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Constitution Avenue façade of the
renovated Eliot-Hine Middle School.

Civics Lesson
Civics Lesson Photo © Andrew Rugge/Perkins Eastman

Neglected School Blossoms

into a Neighborhood Asset

by Denise Liebowitz

A few years ago, when an Eliot-Hine student was Elliot-Hine is one of the latest projects in the
testifying before the DC Council about conditions city’s impressive program to update its public school
at her school building, she cried. Trash bags covered buildings, many of which date to the 1930s. In the
urinals, plastic film sealed classroom windows making past 20 years more than 70 city schools have been
them nearly impossible to open, and an HVAC system overhauled or replaced entirely and each of these
that functioned in theory only were just a few of the schools has been designed through thoughtful
problems plaguing this Capitol Hill middle school. architecture to suit the specific needs and aspirations
This year, Mayor Muriel Bowser selected Eliot-Hine of its students, parents, teachers, and community.
to kick off the city’s new school year with a ribbon- “We really wanted to give it a civic presence
cutting ceremony to open the completely revamped, and re-engage the school with the surrounding
modernized building. neighborhood,” said Mary Rankin, AIA, LEED AP,

38 CIVICS LESSON