Here is what’s going on Tuesday in Arlington, from our event calendar.
No events today. Have one to promote? Submit it to the calendar.
🌤️ Tuesday’s forecast
Expect partly sunny skies and a high near 75, accompanied by a southwest wind at around 10 mph. Meanwhile, Tuesday night will be mostly clear with a low around 47 and a north wind between 6 to 8 mph. See more from Weather.gov.
💡 Quote of the Day
“It always seems impossible until it is done.” – Nelson Mandela
🌅 Tonight’s sunset
Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.
During the event, students and faculty showcased the types of work the new, tech-oriented facility will house, including the development of robotic limbs and disaster simulation research.
The university broke ground on the 345,000-square-foot building at 3351 Fairfax Drive in January 2022. Previously, the site was home to the old Kann’s Department store, which was demolished in March 2021.
Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. The new facility is expected to serve 750 students initially and up to 2,000 students within the next five years, according to a GMU spokesperson. It will dedicate 60% of its space to university programs and lease the remaining area for retail and private office use.
The Arlington campus is already a hub for several of GMU’s schools, spanning policy, law, conflict resolution and business.
The university’s president, Gregory Washington, told ARLnow that housing technology and social science disciplines under one roof will improve how society adopts new technologies, such as artificial intelligence.
“Engineers alone can’t do it. You need humanists. You need social scientists, and you need business people. We got all of them here working together on the next generation of problems,” he said. “That’s the difference you will see here that you don’t see many other places,”
Washington is also betting on the new facility in Arlington attracting talent that might otherwise choose bigger-name research institutions, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“If you go to MIT, what you’ll find is that the facility we’re building is… better than 95% of the facilities they have,” he said.
During the event, Arlington Economic Development Director Ryan Touhill highlighted the potential for the new facility to energize the local tech sector, which has grown rapidly in recent years, particularly with the arrival of major tech companies like Amazon.
“This project can’t be coming online at a better time,” he said. “We’re really focused in Arlington County and regionally on growing our homegrown tech sector. And that’s part of our long-term economic growth strategy.”
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Graffiti targeting an Israeli company outside the Arlington Tower building in Rosslyn (photo courtesy anonymous)
Graffiti targeting an Israeli company outside the Arlington Tower building in Rosslyn (photo courtesy anonymous)
Graffiti targeting an Israeli company outside the Arlington Tower building in Rosslyn (photo courtesy anonymous)
Graffiti targeting an Israeli company outside the Arlington Tower building in Rosslyn (photo courtesy anonymous)
(Updated at 4:15 p.m.) Someone splashed red paint and scrawled messages in red letters on the outside of the Arlington Tower building in Rosslyn.
The extensive graffiti was discovered this morning on the front of the office building at 1300 17th Street N., which notably housed then-President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection headquarters.
Workers could be seen covering up and trying to clean the red paint from the building’s front walkway, facade and glass doors throughout the day today.
Despite the building’s political campaign history, the apparent target of the graffiti was the Washington office of Israel-based defense firm Elbit Systems. Photos sent to ARLnow show the words “Shut Elbit Down” uncovered while workers attempt to remove the paint.
A number of European funds have publicly divested of Elbit stock in the past due to the company’s role in constructing the Israeli West Bank barrier and manufacturing cluster munitions.
Arlington County police said an online report about the office building vandalism was filed Monday.
“Police received an online report for vandalism alleging that between 2:15 a.m. and 2:35 a.m. on November 6, unknown suspects threw paint on a commercial building and wrote comments regarding Palestine and the company occupying the property,” said ACPD spokeswoman Ashley Savage. “The investigation is ongoing.”
In a company statement, Elbit says it’s working to ensure employee safety.
Elbit America employs thousands of Americans who are dedicated to the mission of creating innovative solutions that protect and save lives, While we support the rights of protesters to peacefully express their views, we take the safety and well-being of our employees extremely seriously and we will continue to work closely with local officials to ensure safety for all.
Red paint, meanwhile, was also used to vandalize the front gates of the White House with red handprints over the weekend amid pro-Palestinian protests. The latest round of Middle East violence started with a surprise Hamas attack on Israeli civilians, leading to the bombardment, blockade and ground invasion of Gaza by Israeli armed forces.
The chair of the Arlington County Board last month said the county “unequivocally… condemn[s] all of the violence that has been targeted at non-combatants” during the Hamas-Israel war.
In addition to Elbit Systems, the Arlington Tower building houses the Washington office of a major engineering firm, an outpost of a Boston-based university, and the headquarters of a publicly traded conglomerate noted for its media and education holdings. While Trump’s 2024 campaign headquarters is said to be in Florida, the campaign’s FEC filings maintain an Arlington post office box.
Do you struggle with anxiety, depression, stress, grief, trauma or anger? Are you ready to make a change? Lauren K. Nickum, LCSW, CSAC from Peaceful Mind Solutions is now taking new clients for psychotherapy. Lauren has over 10 years of experience treating mental health disorders and general life stress in adults and adolescents. For more […]
Amid new federal efforts to push for the adoption of electric vehicles, a local software firm is helping truck fleets, property owners and utility companies electrify.
“More and more, large players, in fleets, in commercial real estate and on the utility side, are thinking about making these investments, and they need analytics to underwrite and justify these investments to enable the transition,” says Ann Xu, the co-founder and CEO of Crystal City-based ElectroTempo.
Her company works with companies in different industries to understand how much it would cost to electrify fleets and install the charging infrastructure they need, among other considerations.
Fellow co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Patrick Finch says the push to electrify, fueled by climate change concerns, is an “unprecedented challenge.” Companies and governments have to replace gas-based infrastructure that took a century to install and cannot be repurposed in an electric future, all while scaling up the operations of the electrical grid.
“The challenge still remains that the charging infrastructure is the biggest barrier to adoption because fleets cannot risk their operations if they don’t have the confidence in their ability to recharge their vehicles,” Xu said. “That remains where we firmly plug in, no pun intended.”
ElectroTempo was founded in November 2020 and, in the spring of 2022, was among the first cohort of businesses to move into the Crystal City startup incubator and accelerator space operated by the French company Zebox. This August, the startup raised $4 million in seed funding, which the company will use to expand where it operates and round out its software product.
The ElectroTempo team (courtesy Ann Xu)
The round, led by a Chicago-based, woman-led investment firm, was difficult to close but ElectroTempo emerged the stronger for it, Xu said.
“Three weeks into our fundraising process, the Silicon Valley Bank collapsed,” she said. “So, it was a very dark time for just the venture community as a whole… The general trend was that strong companies still [made it out] stronger, and we’re lucky to be one of them. We believe that that is because of our fundamental value proposition, how big the market is and the strength of our team.”
Today, ElectroTempo works in Texas — where the company got started — as well as New York, Massachusetts and Virginia, where it has support from the state’s Innovation Partnership Corporation. The funding is intended to fuel ElectroTempo’s expansion into California and Oregon as well as plans to break into more states. It will also pay for upgrades to the company’s software meets the different needs of clients.
“There are so many different types of customers at different stages of electrification and at every stage of their journey,” Xu said. “They need something a little bit different from our product.”
These milestones for ElectroTempo come amid a changing landscape for vehicle electrification, says Finch.
Not only are there new federal incentives for shipping companies to take advantage of, but there are also looming state time limits for going electric. California, for instance, has a policy to effectively phase out diesel trucks by 2035.
“The detachment between setting a really aggressive target and actually getting to said target is quite wide and the amount of infrastructure needed to support an electric truck future is quite expensive,” he said. “We’re focused on bridging that gap because people aren’t going to stop setting the goals. The goals need to be aggressive if you’re going to address climate change in any meaningful way.”
As the summer winds down, it’s a great time to look forward to a creative fall! Art House 7 has a terrific selection of classes, for preschoolers to adults. Our fall session, starting September 6, offers painting, drawing, sculpture, collage, ceramics (including the wheel) and sewing. We have specialty classes such as Suminagashi, the ancient art of Japanese water marbling.
If you’re looking for a shorter commitment, we also have a full schedule of workshops, Art Nights, and Morning Art Socials. If you haven’t discovered Art House 7, please check us out! We offer classes throughout the year, taught by a range of fantastic teachers. You can buy art supplies next door. We’re near the Lee Harrison shopping center, and free parking is outside our door.
