Speaking of things Ward 5 is looking to get rid of: On Thursday, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts reviewed new plans for the proposed streetcar barn on the campus of the soon-to-close-for-renovations Spingarn High School. Which means we get to take a look at some new renderings.

The District Department of Transportation’s original design was big and bold and busy-feeling—-not necessarily a bad thing, but the Historic Preservation Review Board found it to be too big and “insufficiently civic in nature.” So now DDOT’s come back with two variants on a more subdued design that better match the landmarked school the car barn will neighbor.

Here’s what the first scheme, dubbed “vertical/civic,” looks like:

And here’s the second scheme, labeled “horizontal/podium”:

The Historic Preservation Office likes these designs much better. Its staff report for Thursday’s HPRB meeting finds that “both schemes represent a significant improvement over the earlier concept” and recommends that HPRB “find the revised concepts for the car barn on the Spingarn site to be consistent with the purposes of the preservation act.” David Alpert‘s a fan, too. Now, the question is: How will neighbors who objected to the earlier design respond?