THE VILLAGE

RIP: Hugh Jacobsen, Frank Schlesinger, and Wilhelmina Holladay Architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen Dies at 91

BY KATE OCZYPOK

Hugh Jacobsen practiced architecture for decades, with a career spanning several high-profile commissions from around the world. He passed away on March 4 in Front Royal, Virginia, at the age of 91. The cause was something we’re all too familiar with these days: complications from COVID-19.

Jacobsen made his mark on Georgetown, that’s for sure. Over 120 homes in the neighborhood were refurbished or built by him. He is best known for residential designs that meshed Early American architecture with modern architecture’s interest in clean lines and a simple air.

Jacobsen fit in well with his upper-crust clients, including actors Meryl Streep and James Garner and Washington royalty Rachel “Bunny” Mellon and Jackie O. All of us have seen Jacobsen’s handiwork around the city, too: he created the addition under the West Terrace of the Capitol and restored the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery and Arts and Industries Building.

The Georgetowner featured one of Jacobsen’s renovations back in 2019. Writer Susan Bodiker reported: “On a winding, bricklined street in Georgetown’s East Village sits a pale gray row house with an unusual pedigree. Once an 1880s-era Victorian, it was gutted, updated and thoroughly renovated in 1965 by Hugh Newell Jacobsen. The new owners had found the original floor plan too dark and confining.”

According to Architectural Digest, Jacobsen’s design started a movement called “The Washington School.” Its purpose was to preserve the charms of D.C.’s historic homes while bringing them up to more modern lifestyle standards. The home we wrote about got what was back then considered innovative: a central spiral staircase, larger windows, a flagstone patio.

Jacobsen’s wife, Ruth “Robin” Kearney died in 2010. He is survived by his sons — John of Bellevue, Washington; Matthew of West Hollywood, California; and Simon of Delaplane, Virginia — and by seven grandchildren.

Hugh Newell Jacobsen. Courtesy Simon Jacobsen.

Women’s Art Museum Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, 1922-2021

BY KATE OCZYPOK

Georgetown resident and arts visionary Wilhelmina Cole Holladay died on March 6 at the age of 98.

Holladay helped female artists in museums and galleries worldwide. For four decades, she served as what National Museum of Women in the Arts director Susan Fisher Sterling called “the guiding light” of the museum. NMWA was the vision Holladay founded, knowing the importance of women in art and in the world as a whole.

She was affectionately known as “Billie” in her friends’ circle, according to daughterin-law Winton Smoot Holladay.

Holladay’s interest in art by women began in the 1970s. She and her husband Wallace were drawn to a painting they saw in Vienna by Flemish artist Clara Peeters. Holladay was frustrated trying to find more information on Peeters and other female artists in an art history textbook.

Ten years later, the Holladay collection of art by women had grown to 500 works by 150 artists, from the Renaissance through the modern day. Nancy Hanks, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, encouraged the Holladays to establish a museum. Thus, the idea for the National Museum of Women in the Arts was born.

After incorporating the museum in 1981, Holladay opened her residence to the public for tours during the six years that followed, gathering support for her idea and raising millions. In April of 1987, Barbara Bush, wife of the vice president (and soon to be first lady), cut the ribbon to open the museum at 1250 New York Ave. NW.

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay. Photo by Philip Bermingham.

Born in 1922 in Elmira, New York, Holladay earned a bachelor of arts degree from Elmira College in 1944, studied art history at Cornell University and did postgraduate work at the University of Paris in the 1950s. From 1945 to 1948, she served as social secretary to Madame Chiang Kaishek, but, after her son Wallace Jr. was born, Holladay only took on volunteer projects.

Her son Scott Cole Holladay and her husband passed away previously. She is survived by son and daughter-in-law Wallace Jr. and Winton Holladay, four grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting contributions to NMWA.

Frank Schlesinger. Courtesy Christy Schlesinger.

Architect Frank Schlesinger, 1925-2021

BY CHRISTY SCHLESINGER

Heaven must have needed some worldrenowned architects. Washington architect Frank Schlesinger died on March 4 at the age of 95. Hours earlier, Hugh Newell Jacobsen, a highly regarded colleague, passed away at age 91.

Schlesinger led an award-winning practice in Georgetown for more than 60 years, the last 18 of which included his daughter Christy Schlesinger, who followed in her father’s footsteps. An alumnus of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, where he was a Wheelwright Fellow, Schlesinger was influenced by leading postwar modernists Marcel Breuer and Louis Kahn.

In the forward to “The Architecture of Frank Schlesinger,” architect Charles Gwathmey — best known for the 1992 renovation and expansion of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum — described him as “an architect’s architect.”

In tandem with Schlesinger’s work was his well-respected career, nearly as long, as a professor of architecture. Many of his students at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maryland appear on lists of the top architects practicing today.

He also made an indelible mark on the architecture of Georgetown, which received some of his best work, including commissions from visionary developer Anthony Lanier. Schlesinger’s designs — such as 3336 Cady’s Alley and 3303 Water Street — were part of the transformation of the western fabric of Georgetown.

Schlesinger lived in the Flour Mill condos for over 20 years with his wife Draga — who, with her eye for interior design, was a frequent collaborator — and their Labrador retriever, Charlie. Before taking the short walk to his office each day, he would often sit out on his balcony, enjoying his breakfast and watching his designs come to life.

Schlesinger was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome. He also received the Centennial Award, the highest honor presented by the AIA’s Washington chapter. Most important, those lucky enough to work with him remember Schlesinger for his commitment to the highest levels of practice and teaching.

GEORGETOWN RETAIL:

BRINGING VIBRANCY BACK

BY CHRISTOPHER JONES

As we begin to imagine the post-pandemic world, creative entrepreneurial minds in Georgetown are exploring strategies for revitalizing commercial market spaces. They are envisioning a return of pedestrian shoppers and new store owners, despite the rise of online consumption in a globalized world. When unique experiences are offered in socially vibrant settings, they believe, people will be hungry to return to in-person shopping.

Attuning to consumer preferences, new technologies, global trends and Georgetown’s unique assets, however, will be essential.

MICROCOSM ON GRACE STREET

In a stone-lined, shaded park overlooking the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, Bettina Stern, co-founder of Chaia Tacos at 3207 Grace St. NW, emphasized the importance of joining together with customers with a sense of purpose: to help the world shift to more plant-based foods.

Stern described the mission of Chaia Tacos as offering “something new and homegrown and healthy and affordable and that has a social justice mission to feed people delicious vegetables. Saving yourself and saving the planet is integral to who we are as a company and what we’re trying to teach people.”

Just seven years ago, Stern and co-founder Suzanne Simon launched their veggie taco business from D.C.’s Freshfarm Markets. They were one of the first restaurants to stimulate the revitalization of Grace Street, a previously indistinct alleyway just off Wisconsin Avenue, a block south of the canal.

Stern stressed Georgetown’s unique advantages for providing shoppers with vibrant settings. “Georgetown is an incredibly beautiful neighborhood. We’re sitting in this wonderful little parklet adjacent to our stand-alone Georgetown historic building — an authentic, tarnished, gambrel-roofed, perfect-for-our-brand spot — and we’re very fortunate,” she said. “This is a cobblestoned alley in front of us, on a one-way street with all these historic buildings.”

Merging the arts with the shopping experience is an especially compelling idea, Stern said. In the fall of last year, for example, Washington Performing Arts helped sponsor “Dance in DC,” pairing local dancers with small businesses. At Chaia Tacos, “young and beautiful dancer” Ashanté Green performed, she noted, and the event was posted on YouTube.

Across Grace Street, Jessica and Ezra Glass, co-owners of Grace Street Collective, have recruited and helped develop a host of new businesses on the street, including Reverie, Grace Street Coffee Roasters, South Block, Georgetown Butcher and Rapha.

“We created a cool little microcosm of people who go between the Soul Cycle and Sweetgreen, where there’s this little loop where people say ‘I can get a healthy workout in this enjoyable little hangout area,’” said Jessica.

Besides managing significant investment portfolios, the Glasses bring key skills to their commercial real estate work. Ezra has a background in computer programming, data analytics and coding to crunch business data, as well as a Georgetown Law degree. Jessica worked in online journalism and served as Microsoft’s director of marketing for six years before coming to Georgetown.

Together, their savvy, data-driven cultivation of and support for Grace Street Collective’s businesses has created a vibrant hub of commercial activity in just a few years. In 2017, they were recognized by the Georgetown Business Improvement District for helping to put Grace Street on the map.

For Jessica, it’s as much about creating a community market space in a place she and Ezra have come to love as it’s about the numbers. “We love living here and felt there were some things that could be done on the commercial side that could make it more appealing,” she said. When considering a tenant, she first asks “Does this enhance Georgetown?” As a discerning shopper in the area, she wanted to improve the retail offerings available. Suzanne Simon and Bettina Stern of Chaia Tacos on Grace Street. Photo by Greg Blakey.

In an age of ubiquitous GPS technology, the Glasses realized, consumers could easily find their way to historic back alleyways like Grace Street. With large numbers of shoppers on the main streets, small retail businesses could now draw consumers into new areas of Georgetown. You could create things that weren’t on the primary streets but still gain access to that audience.

For Grace Street Collective, the objective was to find and cultivate unique, highquality retailers and restaurants, unlike the national brands that could be found in every mall — or even on Georgetown’s main thoroughfares — then put them together to create a symbiotic marketplace community.

“We would try to find tenants we thought were really exceptional operators at their specific businesses and help bring them to Georgetown,” she said. The key was to locate tenants who could help make Grace Street a shopping destination. The spot “wasn’t really trafficked at that time, so the idea was that if we could find some ‘destination tenants’ that people would really go to, we could have a group of them together to create a cross-pollination effect.” She added: “If you’re with a group of tenants of similar caliber and it’s high quality, it gives you a sense of empowerment” to work together to help draw customers.

A key to success has been their investment in analyzing the financial data from the

firms they’ve cultivated. Some have thrived as startups and “graduated” to other, larger retail spaces owned by the Glasses’ real estate wing, Thyme Holdings, while others have had to reduce their footprints due to the pandemic.

“We really try to understand their businesses before bringing them in,” she said. “We think it’s really good for Georgetown to put the time in to ask ‘Who would really thrive here?’”

Since the Glasses also own and operate Grace Street Coffee Roasters, they have their own experience-based and “tenantcentric” perspective. They understand what small retailers are going through in the marketplace. With an eye on quality products as well as performance, however, she believes Grace Street Collective can’t go wrong.

EASTBANC’S RETAIL LABORATORIES

Major commercial real estate interests in Georgetown and the District have also modified their strategies in the wake of the pandemic and the nationwide shift from bigbox retail to online sales. Anthony Lanier, CEO of EastBanc — which leases a majority of commercial real estate space in Georgetown — has experimented with innovative practices to meet his firm’s goal of “filling all [their] Georgetown storefronts in 2021.”

Instead of waiting for businesses to approach EastBanc, Lanier’s team actively searches online for potentially successful businesses to recruit. And instead of offering traditional leasing terms, they seek to develop vibrant marketplace environments where startups can be incubated together in former big-box spaces. Shoppers will be attracted to the diversity of local offerings from multiple small vendors in roomy, well-designed spaces, as opposed to the more predictable fare from national-brand retailers.

Key to creating such vibrant marketplaces is to make it as easy as possible for startups to launch — what Lanier calls a “no adversity” environment for entrepreneurs. Highly flexible leasing based on percentage-ofsales terms or even payment waivers, as well as maximal logistical support and assistance in hiring staff, is provided. Simplified contracts of only two pages have become the norm.

“Our first goal is to fill these empty storefronts and make it as easy as possible for the people who are willing to take that courageous step and open up a store of any kind. So we’re trying to encourage them by saying rent is not the most important thing at the moment. What’s important is that you succeed.”

Lanier refers to these vibrant marketplaces as “retail laboratories,” where shoppers can enjoy a variety of new offerings and entrepreneurs can test their business models. At the site of the former Brooks Brothers at 3077 M St. NW, EastBanc will be launching one such project, known as 31M, later this month. At 31M, Lanier’s goal is to cultivate “20 to 25 retailers of different sizes … and to generate a flexible environment that can be very attractive to produce high sales per square foot, which will enable the tenants to pay rent.”

According to Lanier, the site lends itself to the project because it has three stories, several entrances and little patios, as well as an elevator for ADA compliance. “So it’s a great store. I look forward to what its opening will bring,” he said. “It will certainly fulfill our goals to have zero adversity to opening a store.”

Global trends have also influenced Lanier’s approach. EastBanc’s Embaixada property in Lisbon, Portugal, serves as a blueprint for the vibrant marketplace approach. Inside a stunning Moorish palace, shoppers not only encounter a diversity of Portuguese brands, but the world-famous Gin Lovers bar, restaurants and evening concerts. As a marketplace, Embaixada has become a noted European brand itself. It’s a “great success and one of the hottest stores in Lisbon,” he said, “a precursor to what I would like to do”

At the corner of 31st and M Streets NW, EastBanc is opening a “retail laboratory” in the former Brooks Brothers space.

at the Brooks Brothers site.

EastBanc Principal Philippe Lanier described how, once the unique branding of Embaixada took off, world-class vendors sought a space in their marketplace. “Once you get the word out, all of a sudden there are certain very established brands that say ‘I want to be at the heart of that Bohemia,’” he said.

According to Anthony, 31M will be something new, “and the people in Georgetown I suspect will love it and it will make them come out of their house and go to M Street.” Citing the factors of innovation, architecture and “the fantastic support of the neighborhoods,” he said, “this could be a moment where people could rediscover Georgetown.”

For Philippe, the successful rejuvenation of Georgetown’s commercial areas will require the development of innovative mixes of experience-based entertainment (think axe-throwing bars), along with enticing restaurants and retail. The more foot traffic to exciting destinations, the more vibrancy.

“You really need a reason for people to come and just walk the streets. You have to have the energy, right? And that’s where your cupcakes come in, your escape rooms, your restaurants,” he said. “You want to create diversity.” As for axe-throwing: “As crazy as I think throwing axes next to a bar sounds, people like it and they show up.”

To help increase such foot traffic and vibrancy, Philippe is particularly enthusiastic about EastBanc’s current project at 1238 Wisconsin Ave. NW, across from the Apple Store, to be completed by the middle of next year. EastBanc will be “delivering six retail spaces that are all under 2,000 square feet, which is what every small retailer wants. So bam! All of a sudden you’ll have one retailer after another — six stores that everyone wants and that will help revitalize Wisconsin Avenue.”

This story continues at georgetowner.com.