Georgetown should lose the chaperones

Last week, the Old Georgetown Board—a board of architects charged with monitoring the Georgetown neighborhood’s aesthetic integrity—sent Apple back to the drawing board for the fourth time, taking issue with the immensity of the glass display windows the company had designed for what will be the District’s first Apple store—that is, if it’s ever built. Some are now in an uproar over the decision of the OGB, which consists of three unelected architects. But the issue here is not that the OGB did not approve designs for the new store (according to the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E’s Tom Birch, reports that say the Board “rejected” the designs entail some unfair exaggeration); the real problem is that the OGB is an undemocratic body that has no place in Georgetown government.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts created the Old Georgetown Board in 1950, before the District had home rule and could consent or object to the creation of the body with any efficacy. Comprised of three architects whom the CFA still appoints to this day, the OGB is entitled to “conduct design reviews of semi-public and private structures within Georgetown’s boundaries.” They submit their final opinion not to any elected body within the District, but to the CFA, a federal agency, effectively wresting aesthetic control of the neighborhood from Georgetown residents.

Worse yet, only one of the architects who currently sits on the OGB, Ann Lewis, is actually a resident of Georgetown. The remaining two have architectural firms in the neighborhood, but, as non-residents, don’t have an intimate stake in the community which they help define on a regular basis.

The CFA should abolish the OGB, a vestige of illegitimate federal meddling within the District’s boundaries. The OGB is merely another iteration of the federal government’s mistrust of the District’s ability to govern itself. As such, we ought to give it ye olde boot.