For over a year now, interested parties have been waiting for the D.C. Court of Appeals to rule on whether or not the Mayor’s Agent for historic preservation had erred in allowing the Heritage Foundation to add a third story to its historic building on Pennsylvania Avenue SE. The case had all sorts of implications for what’s appropriate in the Capitol Hill historic district, and whether the Mayor’s Agent owed any deference in its decisions to the Historic Preservation Review Board.

But: No satisfaction! The court threw out the Capitol Hill Restoration Society’s appeal, saying it wasn’t timely, with a lengthy discussion of the technicality. So Heritage will get to keep its mansard roof, and the larger questions will go unresolved.

Illustration by Brooke Hatfield

Correction: Due to a reporting error, this post originally misidentified the court that issued the ruling. It was the D.C. Court of Appeals, not the D.C. Superior Court.