RCW-Library of Congress Advisory Committee

May 29, 2016

What a great response!

The Rock Creek Woods-Library of Congress Advisory Committee has formed to make decisions about purchasing the digital files of working and structural drawings for our homes, from the Library of Congress Charles Goodman archives. The delivered digital files would be available for research, for renovation purposes, for potential buyers, and even to display as art work. Prints will be possible in any size, including the original architectural drawing size.

Neighbor-volunteers to the Advisory Committee are:

Andy and Suzi Schmidt – architects and recent renovators

Boris Yanev – real estate agent and former general contractor

Dwight and Audrey Fincher – architects and recent renovators

Jonathan McIntyre – architect

Julie Marcis – interior designer

Kathy Lednum – museum expert and recent renovator

Motoko and Henri Lezec – museum researcher (Motoko) and recent renovators

Neil Klopfenstein – recent renovator

Nick and Sophia Spencer – graphic design professor (Nick), and real estate agent/neighborhood yoga teacher (Sophia), with renovations in process

Paola Pinto and Luis Franco – recent renovators

Sandrine Henry and Francois Legros – interior designer (Sandrine) and ongoing renovators

Ursula Scott – recent renovator

It’s great that we have so many skilled people in our community! LOC staff are not allowed to make judgements on which originals are better for reproduction so it’s a real boon that we have access to experts to determine which drawings the neighborhood should acquire.

We now have a full count of available material pertaining to Rock Creek Woods.

There are 67 drawings – 55 for the four basic house models, plus 12 miscellaneous drawings.

Working on the assumption that the existing blueprints are duplicates of the tracing paper drawings, the breakdown is as follows:

BC1D (‘Starview’) 12 working and structural drawings
BC2U (‘Brookview’ 12 working and structural drawings
BC3U (‘Woodview’) 12 working and structural drawings
BC4D (pair of 3-story houses on lower Rickover) 19 structural drawings

The cost for the drawings of the four basic models would be approximately $2,750 for the 55 drawings (at $50 per scan). The 12 miscellaneous drawings, including the color scheme drawing of the entire neighborhood, would cost an additional amount. Committee member Francois Legros is willing to lend a hand with the fund-raising. Hooray!

The Library of Congress will only allow a certain number of visitors at a time to view these documents. The following delegates will represent the Committee on a trip to the Library of Congress on June 30:

Dwight Fincher (architect)
Jonathan McIntyre (architect)
Julie Marcis (interior designer, co-chair of RCWCA board)
Sandrine Henry (interior designer)
Motoko Lezec (museum researcher)

Many thanks and kudos to Motoko Lezec for taking on the roles of LOC liaison and Committee coordinator.

The delegates will present their findings to the larger Committee following the visit. The discussion will focus on what to order, fundraising and questions post-acquisition, for example who will manage the digital files and where these huge digital files will be stored.

Stay tuned!