Posts about Bruce Monroe

Public Spaces

Bruce-Monroe won't stay a park, might not be a school

by Kent Boese   •   July 30, 2010 11:38 am

As the Washington City Paper reported, DC released an RFP to redevelop the former Bruce-Monroe school site on July 26th. The RFP could lead to a new school on the site, but also opens up the possibility of other uses that fund school improvements off site.

The stated long-term goal of the property has been to build a new Bruce-Monroe school, yet significant obstacles—most notably money and the economic climate—have prevented this to date. The option of modernizing the historic Park View school, where Bruce-Monroe students currently attend, has met with significant resistance from some of the parents and teachers at the school.

Proposed site plan for Bruce-Monroe. Image from DMPED.

Recognizing that it could be five years before shovel hits dirt, city officials decided to develop an interim use for the property. Their initial approach was to spend $500,000 on an area parking lot. This idea also met with fierce community opposition, ultimately resulting in a commitment of $2M to create a community park.

The interim park is scheduled to open on July 29th, and already includes sod, some trees, two basketball courts, a tennis court, two tot-lots with playground equipment and a small parking lot. A building is to be built in the second phase of the project to support educational programs.

Interim park site plan. Image from DMPED.

The high price tag for the park led some to speculate that DC might keep it as a park permanently, but this RFP makes it clear the park isn't permanent. On the other hand, it's possible it won't become a school again, either.

Though the RFP clearly has the educational needs of the community as a priority, developers have the option to submit proposals that don't include a new school as well as ones that do. In the event that a winning proposal is focus primarily on the commercial aspect of the property, the RFP states that funds generated from the conveyance of the property to the developer would be used to "fund school improvement at the off-site Bruce Monroe Elementary School at Parkview."

This clearly brings the modernization of the Park View school back into the mix. This is significant since a renovated Park View has been rejected by approximately 30 to 40 of the parents of the 414 students who attended the school this year.

Its impossible to see which way this issue will go until proposals start to roll in. Its certainly possible that a new school will arise on the site of the old. Yet, each twist and turn seems to include an additional challenge for that vision.

Those interested in reading the full RFP, as well as the contents of the four appendices, can do so by going to the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development's Web site.

Public Spaces

DMPED unveils new Bruce-Monroe interim use plan

by Kent Boese   •   June 24, 2010 11:29 am

Thanks to additional funding, DC's Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) has added a second basketball court, two tot lots, and more landscaping to the park that will temporarily fill the site of closed Bruce-Monroe Elementary School in Park View. There will also be a small parking lot due to zoning requirements.

Click to enlarge. See also this Site and Utilities Improvement Plan from DMPED.

When a revised design was presented to the community on March 31, 2010, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) only had $500,000 to work with and only truly proposed building a tennis court, basketball court, and installing a security fence around the property.

On May 26, 2010, Councilmember Jim Graham announced that an additional $1.5 Million had been secured for developing the site. At last night's Georgia Avenue Community Task Force meeting, DMPED project manager Andre Byers presented an updated plan that also dates to May 26.

The area along Columbia Road is already being prepared for the athletic courts.

In addition to the original tennis court and basketball court, as second basketball court has been added as well as two tot lots and a parking lot for visitors to the park. While DMPED's original proposal to make the entire site a parking lot was successfully defeated by well-organized neighbors, Byers stated that zoning required the parking spaces included on the plan, even if the site was being used on an interim basis.

Work on phase one is scheduled to be completed by mid- to late-July. The initial development will not include water or lighted courts. The only lighting that will be in place will be for security purposes.

An area will be reserved for a future urban garden, and the athletic courts have been relocated along Columbia Road to free up the northwest corner of the property for a farmers market. Due to zoning restrictions, only the property along Georgia Avenue can be used commercially. The remainder of the property is zoned R-4 residential.

The second phase will include water and lighting for the entire site. There will be no designated lighting for the athletic courts. Programming and permitting for the second phase will occur while the initial development is underway, and may even begin before the first phase is completed.

Finally, a building of some sort will be located at the center of the property to support educational programs and other community needs. Whether it is a trailer or permanent structure does not appear to be settled at this time. When pressed on how the $2 million was to be used, Byers responded that it was all allocated for construction, development and programming.

The current budget does not have specific line item allocations. Once completed, the site would be operated by the Department of Parks and Recreation, and maintenance costs would need to come from them.

Public Spaces

Bruce-Monroe to get "temporary urbanism" over parking lot

by David Alpert and Kent Boese   •   March 11, 2010 12:18 pm

What do you do with vacant land whose developments stall in an economic recession? One option is to turn all empty space into paid parking lots, which generates revenue but brings traffic and little benefit to communities. The other is to find interim uses that serve people rather than cars, also known as "temporary urbanism."

Example division of uses on the Bruce-Monroe site. Image from OP.

In 2008, the District closed the Bruce-Monroe Elementary school in Park View, with plans to demolish the school and solicit developers to build new mixed-use buildings and a new school.

Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, no developers were interested, and the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development started planning a parking lot by default.

Neighbors organized against the lot, and successfully persuaded the DC government drop the parking lot plan. On Monday, the Office of Planning presented a set of ideas for temporary urbanism instead.

They divided the 120,000 square foot site into 8 areas, each of which could accommodate a different use. The 3 areas adjacent to Georgia Avenue are zoned commercial (C-2-A) and could accommodate profit-making interim uses such as farmers markets, while those are not allowed in the rest of the site, zoned residential (R-4).

OP listed four primary functions available for the site:

• Arts: public sculpture, outdoor concerts, an art walk
  
• Recreation: basketball, volleyball, mini golf, skate park, climbing sculptures
  
• Education & Community: open air markets, mobile workshops
  
• Open space

Community members received dots of four colors, one per category, to place on the portions of the site where they wanted to see those uses. OP would identify functions the community deemed paramount, and then decide the specific uses at a future time.

Attendees could also tell early on that temporary urbanism was not going to be the only focus of the meeting.

Parents and students from Bruce Monroe. Image by Kent Boese.

Well before the scheduled start time of 6:30 pm, parents, teachers, and students of the Bruce-Monroe @ Park View school started filing into the room with banners, picket signs, and plastic cups taped together with stones inside to make noise.

They were angry, they were frustrated, and they were vocal. They made it clear that an interim use of the site is unacceptable. They want a school, and they want it by 2011.

A cacophony of chanting broke out time and again, frequently being "Build our school." Early attempts to start talking about the interim use of the site were disrupted by frustrated attendees that wanted to see the school move forward. While eventually Ward 1 Community Planner Tarek Bolden was able to make his presentation, it was an uneasy peace that allowed him to move forward.

While it is easy to understand where the representatives of the school are coming from, it was frustrating to hear the District representatives questioned on why a school hasn't started to be built when charter schools are moving forward and a new CVS is being constructed—projects that are not funded by the city the way public schools are.

History

Then and Now: Monroe School auditorium

by Kent Boese   •   September 29, 2009 3:30 pm

The auditorium of the old Monroe School ca. 1950 (left) and today (right). The Monroe School was built ca. 1899 and located west of, and on the same property as, the current Bruce-Monroe School. Reflecting Washington's segregated history, the Monroe School was built as a White school. It was changed to a Black school in the mid-1940s and ultimately was desegregated with the rest of the city's schools.

The school was used through the spring of 1973. Starting in the fall of 1973, the Bruce and Monroe Schools were closed and children started attending the new Bruce-Monroe School. Today, that school is in the process of being razed.

Remarkably, the auditorium from the original school still remains.

The historic image is from the Smithsonian Institution's Scurlock Studio collection in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History. More images below.