THE BVS PROJECT COMMITTEE

BVS Project Co-Chairs

Bertha G. Holliday, PhD
Zach Sherif
Oral History Group
Horacio Sierra - Co-Chair
Bertha Holliday - Co-Chair
Natalie Hopkinson - Project Scholar
Oluwakemi Aladesuyi
Jillian M. Burford
Sarah K. Jorgensen
Josephine Nicholson
Michelle Singleton
Rosarie Tucci

Timeline History Group
Paul Cerruti
Bertha Holliday

Architecture & Design Group
Zach Sherif - Chair
Ren M. Albacete, RLA, ASLA - Landscape Architect
Ricardo Byrd - National Association of
Neighborhoods
Paul Cerruti
Rosangela DiManto
Tynesia Hand-Smith, Designer
M. Jennifer Harty. AIA, LEED AP
Albert F. Hopper, AIA, LEED AP
Ali Iacovone
Mike Iacovone
Bryan Moll
Melinda Nettlebeck, NCIDQ 28936, LEED AP
Peter Nettlebeck, NCARB
Tom Noll, Landscaper
Eric Schultz
Molly Scott, Landscape Architect
Paul Selker
Jose Alberto Ucles
Teri Janine Quinn, BCA Chair
Sherry Howard, BCA Treasurer

The key to the success to date of the BVS

Project is CIVIC ENGAGEMENT -- the
exceptional willingness of Bloomingdale
residents, in service of neighborhood
enhancement, to voluntarily share
their time, knowledge and skills, and
to collaborate with persons they may
not have previously known. The Project
promoted and nurtured such engagement
through broad dissemination of a brief
Project Vision statement, frequent
Project communication and requests for
assistance on neighborhood listservs
and blogs, repeated presentations and
updates at neighborhood meetings,
tapping of personal networks, and
modeling of inclusion.

Funds for the DC Community Heritage Project are provided by

a partnership of HumanitiesDC and the DC Historic Preservation
Office, which supports people who want to tell stories of their
neighborhoods and communities by providing information, training
and financial resources. This DC Community Heritage Project has
been also funded in part by the US Department of the Interior,
the National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund grant funds,
administered by the DC Historic Preservation Office and by the DC
Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
This program was supported through a Historic Preservation Fund
grant administered by the National Park Service, Department of
Interior. Funds were used for the identification, protection, and/
or rehabilitation of historic properties and cultural resources in
the District of Columbia. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the U.S.
Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis
of race, color, national origin, or disability in its federally assisted
programs. If you believe that you have been discriminated against in
any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire
further information, please write to: Office of Equal Opportunity, U.S.
Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.
20240.

BLOOMINGDALE
VILLAGE SQUARE
PROJECT
Project Overview

PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Bloomingdale Village Square (BVS)
Project: Research and Planning Efforts, is an
activity of the Bloomingdale Civic Association
(BCA), with primary funding provided by the
DC Humanities Council, and additional funding
provided by ANC 5E and BCA. The Project is
directed by Bertha G. Holliday and Zach Sherif.
The BVS project seeks to bring to life two
major recommendations of the DC Office
of Plannings Mid-City East Small Area Plan
namely, to strengthen community identity,
and to create a stronger sense of place. By
doing so, we seek to honor the past, embrace
the future, and promote the intentional
development of a stable, inclusive, multiracial/
multicultural neighborhood. The current
research and planning activity suggests this will
require no less than a 10-year effort involving a
variety of public-private partnerships.

Conceptual Framework. We take as our

starting point the notion that the unique

character of a neighborhood is determined
over time by interactions and relationships
of its inhabitants (social environments), but
also by residents interactions with physical/
built environments (architecture, buildings,
public space, other land uses) -- including a
neighborhoods formal boundaries, which
often are of historical significance (e.g. roads,
rivers, railroad tracks, topography). Thus
neighborhood character is shaped by factors
that are both internal and external .
This framework suggests the strengthening of
community identity requires exploration and
dissemination of: (a) Bloomingdales significant
social and architectural/land use events; and
(b) impacts of these events -- both historically
and contemporaneously.

Likewise, the building of a stronger sense

of place requires: (a) identifying those ways
in which Bloomingdales social and physical
environments have in the past and present
served to promote multiple and/or conflicting
senses of place; (b) identifying and
promoting modifications of Bloomingdales
existing social and physical environments
to foster an increased sense of both
welcomeness/inclusion and safety/stability;
(c) promoting greater connectedness among
neighbors and surrounding neighborhoods;
and (d) increasing public representations of
neighborhood pride -- including greater civic
participation.

Project Activities. Guided by the Mid-

City East Small Area Plan and the Projects

Conceptual Framework, the initial 4-month
phase of the BVS Project involved three major
activities:
Conduct and professional videotaping of
20 oral history interviews of diverse (re: age,
gender, race/ethnicity, length of residency
in Bloomingdale, civic participation)
Bloomingdale residents.
Compilation of a written Bloomingdale History
Timeline, 1800 -2015 that juxtaposes major
social/institutional events and architectural/
land use events.
The development of a preliminary Design Plan
and Recommendations that assesses and
recommends architectural, landscape, design,
and public space use modifications needed
immediately in the 1st and Rhode Island NW
area (Bloomingdales most contiguous and
largest commercial area), as well as other midterm and long-term modifications needed
throughout Bloomingdale. This Plan, which
seeks to provide recommendations compatible
with those of the Mid-City East Plan, was

developed by a group of Bloomingdale

architects, designers, landscapers,
engineers, urban planners, and residents.

Proposed Strategies for Future Action.

Proposed major strategies for attaining

Project goals related to community identity
and sense of place include:
neighborhood engagement through
continual information-sharing,
solicitation of community feedback,
and requests for residents assistance in
project activities;
broad dissemination of History Timeline
and Design Plan and Recommendations,
and provision of opportunities for
related community discussions;
conduct of additional oral history
interviews;
refinement of Design Plan and
Recommendations including
development of cost estimates;
development of implementation and/or
funding partnerships with City elected
officials, City agencies, private and
corporate foundations, and pocket park
and building owners, and
development of a project management/
administration strategy.