iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Neil Flanagan 🧱🗃️ @jgbollard.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

DC People: for your rainy day inside, I wrote about our nosy Federal in-law.

thebirthofacapital.info

Who made NPS the boss of DC?

Et in arcadia, Hoover?

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Kim Bender @kimpbender.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Neil makes a compelling argument that the site of the “Triumphal Arch h” - which sits on the axis between Robert E. Lee’s ancestral home and the Lincoln Memorial - should actually be a memorial to Emancipation. www.thebirthofacapital.info/who-came-up-...

thebirthofacapital.info

Who came up with Memorial Bridge?

The answer should give us pause.

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Neil Flanagan 🧱🗃️ @jgbollard.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

You heard the lady

[woman with cornucopia of coins]

INVESTMENT
IN
WASHINGTON-
REAL ESTATE
AND THE
PROFITS THAT COME FROM IT

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Brian Miller @b-miller.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Went to the Memorial Bridge equestrian sculptures today and it’s not a reflecting pool situation, the work was done by top notch craftspeople from The Gilders’ Studio and you can faintly see the gold leaf squares in the last pic. You can hate the expenditure and aesthetic, but it’s the real deal.

close up of a very gold equestrian statue showing faint evidence of square gold leaf application

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Kim Bender @kimpbender.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

The last (very recent) time we tried, there was no appetite

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Neil Flanagan 🧱🗃️ @jgbollard.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

The size of the backlog at most archives I have used is enough for a jobs program itself, and then another to begin to interpret the material.

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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 19/07/2026

People, including Matt Seaton, love walls, especially the weather-grizzled, lichen-blotched stone walls that crisscross New England. Seaton writes about his decision to quit his day job as an editor at this magazine and become a part-time waller.

bit.ly

The True History of New England 's Stone Walls

Why we love them, and why I build them.

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Roger Senserrich @4freedoms.es · 26/06/2026

Every hometown’s got the ominous megastructure. What is yours?

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Kim Bender @kimpbender.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Took a detour through the Great American State Fair. Sometimes DC is a mind-boggling city.

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Kim Bender @kimpbender.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I also saw it over the Washington Channel

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Kim Bender @kimpbender.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I saw it over the Washington Channel

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Neil Flanagan 🧱🗃️ @jgbollard.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Many people have been saying that adaptive reuse is the future of architecture... well if you look at billed hours, the future is already here.

bloomberg.com

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Neil Flanagan 🧱🗃️ @jgbollard.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Believe it or not, there's a rich history to the monuments and water features the president is painting. So, I've started putting together a scholarly bibliography for the design of the National Mall. It's heavy on my interests, so if you see I've missed something, let me know in the replies! 🗃️

thebirthofacapital.info

A bibliography for Trump's Washington

If you read one book about the city Donald Trump has set out to transform, make it Howard Gillette's Between Justice & Beauty: Race, Planning, and the Failure of Urban Policy in Washington, D.C. It re...

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

RIP Mark Rothko. You would have loved how the hydrogen peroxide bleach is only turning the Reflecting Pool blue around the perimeter

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Neil Flanagan 🧱🗃️ @jgbollard.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

I wrote about how I am boiling detective stories to their bones to make my book as readable as possible—without making it about me. 🗃️

thebirthofacapital.info

Am I writing a heist story?

A confession of literary larceny.

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Jalane Schmidt 📢🚫🧊🚫👑✊🏾🏴🌈🇨🇺🇻🇪 🇬🇱 🇺🇦🍉YIMBY🏘️🏗️🏢✝️🌹 @jalaneschmidt.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

When your community removes a racist statue, do like Charlottesville and melt that fucker down. Because if you just stash it in storage, it becomes what @artcrimeprof.bsky.social calls “America’s strategic racism reserve” — ready for redeployment. www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/s...

nbcwashington.com

Statue of founding father who enslaved hundreds installed at Freedom Plaza

Caesar Rodney’s statue was taken down in Delaware during protests in the summer of 2020 because of Rodney’s legacy of enslaving hundreds of people.

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Kim Bender @kimpbender.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

They still serve it - you just have to go to the correct district drafts cart (which can be annoying to find)

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Neil Flanagan 🧱🗃️ @jgbollard.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Good interview with Owen Hatherley. His speculation on the background to these projects is not informed but the alternative visions for the city are excellent.

nytimes.com

Opinion | Trump’s Architecture Rankles. But Why?

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Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

It’s a synthetic fantasy about a future along the Potomac River where rising tides, storm surges, and more intense hurricanes don’t exist.

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Neil Flanagan 🧱🗃️ @jgbollard.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

In a democracy, there is something shameful about the security that surrounds its leaders. But Donald Trump doesn't feel any shame. Me in the Atlantic on the victory of bunker mentality.

theatlantic.com

The White House Is a Fortress. It’s Not Supposed to Look Like One.

Trump’s ballroom would contort a design that is supposed to emphasize democracy and openness.

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DC Public Library @dcpubliclibrary.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

DC History Conference returns to MLK Library. 📅 May 1–2 ⏰ 9:30am–5:30pm Free, two days of talks, storytelling, and deep dives into DC’s past and present. Students, scholars, artists, and neighbors all in one space. Plan ahead. Register here: bit.ly/4tvmGtq

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Kim Bender @kimpbender.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

I’m all for getting people to engage more in history but…wut?

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Mitch Ryals @mitchryals.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

The Board of Zoning Adjustment hasn't been able to establish a quorum for more than a month, bringing housing renovations and development to a screeching halt. Suzie Amanuel spoke to an elderly couple who are caught in the middle: washingtoncitypaper.com/article/7838...

washingtoncitypaper.com

The Board of Zoning Adjustment Hasn’t Had a Quorum For More Than a Month, Snarling Housing Renovation and Development

A series of recent departures and a yearlong vacancy have effectively halted crucial zoning decisions. Cases have been pushed back to June—at the earliest.

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DC Archives Foundation @dcarchivesfdn.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Happy 40th Anniversary to the DC Archives!!

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Neil Flanagan 🧱🗃️ @jgbollard.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

I have heard very, very good things about the status of the DC Archives funding. The hearing is 4/27. 🗃️

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Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

View and map of Toledo, 1610. Another wild & wonderful work by El Greco, who died (in Toledo) on this day in 1614.

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Historic Days in April from the Crisis, April 1912 hdl.handle.net/2027/msu.312...

HISTORIC DAYS IN APRIL

3. Negro troops enter Richmond, 1865 .

4. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones organized the first Negro aid and beneficial society , 1787.

5. Report of commission sent to San Domingo to investigate the question of annexation sent to Congress , 1871 .

6. Second Continental Congress passed resolution against importation of slaves , 1776 .

7. Lewis Hayden , fugitive slave and tireless worker for the advancement of the Negro , died , 1889 .

8. New York prohibits slave trade , 1801.

9. Lyman Trumbull's Civil Rights Bill, which gave the Negro status in the courts of the United States, became law , 1866 .

11. Richard Allen, first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church , consecrated , 1816 .

12. Battle of Fort Pillow , 1864 .

14. First abolition society in the United States organized , 1775 .

15. Abraham Lincoln died , 1865 .

16. Emancipation in the District of Columbia by act of Congress , providing for compensation of slaveholders , 1862 .

17. Robert G. Shaw commissioned colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment , 1863 .

18. Reconstruction constitution of Louisiana ratified , 1868 .

19. Oberlin , O. , founded , 1833

20. Anti-Ku-Klux Act approved , 1871 .

23. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler offers to suppress servile insurrection in Maryland, 1861 .

27. Toussaint L'ouverture died , 1803

30. The Fifteenth Amendment pro- posed , 1866 .

L. M. HERSHAW.

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Kim Bender @kimpbender.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Well they’re busy doing other things around the city, Neil.

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Neil Flanagan 🧱🗃️ @jgbollard.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

If you stay in bed a little longer, you’ll have more time to read this ⬇️

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Martin Austermuhle @maustermuhle.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Of nerdy urbanist interest: Next week the D.C. Council will cast a first vote on @brianneknadeau.bsky.social's bill to allow for new D.C. buildings up to six stories tall to have only a single stairwell in them, instead of the current two. Proponents say it creates more residential space.

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