Construction Proceeds At 770 Kenyon Street, NW (at Sherman)
28 January 2009 5:00 PM | By Prince Of Petworth in Development, Neighborhoods - Park View
Back in September I asked if anyone knew the deal here? At the time “Animal Mother” told us:
“According the contact at the Cesar Chavez website (http://www.cesarchavezhs.org/prep/contact/), as of last month they planned to begin substantial renovations this month. I’m also skeptical, but that was their position as recently as three weeks ago. They also claim that substantial demolition has been done on the interior.
But yeah, I’ll also be surprised if they actually open in 09, since they said the same thing about this time in 07 about what was going to happen in 08.”
But I saw some bulldozers so maybe the substantial demolition has begun?
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28 January 2009 5:05 PM | vonstallin Said:
I was just looking at this today and I didnt notice the red painted bottom section the other day.
28 January 2009 5:53 PM | Heather Said:
They’ve been working non-stop for about a month now, including Saturdays. They’ve had a whole fleet of bulldozers out there at various times, and seemed to be digging up some sort of pipes really far underground last weekend. I’m still skeptical they can renovate that entire school to open in 09, but they’ve definitely green lighted the project.
28 January 2009 6:09 PM | Pennywise Said:
I bus by this everyday and made the mental note the other day that they were really starting to get serious on this. Looks like a variety of foundation work but can’t be sure. Nice to see it moving though. If there’s a haunted building on my bus route, this is it. I imagine a poor DCPS student beaten mercilessly here, with pig blood dumped on him/her at prom, and endless vengeance. Mmmmm vengeance.
28 January 2009 9:07 PM | bogfrog Said:
Pennywise — yikes!
There has been a big discussion of this on the CH blog; Rep William Jordan said the school was initially snapped up by a developer, then taken back, then offered to the charter school, etc. There was some concern about lack of communication with the neighbors, I’m not sure what the story was.
My neighbor used to operate the boiler in that school! It sounds like a nice building and I look forward to seeing the inside.
29 January 2009 10:38 AM | DCDireWolf Said:
Our alley backs up to the school. They are most definitely working on it six days a week as I am awaken every morning to the “beep, beep, beep, beep” of heavy machinery operating in reverse. I HATE it! Especially at 8 am on Saturdays. I hope they finish sooner than later or I’m going to go crazy from sleep deprivation. They also leave the generator on all night every night, maybe to keep pipes from freezing or to have a cozy trailer in the morning, but it seems wasteful to me. Not to mention LOUD. I’m about a couple more nights away from figuring out how to complain to the contractor.
29 January 2009 12:44 PM | Andrew Touchette Said:
I would be happy to speak with community members interested in the progress of our school as we make plans to move into the old Bruce building. We can also make arrangements for interested folks to take a tour of our current site (16th Street) to observe the program that we plan to bring over to Kenyon St.
At this time, it is still our plan to occupy the building in early August. Our students (about 230 in grades 6, 7 and
begin school on Monday, August 24. Please contact me directly for more information.
Andrew Touchette, Principal
Chavez-Bruce Preparatory Charter School
3220 16th Street NW
Washington, DC 20010
(202)723-3975 [office]
(202)270-5581 [mobile]
andrew.touchette@chavezschools.org
29 January 2009 12:55 PM | DCDireWolf Said:
Andrew, can you do something about the early morning noise of the construction? Especially on Saturdays?
29 January 2009 1:23 PM | Anonymous Said:
DCDireWolf, complaining about (likely unionized) blue collar workers constructing a school that services primarily low-income kids? Say it ain’t so. I guess when the chickens come home to roost, the neo-marxist rhetoric starts to wane …
29 January 2009 2:26 PM | DCDireWolf Said:
Huh? I have no idea who the workforce is, I just think they should start later on Saturdays and turn off the generator overnight. I have no problem with the school being constructed or in use.
29 January 2009 2:31 PM | Pennywise Said:
DCDireWolf, I feel your pain. I used to live across the street from two large condo complexes being constructed. Until you get the 6am pile driver treatment, 6 days a week, you got nothing to complain about!
29 January 2009 7:30 PM | Khlamad Said:
I live across the alley from the back of the Bruce School. Last spring the asbestos and lead paint abatement crews were there for a month or so. About 2 months ago one of the Mayor’s office’s DC FIX IT teams were through the alley and had boarded up the damaged gates/fences to keep vagrants out of the site. Recently the actual renovation begun. First they removed most of the pavement and broken concrete from around the rear and created an access ramp from Kenyon. Following that Magnolia plumbing “site utility division” has been working to install new storm drains from the rear to a tie in with a catchment basin at 11th and Kenyon. The guy I talked to when they first started said they would be working on it for about a year and, “it will be beautiful when it’s done.”
Looking good so far!
29 January 2009 7:32 PM | Khlamad Said:
pardon my grammatical error…
Recently the actual renovation began.
10 February 2009 12:10 PM | Denia Duran Said:
Interested in our program? Come and learn about Cesar Chavez PCS, Bruce-Prep Campus NW, before we move to this location, during our next open house Wednesday, February 11th from 5:00 to 6:30 PM.
We are temporally located at 3220 16th St. NW, 20010, two blocks from the Columbia Heights Metro station (Green and Yellow Lines).
Accepting 6th, 7th and 8th grade.
Other opportunities to visit our campus:
2/25 9:00-11:00am
3/11 5:00-6:30 pm
4/1 9:00-11:00am
4/15 5:00-6:30 pm
Learn about us @ chavezschools.org or contact us at 202-723-3975