A Morning Mall Walk

It was such a nice day today I decided to walk a little around the Mall this morning.

More from My Morning Mall Walk

The National Gallery of Art

A view of the Washington Monument

Some bird cleaning up

Marines out for their morning jog

The carousel by the Smithsonian Castle

Shipping Containers as Apartment — Update

Here's an update on the shipping containers as apartments.

Work is progressing. I was there this morning. They are building out the interior of the apartments. They are also opening up the sides of the containers themselves. I also took a few shots of the other side of the building.

Here's what it looks like today.

I hope when there are done I can get a look inside.

Two shots from the other side of the building.

Here's the side of the building that I originally took pictures from.

You can sort of see from this picture how the interior is being built out.

 

 

This is a major change in the front where the doors have been opened up.

New Things in the Neighborhood — Shipping Containers as Apartment

From a story in the Post on July 20:

They are the building blocks of the global economy, 20 million big steel boxes sloshing across oceans on mammoth container ships.

Starting Monday, the first of 18 dented outcasts are set to be stacked in a dug-out District basement, turning a deteriorating student group house into an experiment in creating eye-catching housing fast and on the cheap.

Among the questions raised by the effort: Can hundreds of thousands of discarded sea containers, long talked up by designers, really help create more affordable housing, or is it mostly a gimmick? And just how do you bring humanity to the confines of an 8-by-40-foot box?

If the economics work and people actually enjoy living in lovingly repurposed steel husks, the architects on the project have bigger dreams, including floating hundreds of sea container apartments on a barge in the Potomac and creating a homeless village on the river to serve Georgetown.

It just so happens there not too far from where I live. I took a walk down there a week or so ago and took these pictures. I was down there last night and, as least from the outside, not all that much has changed. Then again I can’t get a real close look at what is going inside the containers. 

Here’s more about the first day of building:

The 400-ton crane was all set, tucked between three sets of hanging wires, two houses and a cantaloupe plant with a small hanging melon, and John Creese was edgy.

“The first one’s the only one that worries me. There will be a learning curve,” said Creese, who was helping orchestrate Washington’s heavy-machinery take on a barn raising Monday.

A dozen workers, including crane operator Ed Kane, had come from Georgia and California and Baltimore to build a three-story apartment building made of shipping containers — in three days or less.

Just before Kane lifted the first slate-blue container from the back of a flatbed, Creese laid out the task: “He’s got to pick it up, swing it over the houses and drop it right where it goes. Hopefully, it’s nice and smooth and easy.”

I'm going to be monitoring this and will post more about this as it progresses.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning

And it certainly was. It might not actually rain today which I think would be the first day this week. I can actually leave my umbrella at home. Yeah.

A most incredible morning to say the least. Here's a little of what I saw on my walk on this bright, sunny and cool morning.

Washington at Night

I went to an event at Arena Stage Saturday night and decided that instead of getting on the subway at Waterfront I would get on at Union Station. It was a little bit of a walk but it was a nice night.

Washington at night especially around the Mall is always so spectacular.

Here are a couple of pictures.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

In my wanderings around Washington this past Sunday, I happened upon the end of the St. Patrick’s Day parade. Here are a few pictures from the parade. I really liked the dog training group and the guys on the gigantic tricycles.

This guy took wearing of the green to a whole new level

Ashes to Answers — National Fire Dog Memorial

I came across this wonderful memorial a couple of weeks ago.

Here's a little about the monument:

DC's newest monument is not on the mall. It's downtown, at a working fire station. The National Fire Dog Monument was recently unveiled next to Engine Co. 2, near Judiciary Square. The monument honors "fire dogs," or arson dogs, trained to detect accelerants used in intentionally set fires. The sculptor is from Colorado, where the idea for the monument originated. An fire investigator there was inspired by the work of his dog Erin, and later Sadie. The dog depicted in the statue is modeled after Sadie. The funds for the memorial were raised by State Farm and a group called the American Human Association. The memorial is located on the east side of the Engine Co. 2, at 500 F Street NW.

There was also an article in the Washington Post about the sculptor: 

Sculptor Austin Weishel’s toughest critics have four legs, not two. And unlike most human critics, they can express their disapproval by lifting one of them.

Austin is a Colorado artist whose latest work was dedicated last week at Fifth and F streets NW. It depicts an arson dog — that’s a dog that helps detect arson fires, not one that sets them — gazing longingly up at his handler.

Before it was unveiled here, the National Fire Dog Monument went on a cross-country tour, going on display in eight cities over 15 days. The life-size bronze figures were on a wooden base. When the tour was done, Austin noticed that the wood was criss-crossed with odd striations: scratches left by dog claws when owners pulled back their curious canines.

He considers it a success that dogs go up to sniff the bronze dog in his sculpture. His is certainly a hyper-realistic style.

“I want to put in every single stitch, make the eagle on the helmet and the badges on the collar as realistic as possible but still have artistic license,” said Austin, 24.

What’s remarkable is that Austin isn’t always capable of such detail in other parts of his life. He’s dyslexic and struggled in school.

I think this will turn into one of the hidden treasures in Washington. It certainly impressed me.

 

More Scary Stuff in Georgetown

Here's a few more of the decorations I found while wandering around Georgetown on Sunday.

More of Washington Prepares for Halloween

Here are a few more pictures of houses with their Halloween decorations up. I saw a report on the news the other day about the of money spent on Halloween. It is almost $7 billion. Here's a little more on how the money is spread around on Halloween:

According to the National Retail Federation, Americans plan to spend $6.9 billion this year for Halloween. To put that number into context, the same NRF survey found that Americans planned to spend $3.3 billion as recently as 2005.

This biggest chunk of this money — $2.5 billion of it — will go to costumes. Of that total, a little more than $300 million will be spent on costumes for pets. We’ll also drop $2 billion on candy and just under that on decorations.

This year isn’t an anomaly, either. Halloween spending did decline in 2009, when it dropped by about $1 billion to $4.8 billion. But by last year, it had bounced back to $5.8 billion.

Here are some places that went all out. This is in Georgetown.