The Adams Morgan Development Rundown

By Nena Perry-Brown

Republished with permission from UrbanTurf, an authority on all things DC real estate. Be sure to read UrbanTurf for your daily real estate fix.

As spring draws nearer, UrbanTurf

continues its look at the residential devel-opment pipeline in the DC area by revis-iting what’s on tap for Adams Morgan. While some develop-ments in this neigh-borhood have had an uphill battle, others are matter-of-right and on-schedule and still others are shrouded in mystery. [InTowner editor’s note: other neighborhoods report-ed on by Urban Turf are noted at the end of this article.]

1773-1777 Columbia Road, NWPlans were recently unveiled for 1773-

1777 Columbia Road NW (map), where Foxhall Partners is building a by-right mixed-use development. Including the first-floor retail façade, which will be retained and restored for use as a 9,500 square-foot retail space, the final project will be a six-story, 80-unit apartment building.

Delivery of the Streetsense-designed building is anticipated for the third

quarter of 2018; the building will also provide 30 below-grade parking spaces. Eventually, Foxhall will also develop the adjacent buildings at 1767-1771 Columbia Road.

SunTrust Plaza RedevelopmentAfter a tenuous year of back-and-

forth with the community and various neighborhood and regulatory agencies, PN Hoffman and Potomac Investment Properties have been granted historic approval to redevelop what may be the flagship parcel of the Adams Morgan

neighborhood: the SunTrust Bank and plaza at 1800 Columbia Road NW (map).

The plan is to construct a six-story condominium building

with 52 units and two or more retail tenants on the ground floor, likely including a café or res-taurant with outdoor seat-ing. The building will also have a roof deck, bike storage room and an underground parking

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McMillan Park Redevelopment Sinks Further into the Muck

By William G. Schulz*

A series of early April filings with the DC Zoning Commission raises the smell of

corruption and levels of bureaucratic muck now surrounding — perhaps engulfing — the city’s highly controversial plans to redevelop McMillan Park Reservoir, an historic site which spans the Bloomingdale and LeDroit Park neighbor-hoods just to the west of North Capitol Street and the seven-square block Stronghold neigh-borhood across North capitol in Northeast.

Through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, Friends of McMillan Park (FOMP) — the neighbor-hood organization long opposed to redevelopment of the site as planned by developers Vision McMillan Partners (VMP) — has produced more documen-tary evidence of credible allega-tions of malfeasance and bribery

that the city has long kept buried.The filings with the Zoning Commission

are part of so-called “remand hearings” now being held in response to a DC Court of

image—courtesy Vision McMillan Partners.

Architect’s depiction showing the proposed medical office building for the north end of the site.

Cont., MCMILLAN, p. 3

illus.—dc.urbanturf.com

Architect’s rendering showing 1773-’77 Columbia Road NW.

illus.—dc.urbanturf.com

Architect’s rendering of the SunTrust Plaza redevelopment as viewed from across 18th Street with Columbia Road to the far right.

Cont., DEVELOPMENT, p. 4

Disappearing Gas Stations in DC Raising ConcernBy Larry Ray*

What is happening with the Dupont Circle’s iconic, historic landmarked

gas station building at 22nd and P Streets, N.W? Built in 1936, its limestone-clad neoclassical design was intended to reflect the aesthetic of the Church of the Pilgrims located opposite, on the rise on the north

side of P Street.One year ago, a developer Marx Realty

purchased the site and engaged the services of DC-based architect Shalom Baranes, who produced three plans. Each involved relocating the historic gas station building closer to P Street and constructing behind it a nine-story, 34-unit residential building

facing on 22nd Street with two levels of underground parking, including 3,000 square feet of retail, some of which would be located in the former gas sta-tion building.

The Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB), along with the Dupont Circle ANC, let it be known that they did not like any of the three plans. Further, the Office of Planning’s Historic Preservation Office (HPO) Historic Planning Office (HPO) had recommended against the plans, find-ing them to be incompatible with the surrounding streetscape and view shed. At the request of the applicant fol-lowing the publication of the HPO staff report, the scheduled November

photo—Larry Ray—The InTowner.

Recently closed Sunoco (originally Embassy) gas sta-tion showing the site around the building as it was being cleared. The station’s operator had been paying an annual rent of $400,000. Cont., GAS STATIONS, p. 5

Page 2 • The InTowner • April 2017

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From the Publisher’s Desk...By P.L. Wolff

Will 2017 be the Year DCRA Finally Shapes Up?

Four months ago we featured a news story reporting on myriad, ongoing complaints about the District’s department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) in

which were headlined a number of these service complaints and with our reporter observ-ing that “based on what we heard from these independent neighborhood business own-ers, the question seems to be, what should the District’s elected representatives do with DCRA?” (See, “DCRA ‘Customers’ Say Bad Service Continues Even After Decades of Promised Relief; Officials Say No,” January 2017 issue.)

Well, based on what we just read in At-Large Councilmember Robert C. White, Jr.’s constituent e-newsletter of April 6th, it would appear that at least one member of our city council is rising to the challenge. In outlining the importance of the recently concluded two-month round of oversight hearings conducted by all of the council’s committees with respect to the departments, agencies, and programs for which they are responsible for overseeing, Councilmember White clearly stated his commitment to that process:

“The District Government has improved significantly over the years, but we still have room to grow to meet the needs of the residents we serve. I believe that strong oversight often is just as effective as new legislation, which is why oversight over our local agencies is one of the Council’s most important responsibilities.”

One of the departments that the council member reviewed was DCRA., and we were especially interested in his views given that we had recently reported on its problems and about how officials were aiming to institute long overdue improvements. Here is what he had to say:

“DCRA has an enormous impact on the lives of people in our city. From enforcing housing codes to granting business licenses, their responsibilities factor into our safety and quality of life. So, I took the opportunity during the oversight process to shed light on areas where the agency must improve.

“I was particularly concerned about substandard inspections of rental properties without any enforcement, and illegal construction that contributes to shoddy home redevelop-ments and damage to neighboring properties. I was not convinced that DCRA fully rec-ognizes the magnitude of illegal construction or how it affects residents. I also explained how DCRA needs to step up their enforcement on vacant and blighted properties, which impact neighborhoods that are struggling to turn the corner. I was clear that I will con-tinue to examine their performance on these fronts.

“I also pushed DCRA to improve their business licensing processes because I continue to hear complaints about how difficult it is for businesses to open in the District. DCRA expressed that it believes its processes and timelines are strong. I think residents disagree, so I will continue to work with my Council colleagues to make the agency more respon-sive.”

We were particularly struck by what White wrote in his third paragraph, that notwith-standing assertions by the department’s representatives about its processes and timelines being “strong,” he made clear to those officials that he is keenly aware residents and busi-ness persons very well know otherwise, and so “will continue to work . . . to make the agency more responsive” (emphasis ours).

We applaud the council member’s strong statement of commitment to following though; we interpret it as a pledge to virtually “bird-dog” DCRA’s director to finally and once for all do something that prior department heads and mayors have pledged but never accomplished: a real change for the better.

As we reported in our January news story, Joaquin McPeek, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, told our reporter “the Mayor spent a week at the agency with the leadership and staff identifying ways to make policies and processes more stream-lined, efficient and consumer-friendly.”

A good start, but we would have been much more impressed if McPeek had told us that the mayor had spent meaningful time with small business owners and residents who have had bad experiences so as to hear directly from the people most adversely affected.

McPeek, according to what our reporter learned, stated that there will be “new pro-grams in 2017 aimed at improving DCRA and raising its level of customer service to all DC residents.” We will hold Mayor Bowser to that promise.

Copyright © 2017 InTowner Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §107 & 108 (“fair use”).

DC Historic Designs, LLC provides a wide range of historic preservation and architectural services for owners and caretakers of historic properties.

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Residential and commercial designs Restorations and rehabilitations Architectural and historic research National Register/Landmark nominations Historic preservation policy compliance

Page 3 • The InTowner • April 2017

Appeals decision issued Dec. 28, 2016, that brought VMP’s project to a screeching halt. As reported by The InTowner, in a unanimous decision by a three-judge pa nel the court vacated the commis-sion’s remapping and Planned Unit Development (PUD) deci-sions that were a greenlight for subdividing and redeveloping the 25-acre McMillan site. In fact, Mayor Muriel Bowser held a groundbreaking ceremony at the site just one day before release of the court’s decision which effec-tively shut the project down once again.

One of the newly released docu-ments, a June, 2011 letter to for-mer Mayor Vincent Gray, from an anonymous ANC 5C commissioner, stated that the commissioners were “being bom-barded and even bullied to take a vote on the McMillan development plan by MVP, particularly EYA [one of the developer part-ners that also includes Trammel Crow and Jared Lynch]. We have been offered gifts of money, meals and ball game tickets, etc. They have approached us with offers to help us in ‘anything. . . . This is corruption and it comes at a time when the city is already under scrutiny. . . .”

The letter writer further stated, “I under-stand that McMillan has been a long time in the making, but it is not fair that we are being pushed to the point of being bullied to hurry up and vote of [sic] this.”

Another letter uncovered through the FOIA process and filed by FOMP with the Zoning Commission strongly rebuts VMP and the city’s conclusion that VMP’s high-density development of the site is the only plan that can work:

“The demolition of 90% of the under-ground vaults, paired with new construc-tion of buildings reaching up to 115 feet high, is not necessary,” Paul Millstein, a vice president of local developer, Douglas Development Corporation, wrote to city officials in October 2014. “Proceeding with such a design would be destructive to the fabric of the land without just cause. The cost-reward implications to the community and to the District does not justify such a high-density development.”

The DC Mayor’s office and City Council have been repeatedly criticized for choosing VMP through a questionable, no-bid con-tract, and for also refusing to hear credible alternatives to VMP’s radical redevelopment plan.

Kirby Vining of FOMP and the McMillan Park Advisory Group says he has informa-tion that the Mayor’s office may be con-ducting an investigation of the criminal allegations made by the anonymous ANC commissioner to former Mayor Gray.

The McMillan project remains on an indefinite hold as the Zoning Commission tries to make its way through the list of remands from the Court of Appeals. Jason Klein, one of the attorneys who argued the case for FOMP and affiliated opposition par-ties, suggests that is a tall order.

“What the [court] said was not that what the Zoning Commission did was not allowed, but the way they went about it is illegal,” Klein told a University of the District of Columbia Law School-hosted forum in late March. The Zoning Commission picked the policies that supported their plan and ignored the rest, Klein said. “The court said to the Commission, ‘you can’t just do whatever you want and give some willy-nilly justification after the fact.’”

Klein is skeptical that VMP’s project will restart anytime soon. On its remand, the court made clear that a repeat of arguments in favor

of the project won’t cut it. Justifications for remapping and rezoning the McMillan site must be based on additional and sufficient evidence to sway the court. What’s more, Klein said, any appeal of the DCCA rul-ing would have to go to the U.S. Supreme Court where it is unlikely to make it on to the high court’s docket.

[Editor’s note: Klein’s forum talk, fol-lowed by questions and answers can be viewed starting at 55:13]

FOMP’s Vining says he thinks the city, at this point, is holding public hearings to save face while city officials figure out what to do next. The scheduled hearings are now stretching into late April and early May.

Klein didn’t elaborate at the UDC Law School forum, but another critical portion of the court’s ruling held that a designation by the so-called Mayor’s Agent giving the McMillan site “special merit” status to allow higher density and height development as well as destruction of otherwise protected historic structures on the site, was not valid.

Such special merit designations, the court ruled, must be justified with extensive documentation that the city ignored almost entirely. The VMP plan, for example, would mostly destroy the remnants of a 19th century engineering marvel — the old sand filtration units and underground caverns once used to purify the city’s drinking water that in part gives the site its historic landmark status.

As a key to unlock all of the VMP project, the lack of a special merit designation forces VMP and the city into a complete do-over.

And now the documents made public by FOMP’s efforts would seem to further undermine the city and the developer’s increasingly shaky arguments, justifications, and legal contortions to allow them to subdivide the site, erect

high-density office buildings, new housing and retail space while leaving the city with but a shadow of the original parkland for public use.

Still, it has begun to seem that nothing VMP and city offi-cials do in relation to McMillan Park is too outrageous or scandal-ous to discredit the project or quell their determination to move forward. While city officials and VMP long ago stopped speaking to the media about the project, they have announced no plans to give up on or signifi-cantly recalibrate the project.

Years of reporting on the McMillan Park Reservoir redevelopment by The InTowner

reveals the widespread and strenuous objec-tions of city residents about the lengths officials are willing to go to see VMP’s plan happen:

Using taxpayer dollars to hire a PR firm to discredit VMP’s opponents; flouting open-hearing and competitive bidding laws to keep VMP — with little or no justifica-tion — as the development team; ignoring land use covenants that conveyed when the parkland was purchased by the city from the federal government some 30 years ago; and, perhaps worst of all, for all of those 30 years keeping the beauty and sweeping vistas of the McMillan Park Reservoir site off-limits to the public, and behind a strong, chain-link fence.

*Associate Editor William G. Schulz, a resident of Dupont Circle since the 1980s, has been a journalist specializing in science and investiga-tive reporting for over 30 years.

Copyright © 2017 InTowner Publishing Corp. & William G. Schulz. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §§107 & 108 (“fair use”).

MCMILLANFrom p. 1

ZONING COMMISSIONDistrict of Columbia

Case No. 13-14

Deleted

ZONING COMMISSIONDistrict of Columbia

CASE NO.13-14EXHIBIT NO.925A

document included with FOMP filing—from zoning commission’s McMillan case file.

ANC 5C commissioner’s June 2011 letter.

document included with FOMP filing—from zoning commission’s McMillan case file.

Douglas Development’s October 2014 letter.

photo—courtesy Friends of McMillan Park.

Inside the original underground water storage caverns.

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Page 4 • The InTowner • April 2017

On Saturday, April 22nd, Dupont Circle restaurants will showcase their favorite appetizers, entrées,

drinks, and desserts as part of the ninth annual Taste of Dupont. This restaurant event allows

patrons to explore neighborhood eateries by going from place to

place with to enjoy the best Dupont

restaurants have to offer.Tickets to the Taste of Dupont are $25 in advance for all locations and $30 on the day of the event.

Don’t delay!www.TasteofDupont.org

The mission of Historic Dupont Main Streets is to promote, coordinate, and maintain the cultural, economic, and environmental qualities of Dupont Circle to make it an exemplary place to live, work, shop, and play.

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See pdf archive on home page for 14 years of past issues

level with 32 spaces. Eric Colbert and Associates is the architect.

Reed Row

Located at 2101 Champlain Street NW (map), Kettler’s Reed Row is a high-end rental development slated to deliver this spring. The studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments will feature pod-style floor plans that site the kitchen, bathroom and washer/dryer in the center of the unit. Amenities will include a two-level courtyard, rooftop sunroom, large resident lounge, bike storage and repair stations and a dog-washing area.

Florida Avenue at 17th Street, NW

While it is still unknown what’s in store for the planned redevelopment of the Florida Avenue Self Storage warehouse at 1701 Florida Avenue NW (map), there were some permits filed last year for interior renovations. Boundary Companies acquired the building in 2015.

Note: Neighborhood residents have informed UrbanTurf that the build-ing appears to be set for rebranding as a CubeSmart Self Storage location.

2800 16th Street NW

Eastbanc has partnered with the Scottish Rite Center to construct a by-right residen-tial project on the surface parking lot at 2800 16th Street NW (map). The nine-story Grimshaw Architects-designed building and its 120 condominium units are currently under preconstruction; there will also be two below-grade parking levels with 75-80 parking spaces.

Italian Embassy RedevelopmentMill Creek Residential purchased the

Italian Embassy property at 2700 16th Street

NW (map) in 2015 and has broken ground on a planned-unit development

that will deliver 135 apartments. The neo-renaissance style embassy building has since been gutted while the exterior will be restored; the apartments that will be in this building will start leasing in the second quarter of 2018.

There will also be a new nine-story build-ing added to the site for delivery either the second or third quarter of 2019; parking will be spread across two levels below-grade.

1724 Kalorama Road NW

Last fall, the Transcentury Building at 1724 Kalorama Road NW (map) changed hands again. New owner Bellevue plans to redevelop the vacant office property with a two-story addition to create 48-55 residential units with four parking spaces.

Editor’s Note: Among the projects high-lighted in this development roundup story are three which have also been the subject of prior reporting by The InTowner.

• About the SunTrust project, three reports in 2016, the latest in the November 2016 issue;

• About the 1700 block of Florida Avenue, a report in the August 2011 issue;

• About the old Italian Embassy redevelop-ment, that has been the subject of several InTowner reports going as far back a 2006, with the most recent in the March 2016 issue.

Copyright © 2017 InTowner Publishing Corp. & Urban Turf. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §§107 & 108 (“fair use”).

DEVELOPMENTFrom p. 1

illus.—dc.urbanturf.com

Depiction of how the Reed Row apartments might appear at dusk.

photo—dc.urbanturf.com

The former Security Storage building.

photo—dc.urbanturf.com

Architect’s rendering showing the 16th Street façade.

illus.—dc.urbanturf.com

Architect’s aerial view depiction showing the origi-nal embassy building on 16th Street with its later chancellery addition along Fuller Street and the new residential building to the rear of both on Mozart Place, NW.

illus.—dc.urbanturf.com

Transcentury Building as viewed from across Kalorama Road, NW.

Other neighborhoods featured in this “Development Rundown” series have included the follow-ing: The 14th Street Corridor Development Rundown; The 725 Units on Tap For the H Street Corridor; From Nobu to Dominos: The Development on Tap for Georgetown and West End; The 1,700 Units on Tap For Downtown Bethesda.

Page 5 • The InTowner • April 2017

17, 2016 hearing before the HPRB was deferred; since then further planning has been on hold.

Hamood Abutaa, who was the manager of that Sunoco station, was surprised by the closing on January 1st; a month earlier, on December 3rd when he was informed about the planned closing, he had the impression that it would continue operating for at least several more months if not a year.

This story is complex because not only is there a national trend of dwindling gas

stations, but there is a pronounced in the District of gas station closings.

The Dupont Circle ANC, in stating its irritation with the gas station’s closing, claimed that before a gas station can close, the DC Gas Station Advisory Board must review and acquiesce. The problem, how-ever, is not only has that board not met in seven years but at present has no members.

This assertion by the ANC does raise the question of whether it is time to review of other laws and regulations effecting gas stations.

For example, in the Fall of 2014, the Council passed a law prohibiting the sale of property containing a gas station for “any other use,” or even the conversion of a full ser-vice operation to a gas-and-go, without prior approval of the Gas Station Advisory Board — seemingly unaware that at that time it had already been dormant for about four years. Former Mayor Vincent Gray wanted to abolish the Board but Council Chair Phil Mendelson moved to strengthen it.

DC Gas Station Monopoly?A few years ago, around 2011, led by

Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, there was a belief that DC gas station ownership was a monopoly, especially that of Eyob “Joe” Mamo whose company owns, oper-ates or supplies 164 stations in the DC area. He nets possibly $778 million in revenue annually. So Cheh sponsored antitrust leg-islation but failed to get enough support. Mamo has donated much money to politi-cal campaigns, possibly $40,000 over the past decade. Mamo called the legislation unfair and over-reaching government inter-ference. Some Council Members believed that this bill was targeting a successful African-American business person.

As part of this effort, an antitrust lawsuit

was filed in federal court by 27 inde-pendent gas station owners against a group of wholesale distributors, but to no avail; the court sided with the dis-tributors. Subsequently, on July 22, 2013, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the suit. It is estimated that most of the DC stations are still owned by just four owners.

Stations That Are Gone or Have Adjusted to Survive

There appear to be many reasons for the disappearance of gas stations in DC. Primary among them is the increasing number of residents who do not own

cars. About forty percent now. Neighbors such as Ane report that even if they own cars, they don’t use them much. Further, when they need gas, they drive to cheaper stations in Maryland or Virginia. Finally, the real estate upon which gas stations set has become increasingly expensive or valuable. Fortunately, there are gas stations that have been able to continue in operation as a result of introducing new services or making positive changes that may ensure survivability.

Uptown / Park View3619 Georgia Avenue, NW: One

neighborhood resident remembers the 1930s-era gas station at this address which these days is a nail salon. Now, co-developers The

Warrenton Group and Elmira Gwynn have planned a six-story, 27-unit residential build-ing that will include bicycle parking and a bicycle repair center along with 2,400 square feet of retail space.

Adams Morgan2900 18th Street, NW: Another example

of a disappearing gas station. In its place will be Alfresco, a two-story, Mexican restau-rant being planned by Cindy and Jaime Sanchez who also own Cactus Cantina and Lauriol Plaza.

Adams Mill Road & Lanier Place, NW: This is an example of another disappearing gas station replaced by The Adamo, a boutique condo building. The Adamo opened in 2015 with 36 one and two bedroom condos, 8600 square feet of retail, 25 underground park-ing and 20 bike slots. [Ed. Note: for back-ground on the change

that was to come to this site, see report in the March 2013 issue of The InTowner, “Contemporary-Styled Low-Rise, Mixed-Use Residential/Retail Building Proposed for Venerable Adams Morgan Exxon Station Site.”]

Columbia Heights3540 14th Street, NW: This 24-hour

Exxon station was rebuilt and opened in 2013 by owner Liaqat Masood. He has been the CEO of U.S. Fuel and Maryland Petroleum Group since 1998. Nearby neighbors are concerned about the high crime around this area and the constant gathering of homeless persons. Managers declare that they call the police but no solu-tion is in sight.

2600 14th Street, NW: This is a popu-lar neighborhood BP gas station with a convenience store. Users rate the gas “rea-sonably priced.” But there are issues here.

Recently, there was a spate of theft from cars. The store had become a nuisance hangout spot for teenagers for awhile. In 2010, protestors had demonstrated — quite unfairly — at this station for contributing to the Gulf Oil spill. Directly behind this sta-tion is a new $11.5 million, 37-unit apart-ment buildings designed for low income residents (that is, those who make 30-60 percent of the Area Median Income.)

U Street Area14th and W Streets, NW: This Valero

gas Station recently completed a remod-eling. Locally famous for the Fast Gourmet store that adjoins the station, the food has received rave reviews.

Dupont Circle18th & S Streets, NW: Opened in

1977, this 24-hour 4,500 square-foot sta-tion includes the small, 120 square-foot W Express convenience store. Neighbors

love this station. Whenever their busi-ness license comes up to be affirmed, neighbors implore the ANC not to impede the renewal process. They find this station to be well lighted, clean and safe.

West End & Georgetown22nd & M Streets, NW: This Exxon

station is an example of the nation-al trend of incorporating gas stations into development projects — in this instance, the $120 million project built by Georgetown-based East Banc, Inc. in 2008. One user expressed surprise that this gas station’s store offers halal meals at lunch and dinner.

Pennsylvania Avenue & 28th Street, NW: Why did Valero Gas closed, what happened? Most observers speculate that the real estate became too expensive for a gas station. Now, this wedge shaped, 7,413 square-foot lot at the entrance into Georgetown will be transformed by East Banc into a 60-foot tall, red brick-faced residential building with eight apart-ments and an 1,845 square-foot restau-

rant with outdoor seating.

GAS STATIONSFrom p. 1

photo—Traceries—courtesy National register of Historic Places.

October, 1992 view of the Embassy Gulf Service Station (now Sunoco); submitted as an exhibit accompanying appli-cation for national historic landmark designation.

photo—Larry Ray—The InTowner.

photo—Larry Ray—The InTowner.

Valero station at 14th & W Streets.

photo—Larry Ray—The InTowner.

Exxon station at 22nd & M Streets.

CLICK HERE to continue to Gas Stations

Page 6 • The InTowner • April 2017

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 4th & Constitution; (202) 737-4215

Daily, 10am-5pm / www.nga.gov

By Joseph R. Phelan*

Seven Centuries of Master Drawings from the

Woodner Collection

The portrait of an ancient Roman sibyl that greets us on entering the new

exhibition at the National Gallery suggests an augury about to be delivered. The silent prophecy can be read on the walls of the gallery’s entrance and expressed as being about a man called Ian Woodner born many centuries in the future who would become an architect, real estate developer, painter, and avid art collector with wide ranging tastes. He would gradually focus on master drawings which gave him a sense of being close to the artist, of seeing inspira-tion and creativity firsthand. Through four decades of intrepid acquisition, this man would put together one of the greatest col-lections of master drawings of his age.

At this point my séance with the Sibyl ended, as curator Meg Grasselli welcomed me for the press tour of the Woodner Collection which the Gallery exhibits every decade or so. While the collection spans 700 years of master drawings, more than half come from the 15th and 16th centu-ries reflecting Woodner’s fervent admira-tion for Renaissance art. Grasselli noted how “amazing” it was that so “many great and rare works of art” were available in the

decades when Woodner was collecting and how many opportunities he recognized and seized.

The exhibition begins in Northern Europe with the most renowned artist of the German Renaissance, Albrecht Dürer, represented by an outstanding group of five drawings: a Virgin Annunciate, three classical nudes, and a vividly colored book illumination, A Pastoral Landscape with Shepherds Playing a Viola and Panpipes (1496-’97) that offers a tantalizing taste of the kind of spellbinding naturalistic land-scape detail that the artist was able to cap-ture in his watercolors.

Decades after the death of Dürer, there was major revival of his art in Nuremberg. The leading artist of the revival, Hans Hoffmann, is represented by Red Squirrel (1578) and Left Wing of a Blue Roller works so close in execution that they were once taken as coming from the hands of the older master. There is also a ravishing silver-

point Portrait of a Woman by Hans Holbein the Elder, one of the very few drawings in America by that great portraitist.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s sketch of The Bagpipe Player (ca.1562) humorously depicts a musician tip-ping precariously on a three-legged stool. Such a drawing invites com-mentary from multiple viewpoints. For Grasselli, it captures both “the boisterous spirit and the clumsy charm of the peasants that populate so many of his paintings.” Students of philosophy might hear, I think, Nietzsche’s aphorism, “How little is required for pleasure! The sound of a bagpipe. Without music, life would be an error.”

In the Italian Renaissance gal-lery, we encounter what Woodner called his “crown jewels.” The first is a page from Giorgio Vasari’s Libro de’ Disegni (Book of Designs). The esteemed biographer of Italian Renaissance artists was also an avid collector of their drawings which he planned to use to illustrate the Lives. The outsized, double-sized sheet consists of 10 drawings by

Sandro Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, and

Raffaellino Del Garbo arranged within a complex architectural framework designed by Vasari himself. Woodner must have felt a special affinity with Vasari as both men were not only collectors but also architects.

Woodner acquired his second greatest treasure, Benvenuto Cellini’s A Satyr (1544-45) when the curator of drawings at the Metropolitan Museum in New York hesi-tated about purchasing it. This monumen-tal nude is a finished study of a bronze sculpture designed (but never completed) to stand at the entrance to the French royal palace at Fontainebleau.

Along with these jewels, a drawing by the legendary Leonardo da Vinci is on display. The tiny Grotesque Head of an Old Woman

(1489-’90) is both touching and satirical as an expression of human vanity. What a con-trast with Raphael’s study of Eight Apostles (ca. 1514), a fragment of a preparatory drawing for one of his magnificent Vatican tapestry cartoons, that shows the classical heroic profiles and expressive quali-ties that are characteristic of this High Renaissance artist.

You will find superb works by Anthony Van Dyck and Rembrandt in the third gallery, and lovely works by François Boucher, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and Jean-Honoré Fragonard in the fourth.

My own favorite, however, is the Honest Model (1769) by the little known Pierre-Antoine Baudouin. A beautiful young woman who has served for the model of a nearly finished painting is suddenly taken with shame at her nakedness and covers herself as the artist and an older woman look on. Is the older woman her just-arrived mother or her procurer? The ambiguity of the picture fascinated audiences at the Paris salon where it was first exhibited with the legend, “What does not Poverty compel one to do?”

Among the 19th century French drawings are three pieces by that superb draughtsman Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres set along-side one by the artist most influenced by him, Edgar Degas, here represented by an

assured self-portrait as a young man. Beyond a doubt the jaw-dropper in this room is the eerie image of The Cactus Man (1881) by French symbolist Odilon Redon, one of Woodner’s favorite artists.

We reach the 20th century in the last room with three masterly drawings by the young Pablo Picasso, the exquisite Two Fashionable Women (1900), a blue period Head of a Woman (ca. 1903), and a cub-ist Standing Nude (1910). Finally there is David Hockney’s 1971 drawing of his then boyfriend Peter Schlesinger. The sketch of a slightly paunchy and somewhat rumpled figure contrasts with the iconic image of the sleek young man who modeled for Hockney’s famous Southern California pool paintings.

In a way the Hockney work stands in for many of the drawings in the exhibition by providing a glimpse behind the scenes, beyond the final product the artist wanted us to see, enabling us to understand the human struggle involved, false starts and

failed ideas included. As we wander through the galleries, the centuries of time between us and the artists seem to drop away, and we are there beside them at work.

Thanks to Ian Woodner and his daughters Dian and Andrea for their gifts to the National Gallery and to curator Meg Grasselli as well. While there is no catalogue, most of the drawings mentioned in this review are accessible online at nga.gov. The exhibition in the West Building’s ground floor galleries runs through July 16, 2017.

Copyright © 2017 InTowner Publishing Corp. & Joseph R. Phelan. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is pro-hibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §107 (“fair use”).

Art & Culture

*Joseph R. Phelan is a Washington based author and teacher. He is the founding edi-tor of Artcyclopedia.com, the fine art search engine. He has taught at the Catholic University of America and the University of Maryland University College.

Swabian School, A Sibyl (ca. 1470).

Benvenuto Cellini, A Satyr (1544-’45).

Giorgio Vasari, page from Libro de’ Disegni (1480-1504 & after 1524).

Pierre-Antoine Baudouin, The Honest Model (1769).

David Hockney, Peter (1971).