April 2009

Case solved

Mystery of the “drive-in bank”

Photo by Julie Wiatt

The ground-floor “roof” of the Community Center is slated for greening.

Ever since the Takoma Park community center opened more than three years ago an unfinished concrete jut-out to the side of the front entrance has been a sort of mystery. A surface of pea gravel made for difficult walking, and anyway trespassers were unwelcome. City Councilmember Doug Barry joked that, flat and empty, suspended over open concrete walls, the space looked like “the roof of a drive-in bank.”

Then, early this year, there were signs it had come to someone’s attention. During mild January days workers removed the pebbles and replaced them with an asphalt covering. Over the asphalt they affixed a sheet of synthetic, watertight, elastic-looking fabric; they called it a “membrane.”

But the workers quickly departed, having added mainly more intrigue.

Meanwhile, a few miles away on Capitol Hill, the staff of the congressman who represents the area encompassing Takoma Park, Chris Van Hollen, was shuffling through stacks of paper in search of what the new Obama administration was calling “shovel-ready” projects for a spend-quick plan to pull the national economy back from a free fall. In that stack was the mystery unraveled.

All along, it turned out, the dormant plaza-like area, with a perimeter of classy black railings, had been reserved for a heavenly garden, or at least one elevated about fifteen feet over Mother Earth. A pot of sufficient money, or lack thereof, had put the plan on hold.

On March 23 news traveled down from Congressman Van Hollen’s office. The wait was over. A pot of $70,000 was on its way.

“It is great news!” rejoiced Daryl Braithwaite a couple days later in her office. As public works director, she had overseen the winter work, thus insuring its eligibility for the federal grant, and she will be overseeing the rest of the transformation. Plant-ready soil will go over the membrane. Succulents and sedums, favored for rooftops because they love basking in intolerant heat, will go into the soil. There will be picnic benches or perhaps picnic tables. There will be stepping stones. Space may be left for a sculpture or another type of fine outdoor art.

“We could also add some planters for height or potentially berms that could hold different plants, depending on the load limitations,” Daryl said. She was engrossed in the possibilities.

“We need to run load figures. That will set the parameters.”