Joe Cole Fitness Center's eastern wall
I'm slightly obsessed with the projection of movies onto buildings. With this in mind, you can imagine my delight upon realizing that the Joe Cole Fitness Center's eastern wall might be fit for this purpose (last summer I looked in vain for a suitable H Street location). The fitness center is ideal because the wall is light colored, there is a large grassy area for sitting, you do not get the traffic noise that you would get with a busy street like H Street, and I'm pretty sure that lighting would not be a problem. This is just a thought, but isn't it appealing?
Want to see more photos of the rec? Check them here.
13 comments:
Great idea! What movie do see first?
Love the idea too! Maybe you could get funding from ANC to start, or go for Atlas/H street playhouse sponsorship.
DC Shorts festival is also coming up!
That's such and interesting and unusual building. Was it a school at one time? And when was it built?
I'm talking to someone who may already have a suitable projector (we shall see). I think it would work okay to just project onto the wall (negating the need for a screen), but there are also cheap ways to make a screen that we could try out. Anyway, a plan for warmer weather.
Apparently the building, then known as Wheatley Recreation Center, was buil in 1977. Planning for the center began in the 1950s & required the demolition of many houses along Morse Street. The fitness/rec. center was named for nearby Wheatley Elementary (now vacant), but was constructed as a rec. center for the community (it wasn't operated as a school). The building is interesting (it only has windows at the doors) & it one some kind of award from the American Institute of Architecture. I actually have a whole set of photos of Joe Cole that you can access by checking out the Joe Cole set on my flickr account (get there by clicking on any of my photos -free membership required).
Good luck. I love things like this. I wanted to do this at 6th and H under the auspices of HSMS but we didn't get around to it.
In conversations with people, apparently this was done at JO Wilson School at some point in the 1970s maybe? Perhaps Sheila White would know...
Re: $ and ANCs, remember that Wheatley is in Ward 5. Can grants cross geographic boundaries? Just not sure.
Actually, contact Bob King. He lives in Ward 5 and works or worked for the DPR. He is an ANC commissioner too, but lives in the Woodridge/Ft. Lincoln area.
If we can use the projector I'm thinking about, then any costs should be pretty minimal. Maybe just a license (~$200 annually)?
Inked, Great idea!
Just make sure you check into what copyright license you will need. Public performance requires a license of some sort (may be relatively cheap for non-profit w/o admission charge).
From Motion Picture Licesing Corporation (one of the larger):
Q. We are non-profit and do not charge admission. Do we still need a license?
A. Yes. The U.S. Copyright Act applies equally to nonprofit and for profit organizations, regardless of whether an admission fee is charged.
Here's a link to a list of the licensing companies:
http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/permorg.htm#mov
I've been looking into it. The $200 dollar estimate is ball park for an umbrella license for a non-profit w/fewer than 500 attendees.
Cool...just didn't want you to get in trouble!
Very cool idea, Elise! Do you think the slope of the grassy area will be a problem? Maybe this is just an optical illusion, but it seems to slope down toward the street and away from the wall. If the slope is severe, do you think seating may be uncomfortable since folks won't be facing in the direction of the downward slope?
There is a slope, but it isn't so bad. The biggest issue is that I doubt we'd have access to any projector capable of creating a very large image. An umbrella license is fairly affordable & I think extension cords could probably solve any electricity issues. Under an umbrella license you can't advertise the movie by name, so that makes it a little harder, but that's hardly fatal. For the sound, I think we'd just need to do a little experimenting.
Update here, the city called me back again & this time they told me that Joe Cole was constructed between 1973-1974, and not in 1977.
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