The Frank D. Reeves Center is an essential part of the conversation in the U Street neighborhood, one that often turns to simultaneous fears of development and neglect. In turn, such discourse falls within the citywide debate on gentrification. The surrounding neighborhood, known as the U Street Corridor, has a storied history that dates back […]
Author: cb0903b
An Interactive Development
The online presence of the Frank D. Reeves Center is a single page on the site of Washington DC’s city government. Listed under the Department of General Services, the property’s listing showed the information for the DGS Office on the 8th floor and documentation regarding the city’s proposal to sell the property to a developer […]
Losing to Progress: Inside a U-Street Landmark
The columns of the Frank D. Reeves Center present a noble facade to a potential visitor. In the style of much Washington D.C. architecture, concrete, marble, glass, and steel are combined to produce a veritable Parthenon for each public structure. As I pass under the columns and through the steel and glass, I’m immediately greeted […]
Design and the Gender Revolution
In “His & Hers: Designing for a Post-Gender Society,” Suzanne Tick makes a case for the employment of gender-neutral design by modern interior designers. She states that “Identity is no longer clearly defined as female or male, but by increasingly visible manifestations of sexuality or lack thereof.” Being one of the United States’ leading textile […]
The Public Restroom of this Century
In “Making Bathrooms more Accommodating” by Emily Bazelon, she advocates for greater acceptance of accommodation in the realm of bathroom equality. The central assumption of this is of a shift in the view on the concept of accommodation from one group making compulsory changes for the benefit of another to an idea of mutual concessions. […]
Exterior Description of the Frank D. Reeves Municipal Center and Surrounding U Street Neighborhood
The U Street neighborhood is one in transition. Upon first emerging from the metro escalator, the first thought is of how different this area looks from its historical name of “DC’s Black Broadway.” The first sight is the Starbucks and gourmet pizza eatery at the metro’s entrance. Across the street is the famous Lincoln Theatre, […]
Annotated Bibliographies
Najarro, Ileana. “Frank D. Reeves Center’s Glory Days Long Gone, Locals Say.” The Washington Post, 8 Aug. 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/frank-d-reeves-centers-glory-days-long-gone-locals-say/2014/08/08/c20fbebc-1e7c-11e4-ae54-0cfe1f974f8a_story.html. The Frank D. Reeves Municipal Center was opened in 1986 by Marion Barry and served to indicate government interest in a neighborhood that was still struggling to recover from the 1968 riots. The building houses many […]
Schindler’s Theory of Architectural Exclusion
In Sarah Schindler’s publication, “Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination And Segregation Through Physical Design Of The Built Environment,” she identifies the features of city design that intentionally and unintentionally contribute to the exclusion of so-called “undesirable” populations. These often include people of color and the poor. Regardless of intentions, this form of social engineering leads to the […]
Space in Political Theory
In chapter 2 of David Fleming’s City of Rhetoric, he contends that contemporary political theory largely ignores physical place in its conception of the Citizen. In this conception, the citizen is viewed as one in a sea of spaceless, homogenous entities. Fleming posits that modern advancement, rather than leading to the rapid de-spatialization of politics, […]
Commonplace Book: Entry 2: The Conversation
I mentioned in chapter 1 that we needed to cultivate public subjects who are capable of imagining themselves as situated within many complex networks. Not only are we all located within a specific home-work nexus, but we are also located within regional, national, and global networks. Furthermore, each of us is situated within transhistorical and […]