Many of you have already visited the “Solar Village” since it opened its gates last Friday on the National Mall. Last weekend the long lines literally wrapped around each house entered into the 2007 Solar Decathlon, with people eager to get a tour from the students, alumni and faculty from each university competitor. The ten competitions have been judged all week, from Architecture last week to Engineering today, with individual winners announced for each leg…

>> The Smithsonian American Art Museum honors the winners of the Lucelia Artist Award over the past six years with its new exhibition opening tomorrow. The highly prestigious award gives $25,000 to an artist under 50 who has “consistently demonstrated exceptional creativity.” See the six winners every day from from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. The 2007 winner will be revealed tomorrow when the exhibit opens. >> If you haven’t had the chance yet…

Washington is full of monuments to famous people — Washington, Jefferson, Einstein, Hahnemann. Hahnemann? Not a forgotten vice president or a general, Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann was the founder of homeopathic medicine. His impressive monument, located at 16th and Massachusetts NW near Scott Circle, isn’t too helpful — it says “HAHNEMANN” on the top, as if everybody knows who he is. There are also a few Latin and German sayings (he was born in Saxony…

Today will be mostly sunny blustery and cold with highs around 30. This photo of Lafayette Park was taken by Thomas Michael Corcoran. D.C. Government: Rolling in Dough: D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi announced yesterday that the D.C. government had a surplus of $318 million in 2004 and has amassed $1.2 billion in savings. After withholding most to accommodate for expected increases in healthcare for city employees and other expenses, Gandhi is…

We’re saddened by the passing of one of America’s architectural giants, Philip Johnson, a larger-than-life figure who transformed our notion of space and design. Johnson lived in the shadow of Frank Lloyd Wright for much of his early career. About a decade after Wright died in 1959, Simon and Garfunkel wrote a song in tribute to the master architect. Though Johnson’s life was certainly filled with intrigue, drama and intense public criticism (for his architecture…

With the weather frightful, hibernating seems like the thing to do. But what better place to escape the cold than in the refuge of D.C.’s museums and galleries? >> The Kennedy Center kicked off its six-month tribute to the 1940s on Sunday night. “A New America: The 1940s and the Arts” spans a wide range of performing arts and is the largest, most expensive event the center has presented. >> “Rembrandt’s Late Religious Portraits” opens…

If you’re reading this now, there may be a light dusting of snow on the ground. Before the worsening weather last night, we’re able to get a shot of the Washington Monument toward dusk from the Tidal Basin. With the weather deteriorating during the week, the next few days could make for a more than uncomfortable Inauguration. Capital Weather has the latest. In the meantime, here’s what you may have missed on DCist over…

Three Washington-area projects have been recognized by the American Institute of Architects as winners of their 2005 Honor Awards. The Gannett/USA Today Corporate Headquarters in Tysons Corner is among the recipients of the AIA’s Honor Awards for Architecture, while the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative Framework Plan and Cady’s Alley in Georgetown are among the projects awarded the AIA’s Honor Awards for Regional and Urban Design. One of 13 buildings chosen from more than 400 entries,…

WTOP reports that the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has awarded $200,000 in grants to three local development corporations for the construction of environmentally sensitive landscaped roofs (“green roofs”) on office buildings to reduce runoff into the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, and ultimately into the Chesapeake Bay. Among the projects on tap is a 68,000-square-foot vegetated roof for the new headquarters of the U.S. Department of Transportation (shown here in a rendering from the building’s developer, the…

We finally found one. After nine months of searching, DCist spied someone wearing a WMATA metrorail shirt this weekend on a Connecticut Avenue sidewalk. (It was a Metro Center shirt, like the the one at left). Since we love to talk about transit issues, DCist has a few thoughts on D.C.’s attempts to enter the world of transit chic. London promotes “Mind the Gap.” Paris glorifies its Art Nouveau Metropolitan signage. And New York has…