his general indignation over inefficient use of public buildings, and a chance to push a bill meant to solve the problem. "One year later, this building is still vacant and still costing taxpayers $6 million," says spokeswoman Allie Brandenburger. "It is a perfect example of why we need to pass Chairman Denham’s Civilian Property Realignment Act into law immediately, to eliminate this type of waste from government."

Obligatory GSA statement: "At this time, GSA is still reviewing the proposals to determine the submission that will make the best use of the Old Post Office location. We expect to make an award in early 2012."

The hearing takes place next Thursday, Feb. 9, at 10:00 a.m.

This week, the Georgetown Business Improvement District crowed over the opening of 29 new national and independent businesses in the neighborhood in 2011. Maybe so! But how about those that closed? Georgetown Metropolitan has a more objective handle on the situation, and he found that the city's "shopping playground" actually lost 21 shops and restaurants overall, with 509 establishments open and 117 vacant spaces.

Of course, there are a lot of factors at play here, most notably the expulsion of shops from the Georgetown Mall in preparation for its redevelopment. Today, the Business Journal squeezed a bit of information out of landlord Vornado, which says it's aiming to make space for "seven to a dozen stores," rather than the current "60 or 80." Could the stores that got booted take up those vacant spots in the rest of the neighborhood? Not likely—rents in the mall, especially in the last few years, were dramatically cheaper than the space outside. So by the numbers, at least, Georgetown's retail situation may never look quite as robust as it used to. Obviously, the health of a neighborhood's economy is a much more complicated thing.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

National Building Museum senior vice president G. Martin Moeller Jr. knows the full scope of dreams that have been dreamt about the nation's capitol—after all, he put together a whole exhibit about the ones that didn't work out.* In comparison, the National Park Service's grand plan for the Mall doesn't go very far, focusing mostly on making the landscape more durable for large events and protests. In a subscription-only BizJo editorial today, Moeller outlines the Mall's fundamental problem: Beyond the fact that low residential density in the surrounding area means it's little-used by locals, it also suffers from "long-standing misconceptions about the Mall’s civic significance and its place in the overall urban design of Washington."

The plan calls for a new “welcome plaza” and “high-quality visitor amenities and facilities,” such as food service establishments, nestled within the groves of trees lining the north and south sides of the Mall. Such proposals are encouraging but also appear timid.

The text and drawings in my copy of the plan suggest a small number of unexceptional-looking service structures intended to be “sensitive to the National Mall’s historic context.” Yet those peripheral areas could easily accommodate a substantial number of small cafes and other pavilions, perhaps 10 or more, providing places of respite for tourists and attractive destinations for locals without compromising the character of the broader landscape. Moreover, those little structures could be — should be — exceptional works of architecture in their own right, rather than merely “background” buildings.

For instance, I could imagine a series of elegant, mostly glass pavilions that would be simultaneously less obtrusive and more engaging than the humble, dark wood sheds that dot parks across the country. So while I welcome the Park Service’s initiative to improve the Mall, the current plan—which, in fairness, is conceptual—should be regarded as a baseline rather than the limit of our design aspirations.

Moeller finds hope in the design competition being proctored by the more progressive Trust for the National Mall, but also worries that the mostly out-of-town finalists won't emphasize the Mall's value as a living space for the city's residents, not just visitors. The whole piece is a really heartfelt appeal for a change in how the Mall's caretakers understand its constituency, by a guy who has real establishment cred, and I hope Bob Vogel is reading.

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* UPDATE, 10:05 a.m. – Moeller e-mails to clarify that his remarks are his own, and shouldn't be construed as the opinion of the National Building Museum.

Ward 4 Walmart developer screwed up bad in Silver Spring. [Gazette]

Sucks for you, Red Line commuters. [Examiner]

The buzziest neighborhoods online. [WhereWeLive]

North Capitol firehouse operation gives up the ghost. [PoP]

Signs of life at Washington Gateway. [DCmud]

The National Gallery's East Wing didn't age well. [WBJ]

What to do with old strip malls. [AtlanticCities]

JBG tried to boot fleamarket from Florida Avenue parcel earlier. [Borderstan]

Fair Budget Coalition lays out its agenda for the season. [DCFPI]

House transit bill is bad news, but Senate looks better. [Streetsblog, Streetsblog]

Oh, to be a media outlet owned by a university with means! [CityDesk]

Especially when your landlord says your building will be torn down this fall! [Bisnow]

How the GSA's going to get St. Elizabeths ready for the Coast Guard. [Post]

New renderings for the freeway air rights project, now called an "EcoDistrict." [CityBiz, PGP]

Now that's confidence! Pot equipment shop opens next month on Rhode Island Avenue. [RIAInsider]

Today on the market: Dogs now OK!

Fairly or not, historic preservation often gets pitted against other priorities: Energy efficiency, for example, and economic development. Lately, though, it's the ability to put out fires.

The problem is, federal environmental regulations passed in 2010 require certain bells and whistles—no, not literally—on the sides of fire engines, which makes them just barely able to fit through the doors of some of the District's antique firehouses. On several historically protected buildings, the Historic Preservation Review Board has allowed the doors to be widened, reasoning that the buildings wouldn't be unduly harmed.

But the board couldn't quite stomach the change for two firehouses: One at 4811 MacArthur Drive in the Palisades, and another in Cleveland Park. As the technophobic Northwest Current reports this week, those were both deemed so historically significant that making the doors taller and wider would be incompatible with the preservation of a landmark.

That puts the Fire Department in a pickle, since they now have to appeal their cases to the Mayor's Agent, who could take anywhere from a few months to a year to decide. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Park firehouse is closed, which means the Palisades one has to cover a huge area. That's making lots of neighborhood residents nervous—what if a few minutes is the difference between a the fire being doused and a gas tank exploding?

Read more New Firetrucks Don’t Fit in Old Firehouses. Why Can’t We Widen The Doors?

Private equity billionaire David Rubenstein has become something of a patron saint for D.C.'s treasured cultural possessions recently, donating $4.5 million to save the National Zoo's panda program and another $7.5 million to repair the Washington Monument. But his biggest philanthropic passion is buying pieces of paper—really, really old ones.

He owns the Emancipation Proclamation, which hangs in the Oval Office. He's got the first map of America, on loan to the Library of Congress. Other various and sundry documents rest in the National Archives, and this morning, Rubenstein unveiled the best prize yet: An original copy of the Magna Carta, nearly 800 years old, which had been painstakingly restored by the Archives' staff and placed in a $322,000 aluminum encasement filled with inert gas. Read more David Rubenstein is a Huge Nerd

Put this one down for the District's biggest architectural chameleon: The proposed Adams Morgan Hotel, which submitted its zoning application back in July, has just come out with yet another design, after a jet-black version in November didn't exactly meet with rave reviews. The developers' explanation:

Color changes and the glass façade at the corner of Euclid & Champlain Streets will accentuate the Church Building and incorporate a striking Addition while maintaining the consistency of Adams Morgan architecture, especially as the Addition steps down along Champlain Street. Some original components of the Addition’s façade have been changed to complement the surrounding vernacular and rationalize the scale of the Addition (making it look smaller in height), especially with a recessed top floor. The color and texture of the substantial majority of the Addition’s brick façade was changed to reflect feedback from members of the community. The Adams Morgan Historic Hotel will still be Washington’s only truly green hotel, exceeding LEED Silver certification criteria.

Not sure if that'll mollify the Office of Planning's concerns that the building's still just too big. A full set of renderings after the jump. Read more The Red and the Black: AdMo Hotel Changes Again!

District residents are used to seeing empty pieces of land and learning of the plans that existed for them before, you know, the economy. Usually, with a few notable exceptions, they stalled out in the last crash, and started coming off the shelf again as D.C. emerged as an island of safety in a sea of despair.

Some projects, though, have been on the books for decades. Such is the case with a massive conference center and residential development inside the curve of Irving Street at Michigan Avenue NE near Catholic University, which first got rolling in 1989—and is now looking for yet another extension.

Let’s quickly run through the history, which really starts in 1959, when the federal government transferred jurisdiction of the 5.48-acre property to the District. It was used as a “fringe parking lot” for people commuting into the city until the 1970s, when development of the Metro made the commuter function “obsolete,” and the District began looking for better uses for the site (the parking is currently used by the Washington Hospital Center).  Read more Department of Phantom Projects: When Will Catholic University’s Conference Center Finally Get Started?