Topic: Planning and Historic Preservation

Speakers: Harriet Tregoning, Director of DC’s Office of Planning; David Maloney, Director of OP’s Historic Preservation Office and State Historic Preservation Officer; Tersh Boasberg, Chairman of DC’s Historic Preservation Review Board

Moderator: Bill Glew

Where: The Congressional Club, 2001 New Hampshire Avenue, NW (at the corner of U Street)

DCCA’s March 3rd meeting will feature a panel of DC officials and be moderated by DCCA’s former President, Bill Glew. The meeting will address both issues of process (how does the individual deal with these government entities?) and current matters, such as plans for a very large development at 14th and U Streets, West End development, and such preservation decisions as the Third Christian Science Church building.DC’s Office of Planning works with residents to identify, or confirm, neighborhood priorities, develop a plan of action, and move to implementation. Since October 2000, when the Office of Historic Preservation officially joined the Office of Planning, preservation elements have been incorporated into the larger context of planning. Harriet Tregoning was confirmed as OP Director in February 2007. Prior to this, she was the director of the Governors’ Institute on Community Design and executive director of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute. David Maloney was appointed to his current positions in October 2007. He has more than 25 years of experience in historic preservation, planning, and urban design in DC. As the senior member of the professional staff, Mr. Maloney is involved in all aspects of the preservation program, with lead responsibility for preservation planning and the review of major commercial and government projects downtown and in the Mall area.

Tersh Boasberg was appointed HPRB Chairman in 2000 and reappointed in 2002 and 2007. Mr. Boasberg is an attorney specializing in land use, historic preservation, and environmental law. He previously served terms as commissioner and chairman of the DC Zoning Commission, chair of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, founder of Preservation Action, president of the National Center for Preservation Law, president of the Cleveland Park Historical Society, and trustee of the National Building Museum.

Bill Glew, a native Washingtonian who, until recently, lived on 16th Street, is a partner in the law firm of Alston & Bird, where he specializes in representing utilities and utility investors in regulatory matters. From 2003 to 2006 he served as DCCA’s President. He currently serves on the board of Home and a Home, a Washington nonprofit that provides transitional housing to the homeless, and on the advisory board of Our Nation’s Capital, a policy advocacy group for DC.

The Congressional Club was founded in 1908 to provide a non-partisan setting for friendships among the spouses of members of the United States Congress. It remains the only club to have been incorporated by an Act of Congress. Active members are spouses of sitting or former Members of Congress, Supreme Court Justices, and Members of the Cabinet. Since January 2007, the Club’s President has been Vivian Creighton Bishop, wife Congressman Sanford Bishop, who represents Georgia's Second Congressional District.

The land for the club was donated by Mary Foote Henderson, and her favored architect, George Oakley Totten, Jr., designed the building. Completed in 1914, it is a restrained example of the Beaux Arts style, with the characteristic rusticated base, low-pitched hipped roof, and Palladian window over the main entrance. The special rooms include the First Ladies Gown Room, which displays exact replicas of the inaugural gowns of each First Lady since Mary Todd Lincoln, often created by the original designers, the Hawaiian Room, which includes engravings from the period of Captain Cook, and, at the top of the double return staircase, the Ballroom with its floor to ceiling windows.

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