"Concept 1" for Chuck Brown Park.
"Concept 1" for Chuck Brown Park.

First, the plans for Chuck Brown Park included a music pavilion with an amphitheater to seat more than 900 people. Then, amid complaints for neighbors, they got scaled back, with a 200-seat amphitheater.

Now, in the latest iteration of the plans, the amphitheater’s gone altogether.

The Godfather of Go-Go died last year, and Mayor Vince Gray quickly announced plans to memorialize him. The park, in the Langdon neighborhood off of Rhode Island Avenue NE, has already been renamed Chuck Brown Park, and it has long contained a small amphitheater. But the amphitheater—-sparsely used as it was—-was unpopular among some neighbors who disliked the noise it attracted. And so the two design concepts by architect Marshall Moya Design, between which the city will choose, both contain no amphitheater at all.

The earlier design for a Chuck Brown Music Pavilion, with more than 900 seats.

The existing pavilion will be leveled, confirms Department of General Services spokesman Kenneth Diggs. In its place will be a public plaza with a statue of Brown and a commemorative wall, as first reported by ElevationDC. Unlike the earlier proposals’ amphitheater, these facilities are not explicitly designed for music.

“There were a lot of concerns among the neighbors about having a performance venue there,” says local Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Nolan Treadway. “This was one of the suggestions the community had, to convert it into a public plaza. I’m pretty pleased with how it came out. I think a lot of the neighbors are, too.”

“Concept 2.”

“Concept 2,” with explanation.Renderings by Marshall Moya, via DGS