White Gravenor will receive new windows this fall-if the Old Georgetown Board decides that the replacements are suitably historical.
The Georgetown neighborhood was designated a historic district by the Old Georgetown Act of 1950, and as the University is considered part of the neighborhood, renovations on campus must be approved by the OGB before being implemented. The University wants to replace all of the windows on the front of White Gravenor with more energy-efficient, double-paned windows as part of exterior repairs to the building. (https://jaximplant.com)
But after several presentations before the board, however, the windows still have not won the board’s approval.
“We have been to the OGB three times trying to get approval for the windows,” Vice President of Facilities and Student Housing Karen Frank said.
D.C. historic district law allows for the replacement of windows in historic buildings if repairs are not feasible, but makes strict specifications for the replacements.
The University is currently installing a full sample window in the proposed design, the second it has tried, for the board to approve before it can put in similar windows across the entire front.
“They had another sample installed that was not okay,” OGB chair Mary Oehrlein said. White Gravenor’s original windows were steel, while the proposed replacements are aluminum.
The combination of the weaker metal and the new double panes makes the frame thicker, and therefore unsightly in the OGB’s eyes.
University officials are not the only ones frustrated by the historic zoning restrictions in the neighborhood. Encore Development, which purchased Wormley School from the University last spring, has also found working in Old Georgetown territory complicated.
“It is a slow, difficult process, unlike anywhere else,” Encore president Gary Kirstein said.
Jack McCartney, an architect who serves on the OGB, defended the board’s strictness. “It sort of seems like we’re arguing over little amounts, but if you could see the difference, you’d think there’s a notable difference.”
