Don and Mera Rubell are expanding their footprint in the nation's capital with the purchase of a former school-a site where the art collectors will build a contemporary art museum and hotel.
The Rubells purchased the former Randall School at 65 I Street SW in D.C. for $6.5 million from the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design, which bought the school from the city in 2006 but never developed the site. In a joint venture with urban development firm Telesis Corporation, the Rubells will build a satellite museum and hotel complex just down the road from their other D.C. property, the Morris Lapidus-designed Capitol Skyline Hotel.
Much as with their museum in Miami, Rubell says, their D.C. contemporary museum will place emerging artists in context with artists whose work they have collected for 30 years. The thrust will ultimately be contemporary, but she explains that she and her husband have no guess yet as to how the museum will fit into the local ecosystem—which is dominated by the Hirshhorn Museum and the National Gallery of Art's East Wing as well as the Phillips Collection and the Corcoran.
"When you use the word 'contemporary' inside the title, you have to be open to flexibility and immediacy," she says.
The Rubells will improve a site that hasn't had much luck in recent years. Closed in 1978 as a school, the building was used by the city as a men's shelter, with parts of it leased to artists. Around 2001, the building officially became the Millenium Arts Center—though it still served artists and homeless men. The Corcoran battled advocates for both when they bought the building from the city in 2006, with the intention of developing an 80,000-square-foot campus alongside luxury condominiums.
The Randall School purchase was one plank in a plan to dramatically expand college enrollment, which stands today at 565 degree-seeking students, up from 480 students 2 years ago. Provost and dean of the college Kirk Pillow says that the school is still growing: The plan is to reach 800 degree-seeking students, but in order to do so, the Corcoran will need another campus. Before it follows through with plans to lease a commercial property, however, the Corcoran must sell the Georgetown building.
The scope of the Corcoran's plans for the Randall School may yet affect the Rubells' development.
Chief of Staff to D.C. Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) Charles Allen says that the city placed covenants on the sale of the school when the Corcoran purchased it. In order for the sale to the Rubells to go forward, the D.C. Council will need to meet to release those covenants.
"There have been a lot of commitments to the community with the sale of the Randall School. This changes a lot of that," says Allen. The city originally approved the sale because the Corcoran's plan included an educational component, which was deemed a "public good" and a use in keeping with the site's history.
The Ward 6 office has not yet seen details of the sale, but Allen says that the Council will look to ensure that the sale is fair to the District and taxpayers. Though Allen says that there is no timeline in place for a Council review, the Corcoran suggests the process could take 12–18 months.
Rubell says that the hotel and museum will represent a major boon to Ward 6.