The city’s Zoning Commission met Monday evening to set up the final steps for approval of the process. Unlike past hearings, there was not a large crowd.

In packed hearings in February, artists and their supporters testified in strong opposition to the development and talked of Union Arts’ importance in D.C.’s artistic community. Union Arts is home to arts studios, music rehearsal and performance spaces, and the vintage shop Nomad Yard Collectiv.

The artists, who said between 70 and 100 people use the space, claimed they were being displaced. The building’s former owner said the artists’ current situation was financially untenable.

The hearings focused on whether to approve a change from C-M-1 to C-3-C zoning designation, allowing developers to build the planned 11-story hotel, which could have as many as 178 rooms. D.B. Lee Development Construction and Brook Rose Development acquired the building in June 2015.

On Monday, the commission voted to take “proposed action” on the project. The next step is to take “final action,” which D.B. Lee’s president, Dennis Lee, thinks could happen in July or September. With the dispute with the tenants resolved, the commissioners’ main concern was a technicality involving a minimum required square footage of the lot.

Many of the artists’ demands were things that the commission had “no jurisdiction” over, commission Chairman Anthony Hood said.

“I think it’s very valuable to the city and I hope we can find ways to keep the artists here,” Hood said. “But in this case I thought that the party in opposition … was asking for something that I just don’t see.”

Settlement and endgame

The organized opposition paid off, at least financially. Artists and their lawyer negotiated a settlement with the developers to withdraw their opposition in turn for getting relocation money.

In a document dated May 12, the representative of the Artists Union, Chris Otten, rescinds “411 Artists Union status as a party in opposition” to the project.

Earlier this year developers wanted the artists to vacate by September 2016, but that has been extended to April 2017. Nomad Yard owner Desirée Venn Frederic says occupants are paying increased rent in turn for an extended stay.

A document from the developer’s attorney submitted on May 18 outlines terms of a settlement agreement from early May. Developers agree to “relocation assistance” to tenants in the amount of $2 per square foot of their studio space. The document lists eight separate units covered under the agreement, of varying square footage between 440 and 5,000. Some of these units are shared by multiple people. The developer also agrees to make “reasonable good faith efforts” to help artists find new studio space and manage construction of a new space “at no cost to the Artists.” Other takeaways for the artists include assistance with grant education and a seat on the board of directors of the new hotel’s arts program. Artists agree to not oppose the project.

Many of the artists who have been highly involved in organizing opposition — including Frederic, Luke Stewart, Graham Boyle and Micheline Klagsbrun — signed the agreement themselves or by proxy.

“I’m satisfied in the sense that we’re now able to redirect our energy and our focus to identifying a more permanent home,” Frederic says. She says so far she has not had much luck finding a new space for Nomad Yard.

But Frederic says the relationship between the artists and the developers has improved in the last two or three months. “They are trying to work with us at this point, and I have to acknowledge that,” she says. After the outpouring of support at hearings earlier this year, “they truly understand the value that we present.”

D.B. Lee president Dennis Lee has emphasized the uniqueness of the new arts-focused hotel, and has said developers need artists to lend the project artistic “authenticity.”

The new program

D.B. Lee outlined the hotel’s proposed arts program in a “proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law,” submitted May 31. Lee says his group wrote the 43-page document with the intention that the Zoning Commission would mostly adopt it. He says the commission typically doesn’t want to take the time to write it itself.

The draft document details, for the hotel arts program: a minimum 20-year commitment; 544 square feet of classroom space; 14,700 square feet of exhibition space, a requirement for 40 percent of “arts programming” members to be Ward 5 residents with free or discounted membership; 2,600 square feet of artist studio space rented at $20 a square foot; and 800 square feet of artist studio and retail space rented at $40 a square foot.

With the settlement agreement, Lee writes he that he is “now hopeful that we can go back to work on a truthful pursuit of keeping and building a sustainable art culture in our city. There are a lot of movements to do that and they are very positive.”

But as they have been saying for months, artists still think the city is not paying attention to their needs in general. That’s why, some said, their protests were more against what they see as the city’s pro-development policies, rather than against this particular project.

Frederic says artists are “asking that the city live up to its word, found in numerous planning documents that they’ve written, expressing how important the creative and cultural economy is to the vibrancy of the District of Columbia.”

Sounds like these capture a “changing of the guard” in Washington, says D.C. producer Kokayi — and he stitches them together with other locally sourced audio in a new project called The Sounds of the City.

In March, organizers of the annual Funk Parade put out a call for recordings captured in the District. “What sounds make you think of D.C.?” asked parade co-founder Justin Rood. “What is the song this city makes?” Recordings from the public, organizers said, would be turned over to Kokayi to sample, splice and loop into a “song for D.C.”

But Kokayi got more sounds than he expected — more than 30, all told.

“I got so much great stuff that I was like, ‘Ooh, I could do way more songs than just one,'” the artist says. So he decided to make four tracks — one for each city quadrant.

The result is a four-part audio soundscape that tells a story about urban change and the sharp contrasts that define many Washington neighborhoods.

Track No. 4, “Dreams Deterred,” portrays two sides of life in the neighborhood Kokayi calls home. “The recent crimes at Deanwood Metro starkly contrast the peace of nature that exists in Deanwood,” he says. To get at both sides, he combined a trap beat with sounds of Deanwood nature and rhythms heard at the Malcolm X Park drum circle.

The project’s third track, “Gentry & the Ebon Road,” sounds scattered and confused. That’s on purpose, Kokayi points out.

“The song begins with the sound from the corner of 7th and U and slowly distorts as a representation of the reconstruction and gentrification of U Street,” he says. He builds the track using sounds of go-go beats, a downtown D.C. violin performance, a walk through Shaw and a house flip in progress.

Kokayi dedicates “SoawesomE” to Southeast. Constructed from audio of a helicopter, birds and a band practice, the track aims to “illustrate how Southeast has always received negative media coverage without people actually knowing the tony estates of Hillcrest,” he says. Meanwhile, Southwest tune “SolidGold Waterfront” uses recordings of demolition, a motorcycle and a city bus to depict development in the city’s smallest quadrant.

The project took two and a half weeks to complete, Kokayi says. His main goal? The element of surprise. “I wanted to come up with different rhythms that wouldn’t be expected,” he says.

He hopes his work inspires more locals to create their own D.C. soundscapes.

“[Residents] should spend some time actually going out and taping their neighborhoods,” Kokayi says, “so you can hear some of the wild stuff that happens.”

Listen to “Sounds of the City,” also called “Hecho in D.C.,” below. The Funk Parade takes place May 7 in the U Street neighborhood.

Photo by Flickr user Ryan McKnight used under a Creative Commons license.

Tarica June is a lawyer in D.C., as well as a local emcee, who writes and produces her own music on the side. One of her songs has received a lot of attention both in and out of Washington. It’s called “But Anyway,” and it feels like a nostalgic love song for the town she grew up in — that, due to gentrification, is a very different place today.

“One thing that I remember is that even if you didn’t know all your neighbors, you would know, ‘That person is my neighbor.’ At least if you saw them, you would say hello,” June says. “And you hear people say stuff like, ‘Oh, nobody’s really from D.C.’ It’s like, OK — I’m still here.”

June says she wrote the song just driving around the District one day — and in the video, she surrounds herself with the landmarks of Petworth, the neighborhood where she was raised and still lives. As the music cycles between samples, June expands the focus of her lyrics, from gentrification to the prison industrial complex to racism to corporations. And though the song is rooted in local issues, June says she’s received an overwhelming response from people around the country.

“People have contacted me from Oakland. Somebody on Facebook posted something saying, ‘This could be about Austin’ — which, I didn’t even know things like this were going on in Austin. People have posted, ‘This is just like Detroit,’ or ‘This is just like Brooklyn,'” she says.

June says pretty much all the feedback she’s gotten for “But Anyway” has been good, sometimes unexpectedly so.

“I was expecting for people to have an issue with it,” she says. “[But] even people who I guess would be the gentrifiers have said, ‘Wow, this makes me feel differently about the way I interact with people in my neighborhood.”

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

But that didn’t stop artists who oppose any development from filling a zoning commission hearing Tuesday, in the second public demonstration against the project, which proposes to turn the creative space into a boutique hotel with arts studios.

Over more than four hours, artists and allies spoke of the building at 411 New York Ave. NE as a “haven” for culture in Washington, unmatched anywhere else in the city.

“I think [the development is] a big step backwards,” said Julia Bloom, a visual artist who said she has worked in the building for nine years.

The facility’s new owners, developers D.B. Lee Development, Inc. Construction and Brook Rose Development, LLC, say they’ve tweaked their blueprints in response to protests, expanding space for arts and music in the planned hotel. But they claim to need a zoning change to make that happen. Without it, developers say, they can’t expand the building to 11 stories, and that limits the amount of space they can dedicate to artists and musicians.

Union Arts tenant Desirée Venn Frederic at Tuesday night’s demonstration (James Doubek/WAMU)

Since the first zoning hearing Feb. 1, developers and Union Arts tenants have convened twice with the hope of finding common ground. At meetings on Feb. 8 and 16, tenants presented “an alternative plan that focused on the preservation of the building in its current state,” says Shannon Lewthwaite, a partner in Nomad Yard Collectiv, a vintage shop in the building. Lewthwaite says more work needs to be done on their proposal, but it would “essentially revitaliz[e] it to better utilize the space and make it more financially viable, with all of the current tenants in mind.”

Lewthwaite says the developers seemed receptive, but skeptical of the plan’s financial viability.

Meanwhile, developers say they made changes to the initial plans after hearing artists’ concerns. Dennis Lee, president of D.B. Lee Development, says artists were particularly worried about initial plans that would not have given artists enough privacy and ran the risk of pitting musicians against noise-averse hotel guests.

New plans dated Feb. 18 add three arts studios with an additional 2,000 square feet of studio space, and studios have been repositioned to add privacy, Lee says. They also add a soundproofed music studio on the first floor lower level, “isolated from the rest of the hotel rooms where guests would be sleeping.”

A proposal not included on drawings — but discussed between parties — involves giving artists complete control of the hotel’s third floor, with 11,000 square feet of space. However, artists would be responsible for raising $1 million to sign a lease on the space.

One matter of contention has been the total square footage of arts space in the building. Current tenants put that number at about 30,000 square feet, and have said developers would only dedicate 3,000 square feet to art studio space. But Lee says it’s important to include exhibition and gallery space in that number. If exhibition and gallery space are included, revised plans put the new figure at 19,090 square feet for art and music. Artist studio space alone would total 3,443 square feet and the music studio would be 746 square feet.

“We’ve tried to improve [the plan] as best we can within our own confines,” Lee says.

Artists say Union Arts’ planned redevelopment is part of a larger gentrification wave that has displaced creatives and low-income residents in general. But in this instance, developers are trying to incorporate arts into the new vision.

Lee says developers became attracted to the idea of an arts hotel because of the building’s proximity to culinary hub Union Market.

“It was sort of the vibe at Union Market and what was happening in the building that gave us that influence,” Lee says. He says adding an arts program to the hotel offers him no economic incentive, because the arts space would be subsidized by developers.

Faced with opposition from Union Arts tenants on social media, Lee said Tuesday he’s become frustrated by what he considers misinformation.

(James Doubek/WAMU)

Tenants have organized letter-writing campaigns to city government and testified in support of Union Arts’ importance in their lives. But having the building continue in its current capacity may not be economically viable. The building’s previous owner said tenants weren’t paying enough in rent to cover even the cost of property taxes.

Gaje Jones, who runs MOUSAi House, an art and music space within Union Arts, admits as much. But he says it’s possible to make art spaces like Union Arts financially sound, perhaps through an education program.

“Just adding up all the years of how many people in here have taught, how many artists we have in here, it’s over 1,000 years of intellectual property that this building has,” Jones says, “and that is something that is marketable.”

But the specific question for the zoning board is whether to rezone the building to allow the expansion developers want.

“We could go in there and we could build a hotel right now,” Lee says.

The developer contends that those who oppose rezoning are working against themselves.

“Without the zoning enhancement, there’s no economic viability for this arts program being in that building. You need that zoning enhancement to be able to provide this subsidized arts space,” Lee says. He adds that other developers may have chosen to forgo the arts entirely. Lee wouldn’t speculate when asked what he would do if the zoning commission denied the application.

Many of Union Arts’ tenants remain undeterred.

“We do believe that it’s realistic for them to keep the space as it is, given the historical significance of the building,” Lewthwaite says. She says some tenants want to bring in private partners to continue the building’s use in its current form, or hope for the city government to step in and form a public-private partnership with developers.

Most of the 32 artists and supporters who testified Tuesday evening emphasized their strong opposition to the hotel project. But Mike Abrams, who founded Union Arts in 2013, struck a diplomatic note in his testimony.

“I saw a tremendous willingness by D.B. Lee and Brook Rose to try and do something here. They went from not having any studios, to putting in studios, putting in gallery space, putting in drawing areas, meeting rooms, [a] classroom area,” Abrams said.

“I don’t really think they’re bad guys. I never thought they were bad guys,” says Jones. “Our fight’s not actually with these developers. Our fight’s really with the city. Because when it comes down to it, the city’s the one responsible for the continuous displacement of the art class.”

Seven people have signed up to continue public testimony March 16.

D.C. punk band Priests will headline a benefit show Friday at 411 New York Ave. NE, the location of the arts facility slated to become a boutique hotel. Also on the bill are experimental duo Janel and Anthony, synthesizer musician Adriana-Lucia Cotes and Ian Svenonius‘ solo project, Escape-ism.

The building on New York Avenue has operated under the name Union Arts since 2013, serving as a work and practice space for musicians and artists. Before that, it was used regularly for underground concerts and dance parties. But property taxes on the building became too high for the previous owners, and they sold the property last summer.

D.B. Lee Development, Inc. Construction and Brook Rose Development, LLC, purchased Union Arts in June 2015. They later announced plans to transform 411 New York Ave. NE into a high-end hotel with eight studios and other art spaces managed by the nonprofit CulturalDC. But up to 100 artists use the building on a rotating basis, according to supporters, and the new configuration is likely to push many of them out.

Supporters of Union Arts packed a zoning commission hearing Feb. 1. Many offered testimony about the scarcity of affordable arts space in D.C., which has rapidly gentrified in the last 15 years.

Janel Leppin of Janel and Anthony says the outpouring of support inspired her, and she decided to organize a show to bring attention to the situation.

“More than anything,” Leppin says, she wanted to “raise awareness for the need for spaces for artists in D.C.”

A flyer for Friday’s Union Arts benefit show

Leppin has performed at Union Arts numerous times. She says when choosing bands for the benefit concert, she picked acts who have been involved in the space in some way.

Priests fit that description. The band’s members have set up shows at Union Arts and two of them testified Feb. 1 on the importance of Union Arts to local music.

“It’s definitely a hub of music activity,” says Priests singer Katie Alice Greer in an interview. “It is a unique building right now in D.C. in certain ways. There aren’t a whole lot of other spaces left that are not private homes or businesses. … There’s not a lot of middle-ground spaces where people are actively making art and putting on shows for any band that they think is cool and interesting — in a way that’s not really driven by alcohol sales.”

But saving the building as it is now may not be feasible. According to Gail Harris, managing member of the LLC that sold Union Arts last year, the rent paid by artists did not cover the building’s property taxes. The new owners have asked the current tenants to vacate by Sept. 1. (Though at the hearing, D.B. Lee President Dennis Lee said that date may be flexible.)

CulturalDC says the new studios will accommodate “up to 20-plus artists” who can apply in an open call. Developers point out that musicians will also be considered for art spaces.

But current tenants are still challenging the redevelopment plans. Leppin says proceeds from Friday’s show will help the building’s artists with “whatever cost[s] they are faced with.” She later writes in an email that funds should go to help artists who are trying to find new studio space.

“We will raise the money to help Union Arts continue its work as an arts venue and basically a community center for the public — for as long as it can,” Leppin writes.

Desirée Venn Frederic, founder of vintage shop Nomad Yard Collectiv, which operates out of Union Arts, says that means lawyer’s fees. “In our current fight we acknowledge we need legal support and legal guidance,” she says.

The number of people who signed up to give public testimony Feb. 1 was so great that a second zoning commission hearing was scheduled for Feb. 23. Leppin says she hopes Friday’s show sparks enough interest to overwhelm that hearing, too.

The benefit concert for Union Arts takes place Feb. 19 at 411 New York Ave. NE. 8:30 p.m.

Top image: Protestors at a Feb. 1 zoning commission hearing on the planned redevelopment of Union Arts.

Pyramid Atlantic’s departure from downtown Silver Spring leaves MoCo with one less place to experience adventurous music. Since 2008, local experimental-music promoter Sonic Circuits has hosted roughly 200 shows at Pyramid Atlantic, including last year’s edition of the annual Sonic Circuits Festival.

Pyramid Atlantic signed a 25-year lease at 4318 Gallatin St. in Hyattsville last year, putting down roots in the small city’s growing Gateway Arts District. The arts organization — which specializes in printmaking, letterpress and book arts — hopes to open in the historic Arcade building by early summer.

Pyramid Atlantic is a boon for Prince George’s County, but leaving Montgomery County wasn’t the nonprofit’s original plan. Executive Director Jose Dominguez says the relocation follows the collapse of extensive negotiations with Montgomery County that initially aimed to keep the organization in Silver Spring.

Jeff Carey and Audrey Chen perform at Pyramid Atlantic, 2009 (by IntangibleArts).

The center decided to relocate when Montgomery County started pushing for redevelopment of nearby Ripley Street, Dominguez says. That development would have prevented Pyramid Atlantic from expanding, and the need for a new home became urgent.

But in 2008, Montgomery County began soliciting proposals for a large undesignated space in the new Silver Spring library, a slick $69.5 million project the county unveiled in 2015. Pyramid Atlantic threw its hat into the ring, and Montgomery County’s executive office approved their proposal, inviting the arts center to take over 15,500 square feet in the library. To pay for the buildout, Pyramid Atlantic sold its Georgia Avenue building to developer Harvey Maisel for $2.5 million. The sale was finalized in 2014.

But the arts facility never moved into the Silver Spring library. County memos show that Montgomery County’s executive office sparred with the County Council over terms of the lease agreement, raising questions about — among other issues — whether Pyramid Atlantic was worthy of the space’s estimated $421,000 annual market value.

Odal performs at Pyramid Atlantic, 2009 (IntangibleArts)

After the council ultimately shot down the terms of the lease, Pyramid Atlantic withdrew its proposal in November 2014 and started looking for space elsewhere. That’s when the City of Hyattsville stepped in.

“We knew [Pyramid Atlantic] would be a fantastic anchor for the Gateway Arts District,” says Jim Chandler, Hyattsville’s director of community and economic development. Pyramid Atlantic seemed like the ideal organization for the “gritty” space, which had been undergoing renovation for years, Chandler says. They signed a lease in May 2015.

In the meantime, Montgomery County solicited a new batch of proposals for the library space. It’s now poised to ink a deal with Levine Music, the $9 million nonprofit that operates four music schools in the D.C. region, including one in Montgomery County.

When Pyramid Atlantic leaves downtown Silver Spring, it won’t completely deprive the gentrifying neighborhood of inventive music. Avant-garde record label Cuneiform Records, Montgomery College’s Cultural Arts Center, Fillmore Silver Spring and several record stores are all part of the area’s official arts and entertainment district.

But neighbors say Silver Spring’s loss is Hyattsville’s gain.

“I have been deeply disappointed to lose Pyramid Atlantic. They have enlivened and served our community for years,” emails artist Anne Dyker, who studied papermaking and book arts at the facility in Silver Spring.

“We saw countless concerts there … a few blocks from our offices and our home,” writes Joyce Nalewajk Feigenbaum, Cuneiform Records’ director of publicity and promotion. “It’s been absolute heaven; Silver Spring serving as D.C.’s epicenter for experimental music.”

Now that distinction could be shared with Hyattsville. Sonic Circuits director Surak says he may hitch a ride with the arts center when it moves east.

“The new space presents new opportunities,” Surak writes in an email. “We’ll see what the future holds.”

Top photo of Keir Neuringer at Pyramid Atlantic (2013) by Flickr user IntangibleArts. Used under a Creative Commons license.

The building known as Union Arts is being converted into a boutique hotel, and all of its occupants — including artists, musicians and various small companies — must vacate by Sept. 1.

Demonstrators outside the D.C. Zoning Office Monday night (James Doubek/WAMU)

The four-story structure at 411 New York Ave. NE has served as a practice space, studio and venue for musicians and artists since 2013. Under previous management, it regularly hosted all-night events under the name Warehouse Loft. Because of its location in a sparsely populated manufacturing district, Union Arts offers a perk that’s hard to come by in D.C.: lax noise restrictions.

Artists say losing Union Arts deals a blow to a creative community already diminished by widespread gentrification. “The content and culture that comes out of this space is something that happens nowhere else in the city,” says Graham Boyle, one of the founders of 2B Artist Studios in the building.

Luke Stewart, who co-founded Union Arts and manages its studios, estimates that between 70 and 100 artists use the spaces on New York Avenue, but he says they move in and out frequently. (Disclosure: Stewart and I previously worked together.) Five rooms in the building are used for bands to practice, he says, and other tenants have included vintage shop Nomad Yard, a motorcycle repair shop, a church, a furniture company, a bikeshare company and a contracting company.

In June 2015, the building was sold for $7 million to 411 New York Avenue Holdings, LLC, which comprises D.B. Lee Development, Inc. Construction and Brook Rose Development, LLC. The two developers submitted a joint application to the D.C. zoning commission last summer, outlining plans to redevelop the site as an 11-story hotel with up to 178 rooms.

Planners hope to create a “high end, unique boutique hotel option” that will “provide desperately needed art studio and gallery space for local residents and students of Gallaudet University,” according to the proposal. A restaurant is planned for the ground floor, with a combined restaurant and gallery space on the 11th floor, as well as a rooftop pool and bar. Developers say it will create between 75 and 100 new jobs and, ideally, spur more development in the area.

“It supports the city’s comprehensive plan with the development in the Union Market area,” says Dennis Lee, president of D.B. Lee Development. Lee says food and beverage options that are open to the public will help make the facility more of a “community hotel.” He expects it will serve as a “strong bridge” between the adjacent neighborhoods of Ivy City, Union Market, Gallaudet University and NoMa.

Given the building’s history as an arts space, developers have tried to heavily incorporate the arts into the hotel project. Their plans call for eight art studios, an art classroom, rooftop gallery spaces, a sculpture terrace and “art displays throughout.” CulturalDC, the nonprofit and consulting group that owns Flashpoint Gallery and the Source theater, will partner with the developers to manage the arts components of the building. The group says the second and 11th floors will mostly be dedicated to artistic use.

Lee says the building’s planned arts spaces will help create “a center for all arts to come together.” He adds, “It’s a pretty unique program that we’ve put together. We don’t think there’s anything like it in the whole country.”

A new website devoted to the project details plans for the arts studios. A maximum of 20 artists will get access to them, and their cost will be subsidized up to 60 percent. Lee says subsidies could put the cost at $20 per square foot in some areas. There will be an open call for studio tenants, and CulturalDC will facilitate a panel of five to seven “artists, community members, local business owners” and others to make selections. Every type of artist will be considered, including musicians, says CulturalDC’s communications manager, John Richards.

Lee adds that existing artist residents in the building will be given some preference over other applicants. He also cites different numbers than Stewart, saying the actual number of artists who pay to be in the current building is fewer than 30. He says the estimate of 100 occupants includes visitors and contributors.

Speaking before the zoning commission Monday, many artists said they see the project as displacing art rather than strengthening it. Developers say 3,000 square feet of the new building will be dedicated to art, but artists say that’s not enough.

Musicians especially are nervous about the hotel project, and some say they will have no place in the plan, despite assurances.

“Playing music is very loud, and it’s going to be very disruptive to hotel guests, so musicians will definitely be pushed out of this,” said Katie Alice Greer of the band Priests, speaking before the zoning commission Monday. “There really aren’t any other places like this,” she said.

A crowded room during Monday night’s hearing on Union Arts (James Doubek/WAMU)

But while artists are riled up about Union Arts’ demise, the new owners’ commitment to maintaining some art studio space may have been the least-bad outcome for 411 New York Ave. NE.

The building had been on the market for more than three years, says Gail Harris, the managing member of the LLC that owned the building until last summer. She says the cost of property taxes had become unsustainable.

“Everyone was paying way under market rate for rent,” Harris says. The rent paid by tenants, she adds, could not cover $70,000 in annual property taxes. The Harris family’s LLC purchased the building for just above $1 million in 2007, public records show.

Stewart says Harris was “very, very supportive” of the music and art going on in the building, but it became “a headache for her.”

Mike Abrams, an artist who founded Union Arts in 2013, says the building’s fortunes could be worse. He suggests that the hybrid arts/hotel space may become a model for other developers.

“At least they are considering what they are doing,” Abrams says. “Yes, they are displacing an entire studio building, and they bought the building and that’s their right to do what they want. So to be able to include artists as part of their project, I think that’s a really tremendous first step, to be able to get other developers to see that, to see how it works, see that it can be successful.”

But Abrams expresses concern about the big picture. He says he’d like to see D.C. take a more serious approach to creating live and work spaces for artists, possibly with city-owned property.

“For photographers, for sculptors, for painters, for musicians, for all types of creatives,” Abrams says. “If you share one building, you start to really create a dynamic center, which is what’s missing in D.C.”

Artists attributed the big turnout Monday night to general anxieties about the city’s future.

“Our fight today is not necessarily with the developers,” said Gaje Jones, who runs MOUSAi House, an art and music space within Union Arts. “Our fight today is actually with the city. Because the city, in the planning department, are actually the ones who are allowing these companies to come in and to take over places like Union Arts.”

Graham Boyle added, “It’s very symbolic of the bigger issue of gentrification that’s happening in the city.”

The zoning commission will have another public hearing on the project Feb. 23 at 6:30 p.m.

So why is it that this week, as 9:30 Club celebrates its 35th anniversary, the venue is attracting criticism for allegedly whitewashing its multihued history?

The controversy began at the World’s Fair, 9:30 Club’s weeklong anniversary bash that kicked off Tuesday night. At the VIP reception, scores of people lined up to peruse an exhibit of 9:30 Club ephemera, spanning an impressive collection of photos, flyers, memorabilia and video from the club’s colorful past. But at least one attendee left the show with a searing question: Where was the black history?

Kristi Riggs, a stylist and fashion designer who lives in D.C., says she’s seen plenty of black artists perform at 9:30 Club over the years, including Erykah Badu, The Roots, Jill Scott and numerous hip-hop groups in the ’90s. But their memories are drowned in the sea of pale faces currently on display at the venue. That’s according to a post Riggs published on her Facebook page that has begun to circulate widely online.

“[I’m] so SICK of white people conveniently erasing the contributions of black people. Especially, the black people that have made you rich,” Riggs wrote. “I can count on one hand how many black faces were in the photo exhibit that covered the walls of the entire club.”

Riggs’ post has touched a nerve, racking up more than 100 comments. Many express disappointment. Some seem unsurprised. Others point to a need for more black-owned venues in D.C. A few call for a boycott of 9:30 Club.

Take a close look at the World’s Fair exhibit — open through Saturday — and you’ll find a colorful mosaic, but one that’s more white than brown. Flyers plaster the walls, harking back to punk and punkesque bands that played the venue once upon a time: the B-52’s, Einstürzende Neubauten, The Replacements, hundreds more. A screen plays live footage from a Jesus Lizard show. Fugazi’s gear occupies the stage.

Meanwhile, the bass guitar played by Trouble Funk’s Big Tony is displayed alongside Fugazi’s gear. Video of a recent Leon Bridges show plays on a loop, projected onto a massive cube. Tucked away in a green room, there’s a cardboard standup of the late godfather of go-go, Chuck Brown, not far from the hair dryer 9:30 Club purchased for the late godfather of soul, James Brown.

Artists of color aren’t invisible at the World’s Fair. But they are outnumbered.

Riggs is a longtime 9:30 Club patron who considers herself part of the venue’s extended family. She attended the exhibit’s VIP reception Tuesday night, hoping to reflect on nights she spent there — especially during the ’90s, when D.C. was still Chocolate City.

“I was really excited to go [to the exhibit] because the 9:30 Club has always been near and dear to my heart,” Riggs says in a phone call. “You always know when you’re headed to a show at the 9:30, it’s going to be a special night.”

But she was taken aback by the amount of space dedicated to white punk rockers. This 9:30 Club didn’t feel like the one she knew. “There were just so many voids, in terms of the timeline,” she says. Disappointed and hurt, she left the party, and typed out her feelings on Facebook.

To Riggs, the exhibit’s relative lack of melanin brought up bigger issues — namely her sense that today’s whiter, wealthier D.C. is overwriting its black history.

“Erasure is racism,” Riggs says. “[White newcomers] just want to pick it up from here, like, ‘Oh, thanks for creating this really cool city that we’re all clambering to move to — it’s really wonderful and colorful and fabulous. But we don’t need you anymore now. We’ll take it from here.'”

Particularly in the neighborhood 9:30 Club has called home for 20 years, that erasure seems ubiquitous. Once segregated, largely poor and African American, the U Street area is now lined with pricey residential buildings and teeming with white revelers most nights of the week. In an apparent act of swagger-jacking, an apartment building called The Ellington nods to the neighborhood’s jazz heritage, but shuts out lower-income residents with rents north of $2,500.

To many, the change stings — and sometimes it feels intentional. When black-owned U Street mainstay The Islander closed in 2013 following a bitter feud with new residents, owner Addie Green told the Washington Post, “It’s the kind of change I believe Washington wants.”

To some extent, 9:30 Club has participated in that change. I.M.P. Productions, the venue’s owner, took over operations of U Street institution Lincoln Theatre in 2013. The company immediately brought new life to the historically black, city-owned venue, which had gone underutilized for years. But the first bookings under I.M.P. control were white acts, a decision that seemed out of touch with U Street’s history.

About the all-white bookings, I.M.P.’s Seth Hurwitz said at the time, “We are going to try all kinds of things… But, ultimately, the audience for the Lincoln will be determined by what does well.”

Riggs suspects that as D.C. has grown whiter, 9:30 Club — whose spokesperson declined to comment for this story — has followed suit.

“As the population in D.C. became more white, their bookings became more white,” Riggs says.

For a venue with such a diverse history, she says, that feels like a slap in the face.

“Those African-American artists of all genres helped to cultivate the culture that is known as the 9:30 Club. It’s become known as a beacon of cool,” Riggs says. “And if they think that all happened because of punk-rock music, they’re absolutely mistaken.”

Top photo by Flickr user Heaton Johnson used under a Creative Commons license.