April 1, 2011
The Honorable Vincent Gray
Mayor of the District of Columbia
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20004

Re: Historic Preservation Review Board Determinations

Dear Mayor Gray:


The D.C. Building Industry Association (DCBIA) is an organization comprised of over
400 member companies representing a broad spectrum of real estate and building industry
disciplines in the District of Columbia. Many of our members have development projects that
come before the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB). The HPRB is an important D.C.
Government entity in the local development process, and it is to everyone's benefit that the
HPRB membership is comprised of individuals who possess both the credentials and the
practical experience necessary to make informed decisions on historic preservation development
projects of every size and level of complexity.

We understand that the terms of HPRB members Elinor Bacon, Maria Casarella, James
Kane and Tersh Boasberg have expired. DCBIA recommends that both Elinor Bacon and Maria
Casarella be appointed to new three-year terms. We believe that these individuals have served
with distinction, and that their qualifications and experience have allowed them to provide
valuable input to applicants who have come before the HPRB.

#10126047_v1
DCBIA also supports the nomination of Graham Davidson of Hartman Cox Architects to
fill the position being vacated by Mr. Boasberg. While Mr. Boasberg served as a public citizen
member of the HPRB, Mr. Davidson is a resident of the District and can serve in that position as
well. Mr. Davidson is also an architect who has extensive professional experience in the historic
preservation arena. Mr. Davidson is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and has
handled a number of large projects both in the District of Columbia and elsewhere. We believe
that it is important to have strong architectural representation on the HPRB in the coming years,
particularly as the number of larger and more complex historic preservation development
projects come before the HPRB.

We also support the nomination of Gretchen Pfaehler to fill the Historian position being
vacated by Mr. Kane. Ms. Pfaehler has impeccable credentials which satisfy the criteria as a
Historian, as well as several other professional disciplines. She has many years of practical
experience as a preservation architect, and will bring to the HPRB a keen understanding of the
level of technical detail necessary for a complete review and understanding of even the most
complex projects that come before the HPRB. Ms. Pfaehler has served on the historic
preservation boards of several other jurisdictions, and therefore has an understanding of the
review process and will be ready to serve as soon as her appointment takes effect.
We thank you for your consideration, and your favorable action on these
recommendations.

Anonymous wrote:As best I can tell, the OP website is not correct, but of all the HPRB members, the only ones who are new Grey appointees are an Architect from Dupont Circle and a member of Historic Anacostia. The chair was elevated, maybe she was a Grey appointee too, but look at her qualifications.

That hardly seems like a conspiracy.

Let's take a look then:

The Chair, Gretchen Phaeler, is a principal at Baker, which is one of the biggest builders in DC . She was nominated by the Lobbying Group known as , The DC Builders Association. She was elevated to the Chair role almost immediatey. The former chair for previous 10 years, Tersh Boasberg is a professor of Architecural History. BIG DIFFERENCE.

HPRB Membership Requirements( from the HPO website):


Under National Park Service regulations (36 CFR Part 61), all Review Board members must have demonstrated competence, interest, or knowledge in historic preservation. A majority of the members must meet the Secretary of the Interior's Professional Qualifications Standards for historic preservation:


HPRB professional members must include at least one person qualified in each of three disciplines --- history, archaeology, and architectural history ---although a single qualified member may represent more than one discipline. The remaining professional members must represent one of 12 identified disciplines: archaeology (prehistoric and historic), architectural history, conservation, cultural anthropology, curation, engineering, folklore, historic architecture, historic landscape architecture, historic preservation, historic preservation planning, or history.

Note: In each discipline, the most common method of meeting that Professional Qualifications Standard is discussed first. Typically, a graduate degree or professional license is listed first.


Let's see if we can find all masters prepared professionals in the required fields on the current HPRB: Who has a Masters Degree in History on the current HPRB , or a Historic Lanscape Architect, or someone with a masters degree in Engineering ? How about pulling from the list below a masters prepared conservationist, a Cultural Anthroplogist ? Just look through the current HPRB resumes :

Biography
Andrew Aurbach


Term: Appointed 2012. Reappointed 11/15/2012. Current term ends July 21, 2015.

Andrew Aurbach serves as a Historian member of the Historic Preservation Review Board. His career includes extensive story telling, research and production of documentary and public affairs television programs as well as communications consulting and multimedia production. He also consults with clients on cultural and environmental sustainability

He earned a degree in History and Journalism from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the Catholic University of America.
( so, the "historian" only has some undergrad credits in history (split with Journalism) But a masters in Urban Planning, so that makes him: an Urban Planner, NOT a " Historian. So, the " Historic Preservation Review Board " has NO historian, but an Urban Planner in that role.

Next:

D. Graham Davidson, FAIA ( that's 2 Architects)
Joseph Eugene Taylor, AIA ( another Arhitect)

Let's see if we can find ONE Historian:

Rauzia Ally, NCARB, AIA ( nope, another Architect)
Maria Casarella, AIA, is an architect ( another architect)

so, if your a developer, all you have to do is show up with an architect and its basically a peer club review.

Cha Ching, lets make DC look like Silver Spring

As best I can tell, the OP website is not correct, but of all the HPRB members, the only ones who are new Grey appointees are an Architect from Dupont Circle and a member of Historic Anacostia. The chair was elevated, maybe she was a Grey appointee too, but look at her qualifications.

That hardly seems like a conspiracy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Today , well, thanks to the DC Builder's Assoc getting the HPRB lined with its nominees ( thanks to Gray) its open season....build whatever you want as long as it has a sprinkler system. Pretty soon there will be a roof deck overlooking the Washington monument and condos being built in Arlington cemetary.

This is pretty funny. The most "conservative" members of HPRB were nominated by Grey, and people all over town reject new historic districts because of their limits on property rights. Further, people complain about all of the bland architecture in the city, both within and beyond historic districts.

The above is untrue. 6/9 current HPRB members were nominated, NOT by any historic preservation group, but by the DC Builders Association Lobby, who contributed big time to Gray campaign.

FYI, The Mayor is supposed to nominate new HPRB members as they expire , which is staggered to be no more than 3 in one year. Gray was sent a couple dozen names beginning in 2010 as 1, 2 and then a 3rd name expired, but Gray did not send those nominees ( all highly qualified preservationists) on to the city council for confirmation because they were Committe of 100 nominees and the DC Builders Assoc did not want them on the HPRB. So, the DC Builders assoc being big contrutors to Gray campaign, Gray continued to hold the nominees names back ( he had his orders, right) By the of 2010 the HPRB could not hear cases because they lacked a quorum, then Gray sends all DC Building Assoc nominees to the City Council for review and appointment.

Kind of a forced coup: " these are my nominees, take them or let teh HPRB continue to not hear cases because the seats are vacant". So now we have a HPRB lined with Urban planners and Architects , all DC Building Assoc nominees, and they are rubber stamping any old design that comes down the pike. Its not a Historic Preservation review board anymore, its a building review board. period and before you know it DC is going to look just like Crysal City or Silver Spring.

Yes, its true, Mayor Gray wants a "green city" cha ching, cha ching...

This kind of corruption is why Congress will never grant DC statehood

Anonymous wrote:How would you know? Do you claim to know what is in the minds of Black people? Please tell me how you are better qualified to speculate as to what may lie in the minds of Black people than I am. I can't wait.

I don't use news articles as my primary source for knowing what is in the minds of an entire race of people for one thing. So please just stop, as someone already mentioned it's really offensive.

Anonymous wrote:

None of the AA's I know did not vote for Fenty because he was not Black enough; whites focus more on his racial status than blacks. He lived in a Black neighborhood, sent his kids to an all-AA school from preschool through 3rd grade including during his first year or two as Mayor, attended a Black church; went on romps in the Bahamas with his boys, etc.) They did not vote for him because they knew him. They had given him a pass when he ran for CM because he had stolen the old lady's money whose estate he was supervising (Bar gave him a slap on wrist because he was young; AA's gave him a break because they assumed he had learned from his mistake; whites don't even mention it.) However, as Mayor he then proceeded to "shake-down" the AA community through "required" contributions and other actions which I will not name here. The white community was only focused on the "pretty" stuff he was doing in the name of reform. Gray was drafted to run because of Fenty and his AG's shenanigans. Rhee was the icing on the cake because she destroyed several schools that served low SES AAs. She did not understand the student populations of those schools and removed the supports (which was all they had keeping the students in school and making any type of progess.) The AA community also knew that there was widespread test cheating that was prevalent under Rhee and posted about it on listserves. For example, some schools, including Charters, would separate the poor students from the rest of the class and assign them to a different room for testing. A friend's son who was behind on math was told he did not need to come to school that day; my friend took him and made him request that he sit with his class for testing (her mother was a teacher and had told her it was easy to lose an entire room of tests if you knew it housed the poor performers.) It was clear in the AA community that he really only saw the Mayor's job as a stepping stone to bigger things and did not really care about the residents or the city, only about his image and what he could gain. He was successful and has since moved on to CA in the next stage of his self-promotion aka Steve Jobs widow (which some of the AA community knew about 6-9 months before the Post reported) or do you believe it is TRUE love on his part.

Actually I think the Hardy fiasco was an important turning point - and what happened there was that a lot of middle-class families (both black and white) who sent their kids to Hardy got pissed off when Rhee removed Hardy's highly successful principal, assigning him to start a new arts-oriented magnet middle school (which never happened and kept him out of any school whatsoever for a year) . I know that it mobilized me to write Gray to ask him to run. Pissing off the middle class is a bad, bad idea because they won't just grumble like the poor. They will organize and vote. A generalization I know but one that has truth behind it.

Anonymous wrote:PP - please stop. You have no idea of what is in the minds of Black people, so please just stop it.

Yep, probably doesn't get reported often in Huffington Post.

Also, would love to know what gives you the right to ask me -- or anyone -- to stop speaking about a political topic? I must have missed the memo. I thought we had a marketplace of ideas in which all could be discussed, and the best ones would naturally rise to the top. Yet, instead of offering an idea, you're just telling someone else to stop speaking. The arrogance.

How would you know? Do you claim to know what is in the minds of Black people? Please tell me how you are better qualified to speculate as to what may lie in the minds of Black people than I am. I can't wait.

PP - please stop. You have no idea of what is in the minds of Black people, so please just stop it.

2010 should have been 2006.

Anonymous wrote:The idea that Fenty wasn't black enough is absurd. He won Ward 8 with 56% of the primary vote. Linda Cropp got 35% and the others were in the single digits.

It is his tenure, his policies, that caused him to lose blacks supporters. Conservatives are stirring the pot on this one. The vote against Fenty wasn't racial.

Of course, the first time Fenty ran, no one thought he was not Black enough. But if you don't think that idea may have been in the minds of many Blacks by the end of his first term, I would suggest that your logical trajectory is fairly short.

It was not doubt his policies that caused Black people to lose enthusiasm for him: Fenty's appointment of non-blacks to major cabinet positions, terminations of longtime black government workers and teachers, and a failure to meet with civil rights icon Dorothy Height and poet Maya Angelou are among the slights that have turned off a majority of African-American voters."

But if you don't think that, in the face of all of this, Black people may have thought something along the lines of, "Well, he is half White. Maybe that's the half that's pushing his policies" then you are spending most of your time on another planet.

If that inference was not drawn, why was newspaper after blog saying that Fenty is biracial, whereas Gray is Black, and lives in a Black neighborhood? In 2010 did newpapers and blogs mention that Fenty was biracial, whereas Linda Cropp was Black? No, they didn't. Because at the time, Blacks trusted Fenty to represent their interests. After Fenty was perceived to have abandoned them, all of a sudden we're hearing about the racial makeup of the two candidates:

From the Huffington Post: Results from the election showed that Fenty, who is biracial, did particularly poorly in areas of the city that have a majority of black residents and did better in parts of the city that have more white residents. Black voters in particular accused Fenty of being out of touch with their community. Gray, who is black and lives in a heavily black part of the city, repeated his slogan of "One City" on Wednesday. He said he would reach out to Fenty voters and hold a series of town hall meetings with all residents.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/14/dc-election-results_n_715617.html.

Many, many publications also make this comparison. Do you think it was gratuitous? They were just giving us some biographical information? Filler? I don't think so. If that were true, it would have been mentioned in 2010.

It seems to me pretty obvious that, inasmuch as Blacks perceived Fenty to have abandoned their interests, he was not Black enough on the issues. Which, in turn, probably prompted many to think, "Well, you know, he never identified as Black anyway."

Can I prove to you that this is the case? No. I can only point to article after article that wanted to make sure we knew that Fenty is biracial and Gray is Black. I can only reflect on what I've observed in the human condition, and how one inference tends to draw others.

Disagreeing with what I've said is fine. But calling me a racist because of what I've said only shows that you are the bigot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Especially with Gray channeling himself to Black radio, speaking in a Black dialect, etc. Fenty didn't even pretend to be Black. He identified himself as mixed-race. Did this hurt him in 2006? No. In 2006 he was Black enough. But by 2010, with the perception that he was catering to White, upper-class interests, he was no longer viewed as "Black enough". Then he was half White, with a wife who was a foreigner.

what is "black dialect"?

Stop rolling your eyes. They might fall out of your silly head. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/black+english

Just because questions of race make us uncomfortable is no reason to be afraid to discuss them. A black dialect isn't all that different from a Boston or a New York accent, really. Gray spoke with a Black dialect, especially during the campaign. But he still does. Fenty did not. If my stating these facts makes you want to imply that I am somehow a racist, that says a lot more about you than it does about me.

Take your pick; Ebonics, negro speech or negro American dialect. Just say what you really mean, was he not as eloquent enough for you? Did he get his point across? the fact that you referenced an institutionalized to reference "black dialect" shows how lame you are.

I referenced the dictionary. Here's another discussion about dialect: http://www.asha.org/policy/TR2003-00044/

There is nothing derisive about the term "black dialect". I'm sorry that you have issues that cause you to view it as derisive.

NP - I also find your term derisive and really don't know what you mean - as it pertains to Gray's speech patterns.

Then you are in need of more cultural education and less hypervigilance. The term "black dialect" is no more offensive than saying "s/he looks Jewish" or "s/he has a Jewish last name" or "he has a New York accent" or "she's a Valley Girl" or "she haa a Boston accent" or "s/he has a Latino accent" or "s/he has an Irish last name" or "s/he looks Irish." These things are not offensive. If you want to be offended by everything that may be said on the topic of race or ethnicity, you can certainly find a way. Again, that says something about YOU, not ME.

The idea that Fenty wasn't black enough is absurd. He won Ward 8 with 56% of the primary vote. Linda Cropp got 35% and the others were in the single digits.

It is his tenure, his policies, that caused him to lose blacks supporters. Conservatives are stirring the pot on this one. The vote against Fenty wasn't racial.

Anonymous wrote:The poster who keeps posting about how Blacks felt Fenty was not Black enough because he is biracial is very offensive. In our community we are very much used to biracial people. As a matter of fact, we don't call them biracial. We just say they are Black with a white mom, Japanese mom, Italian dad, etc. It is white people who lise that label of biracial.

Understand that no one cared about Fenty's racial makeup. If Black people considered whether Fenty was Black enough based on his parents, Fenty would not have received the Black vote agains Cropp, who to my knowledge, has two Black parents. When this poster keeps posting her racist views that Blacks did not vote for Fenty because of his mom's skin color, she is implying that we Black folks are dumb, racist and as shallow as she.

I personally know of many white people who voted for Gray over Fenty. If I use that poster's logic, the reason they voted for Gray is because the color of Gray's skin was much closer to white skin than Fenty's. Fenty was not white enough for them. Ugh.

None of the AA's I know did not vote for Fenty because he was not Black enough; whites focus more on his racial status than blacks. He lived in a Black neighborhood, sent his kids to an all-AA school from preschool through 3rd grade including during his first year or two as Mayor, attended a Black church; went on romps in the Bahamas with his boys, etc.) They did not vote for him because they knew him. They had given him a pass when he ran for CM because he had stolen the old lady's money whose estate he was supervising (Bar gave him a slap on wrist because he was young; AA's gave him a break because they assumed he had learned from his mistake; whites don't even mention it.) However, as Mayor he then proceeded to "shake-down" the AA community through "required" contributions and other actions which I will not name here. The white community was only focused on the "pretty" stuff he was doing in the name of reform. Gray was drafted to run because of Fenty and his AG's shenanigans. Rhee was the icing on the cake because she destroyed several schools that served low SES AAs. She did not understand the student populations of those schools and removed the supports (which was all they had keeping the students in school and making any type of progess.) The AA community also knew that there was widespread test cheating that was prevalent under Rhee and posted about it on listserves. For example, some schools, including Charters, would separate the poor students from the rest of the class and assign them to a different room for testing. A friend's son who was behind on math was told he did not need to come to school that day; my friend took him and made him request that he sit with his class for testing (her mother was a teacher and had told her it was easy to lose an entire room of tests if you knew it housed the poor performers.) It was clear in the AA community that he really only saw the Mayor's job as a stepping stone to bigger things and did not really care about the residents or the city, only about his image and what he could gain. He was successful and has since moved on to CA in the next stage of his self-promotion aka Steve Jobs widow (which some of the AA community knew about 6-9 months before the Post reported) or do you believe it is TRUE love on his part.