Clarendon

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

DOE Highlights Discovery Elementary — The U.S. Department of Energy has profiled Arlington’s Discovery Elementary in a new video. DOE lauds the school for its net zero energy design, which “saves $100,000 per year in utility costs, enough to cover the salaries of two teachers” and was implemented under-budget. [YouTube, Blue Virginia]

Hackathon in Clarendon — Capital One is holding a Women in Tech hackathon at its Clarendon “lab” office next week. “Attendees will have the opportunity to ‘create a technical solution for Women Who Code that empowers girls and women to stay in the tech field.'” [Technical.ly DC,  Women in Tech Demo Day]

Arlington Native Pens New Bodice Ripper — On the heels of the success of her debut novel, Seven Days, Arlington’s Ariel Atwell (the pen name of Leslie Aun) has written a follow-up, Twenty-One Nights. The Regency romance is No. 28 on Amazon’s chart for that category. [Amazon]

Nearby: JBG Announces New HQ in Bethesda — In a bit of a blow to Arlington, JBG has announced that it will be opening a new headquarters in downtown Bethesda. JBG has numerous properties in Arlington and will soon be merging with Vornado’s D.C. division, which includes extensive holdings in Arlington. [Bethesda Beat]

Flickr pool photo by Bekah Richards

Clarendon Animal Care To Expand Space, Staff

By Katherine Berko
1/6

Clarendon Animal Care will soon have more space for its four-legged clients.

The veterinary business opened in January 2015. Two and a half years later, it is continuing to grow and is set to expand to the space next door, said Dr. Kayleen Gloor, one of its founders.

The office’s expansion, into the former storefront of a sign shop, will increase its space by 70 percent. It will go from having three exam rooms to five exam rooms, while there will also be a larger reception area and more spacious treatment spaces. The center is also planning to add a fifth veterinarian to its team by the end of this month.

“[The expansion] was out of need,” Gloor said. “I have a hard time saying ‘no’ to [animals] that need to be seen.”

Gloor believes that the fifth vet and added space will make things less stressful for the office’s staff, as they will be better able to share the workload.

“I think our and our staff’s families will appreciate a little better work/life balance,” Gloor said.

Gloor said she hopes for the construction to be over and the new space ready to use by early next month.

Disclosure: Clarendon Animal Care is an ARLnow.com advertiser.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Rough Day on the Roads — An already rain-soaked Thursday was made worse after a tree fell across the eastbound lanes of I-66, blocking the highway during the morning rush hour. Later, the southbound lanes of the GW Parkway were closed near the Key Bridge due to a crash. [WJLA, Washington Post]

Running of the Bulls Viewing Party — New Spanish restaurant Pamplona in Clarendon is hosting its first annual Running of the Bulls viewing party on Saturday. [Facebook]

Arlington Helps Out With Falls Church Graduation — Arlington voluntarily shifted its high school graduation schedule to help Falls Church’s George Mason High School get a graduation ceremony spot at D.A.R. Constitution Hall last month. [InsideNova]

Nearby: Affordable Housing Decline in Alexandria — There was a 90 percent drop in affordable housing units in Alexandria between 2000 and 2017 and the decline is likely to continue without the construction of more dedicated affordable units. [WAMU]

Flickr pool photo by Kevin Wolf

New Clarendon Apartment Building Adds Virtual Reality Tours

By Kalina Newman
1/3

Construction at luxury apartment complex Ten at Clarendon will continue until September, but prospective renters can now tour apartments with the use of virtual reality.

In a partnership with Immerse Virtual Reality Nation, developer CRC Companies is launching a fully immersive virtual reality apartment tour of the new apartments at 3110 10th Street N. The 143-unit complex is expected to be completed this fall.

Using an HTC Vive headset with two motion sensors, residents can experience a realistic, 360-degree home tour of what their apartment will look like after construction.

“We have developed a fully interactive and accurate VR experience using our experience from architecture and gaming,” said IVR Nation CEO Olivier Demangel in a statement. “It’s clearly a new era for real estate and architecture.”

IVR Nation is a company entirely dedicated to partnering the hospitality industry with virtual reality. CRC plans to incorporate IVR technology into other company projects, such as during the architecture design process.

“We are excited to employ IVR’s virtual reality technology and allow prospects to gain a unique preview of the Ten at Clarendon as we prepare to deliver the project to this coveted Arlington neighborhood,” said CRC Companies senior development associate Oliver Lee in a statement.

In addition to virtual reality tours, other new features in the apartment complex will include keyless apartment entry, mobile-controlled thermostats and a video intercom system.

Apartments at the new building are currently available for new tenants under pre-lease.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Police to Hold Anti-DUI Event During Bar Crawl — The All American Bar Crawl will be taking place in Clarendon from 1-9 p.m. Saturday, and the Arlington County Police Department is planning some complementary programming. ACPD and the Washington Regional Alcohol Program are holding a “free interactive anti-drunk driving event” from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday on N. Highland Street, in the heart of Clarendon. [Arlington County]

Local ‘Big Brother’ Houseguest Getting Attention — Matthew Clines, a 33-year-old renovation consultant and fitness buff from Arlington, is being mentioned as a frontrunner on the new season of CBS’ Big Brother. “Many ladies swooned over” him, US Weekly writes. Clines has suggested he “would rather have America love him… than actually win the game and the $500,000.” [Us Weekly, Reality TV World]

Texas Jack’s Ranks High on BBQ List — Texas Jack’s in Lyon Park has ranked No. 2 on food critic Tim Carman’s list of the best barbecue joints in the D.C. area. [Washington Post]

Woman Wanted for Hit and Run Near Columbia Pike — Arlington County Police are looking for a woman who struck a pedestrian on the 3400 block of 7th Street S., in the Arlington Heights neighborhood, Wednesday night. The suspect, described as a “white female in her mid-twenties to early thirties, approximately 5’6″ tall… wearing a white sweater,” fled the scene after the collision, which sent the victim to a local trauma center with significant but non-life-threatening injuries. [Arlington County]

Photo courtesy Bradley Teague

Podcast: Giovanni Quintana

By ARLnow.com

Giovanni Quintana was formerly the general manager of Mad Rose Tavern, but he’s now on a mission bigger than his work to turn around what was once a struggling Clarendon bar.

For the past couple of years years, Quintana and girlfriend Ivana Danschin have spent their spare time outside of work doing whatever they could to give their daughter Arianna the ability to hear.

Due to birth complications, Arianna — now two-and-a-half years old — was born deaf. But Quintana and Danschin successfully applied for her to be part of a clinical trial for an experimental Auditory Brainstem Implant, a technology that allows those like Arianna, who could not benefit from a cochlear implant, to hear.

Arianna was the fourth child in the United States to undergo this next-generation Auditory Brainstem Implant surgery, Quintana says.

While insurance is covering most of the cost, Quintana and Danschin have still encountered tens of thousands of dollars worth of expenses, prompting them to move out of Arlington and launch a GoFundMe page. And this coming Friday, two weeks before Arianna is set to undergo another surgery, they will be hosting a fundraiser at Bar Bao — the successor to Mad Rose — in Clarendon.

The fundraiser will run from 5 p.m. to close. On this week’s 26 Square Miles podcast, we asked Quintana about the fundraiser, about the first time he realized Arianna could hear after her initial surgery, and about why Arianna needs a second surgery.

Listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher or TuneIn.

Photo via YouTube

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

APS Tells Staff to Stop Paying Sales Tax — As a public institution Arlington Public Schools is exempt from paying sales tax, but the school system’s internal auditor has found that some staff members have been placing orders for APS via Amazon without sales tax exempted. APS has since requested sales tax refunds for those orders. [InsideNova]

Arlington Resident Cited for Boating Incident — An Arlington man has been cited for operating a vessel while impaired after his 28-foot boat ran aground off the eastern shore of Maryland, south of Ocean City. [WMDT]

Notable Rivercrest Property Sold — A home and an adjacent vacant lot have been sold near the intersection of Military Road and N. Glebe Road in the Rivercrest neighborhood. The lot was the site of a “national debate over property rights and conformity,” when in 1969 an architect started to build a custom home on the lot but was ultimately stopped after a legal challenge by neighbors, who thought the home was ugly and would not “retain the very pleasant, beautiful nature of Rivercrest.” [Falls Church News-Press]

Flipper: Selling Home to the County Was a Pain — A real estate investor has penned a piece for the Post in which he recounts the sale of one of his properties to Arlington County. The sale, of a house near Fire Station 8, was “neither lucrative nor convenient” and was more trouble than it was worth, he writes. However, the owner of a run-down property next to his received a much better price by holding out, the piece suggests. [Washington Post]

Mouthwash on Clarendon Bus Stop — Updating the saga of the stick of deodorant atop a Clarendon bus stop, the deodorant has now been joined by an errant bottle of Listerine mouthwash. [ARLnow]

Clarendon Businesses To Partner Tomorrow For Alzheimer’s Fundraiser

By Kalina Newman

The Alzheimer’s Association of the National Capital Area will partner with several Clarendon businesses tomorrow (Wednesday) to raise money for those suffering with Alzheimer’s.

Known as Clarendon Cares, participating businesses will offer special deals for the occasion and a portion of their proceeds will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Association. The fundraiser coincides with the association’s “Longest Day” event, which encourages people to give on the summer solstice.

Anyone who can’t make it to any of the participating businesses Wednesday can donate online to help the Alzheimer’s Association reach its goal of raising $5,000.

And those posting on social media that day are encouraged to use the hashtag #ClarendonCares.

Local businesses participating are:

Large Power Outage in Clarendon Area

By ARLnow.com
1/9

Update at 7:50 p.m. — The number of outages in Arlington is down to 200, according to Dominion.

Earlier: More than 5,500 Dominion customers are without power in Arlington following this afternoon’s storms, mostly in and around the Clarendon area.

The Clarendon outage extends from Wilson Blvd down to N. Bedford Street in Lyon Park, near Route 50. Numerous businesses in the area are without power and the busy intersection of Washington Blvd and 10th Street N.

As of 4:50 p.m. Dominion was reporting 5,542 outages in Arlington, with some smaller outages scattered throughout the county. There have also been reports of trees and utility wires down in the roadway in various locations, and at least one tree that fell and damaged a house.

The Arlington County Police Department is reminding drivers to treat dark traffic signals as a four-way stop.

Power outage map (top) via Dominion. Weather radar via weather.com.

Police: Drunk Man Arrested for Tossing Wine Bottles Out of Whole Foods Window

By ARLnow.com
1/3

A customer of Amazon.com acquisition target Whole Foods had a special delivery for cars parked outside its Clarendon location Friday morning: wine bottles and loose change.

Police were called to the Whole Foods at 2700 Wilson Blvd around 7 a.m. Friday for a report of someone throwing objects out of a second floor window. When the arrived they allegedly found a 21-year-old Arlington man who was drunk and tossing wine bottles and change at a car below.

More from an Arlington County Police Department crime report:

MISSILE INTO OCCUPIED VEHICLE, 2017-06160070, 2700 block of Wilson Boulevard. At approximately 7:09 a.m. on June 16, officers responded to the report of an individual throwing objects. Upon arrival, it was determined a male subject was throwing objects at an occupied vehicle from an upstairs window. No one was injured. Marvin Sosa Velasquez, 21, of Arlington VA, was arrested and charged with missile into occupied vehicle and drunk in public. He is being held without bond.

Police: Man Filmed Woman While in Bathroom of Clarendon Restaurant

By ARLnow.com

A man allegedly filmed a woman in the bathroom stall of a Clarendon restaurant last night.

The incident happened just before 9 p.m. Monday, on the 3100 block of Wilson Blvd, according to the Arlington County Police Department. That block, across from the Clarendon Metro station, is home to a long stretch of bars and restaurants.

Police say that the woman was in the bathroom when she looked up and saw a man filming her with what appeared to be a cell phone.

“The victim advised that she was inside the restroom when she felt a presence, causing her to look up,” said ACPD spokeswoman Ashley Savage. “The victim then observed an unknown male suspect recording her. Once the victim observed the suspect, he fled the scene on foot.”

“The suspect is described as a 50-60 year old white male with long gray hair and blue eyes,” Savage continued. “He was wearing a blue plaid shirt and blue jeans at the time of the incident. The investigation is ongoing.”

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