Page 70 - Summer_2019

ArchDC Summer 2019.qxp_Spring 2019 5/22/19 3:02 PM Page 68

Designing
Designing

for Dignity
for Dignity The “Community Garden” room

at the Downtown Day Services Center.

Basement Transformed into

Welcoming Space for Homeless People

by G. Martin Moeller, Jr., Assoc. AIA

The District of Columbia has a long, albeit discontinuous, history Amid such high-profile landmarks, it would be easy to overlook
of distinguished civic architecture. In the 1870s, the city won several a much more modest recent project that addresses a different civic
prestigious awards—including a Medal of Progress at the World need. The Downtown Day Services Center (DDSC) provides a
Exhibition in Vienna, Austria—for outstanding school design. wide range of services and support to people who are homeless.
Between the World Wars, municipal architects designed a number Financed by the DC government, the facility is managed by the
of understated yet elegant buildings to house local government DowntownDC Business Improvement District (BID) in cooperation
functions. Although the quality of DC public buildings declined with other private and public agencies.
dramatically by the late 20th century, over the past decade the city The BID struggled to find a suitable space whose landlord
has earned international recognition once again for a series of would welcome such a facility. Ultimately, the New York Avenue
dazzling new buildings and renovations for its school and library Presbyterian Church, which has a long history of outreach to the
systems (as featured elsewhere in this issue). homeless population, offered a portion of its basement. It was a

68 DESIGNING FOR DIGNITY