Golden Triangle Charitable Corporation Brochure

Building Sustainable, Inclusive, and Resilient Communities

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ABOUT GTCC The Golden Triangle Charitable Corporation (GTCC) develops and supports cultural programming, social services and environmental initiatives that strengthen the nation’s capital for residents and visitors alike. The GTCC’s vision is a downtown Washington that is sustainable, resilient, inclusive, transformational and rich in experiences.

The Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (GT BID) established the GTCC, a non-profit charitable organization, in 2017 to nurture and expand key programs through partnerships with businesses, philanthropic organizations and individuals to make the city and entire metropolitan region a thriving urban area truly befitting the nation’s capital. A strategic plan was developed in 2016 to focus both organizations on goals for the next 10 years.

The Golden Triangle encompasses 43 square blocks in the heart of Washington DC, stretching from the White House to Dupont Circle.

OUR PROGRAMS The GTCC operates in the intersect between the public and private sectors. It brings together interested parties – individuals, businesses and government agencies – to leverage knowledge and expertise to support initiatives that benefit the broader capital area community.

Whether it is public art, green infrastructure, homeless services, emergency preparedness or community events, the GTCC believes in building partnerships that have a positive impact on the people who live in, work in, or visit the city. These best practices are shared with other cities and communities across the country.

The GTCC is supported by the knowledge, expertise, resources, and on-street operational capacity developed by the GT BID over the last two decades. The GT BID covers the operating expenses for the GTCC. All additional monies raised from individual, foundation and corporate partners directly support its programs.

Top and bottom right: In a first-of-its kind collaboration between the Golden Triangle and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, six massive sculptures from the Renwick’s exhibition on the Art of Burning Man were sited on downtown sidewalks and parks, making the art accessible to hundreds of thousands of people who may not visit a museum or gallery.

Right, middle: Artist Nekisha Durett explains the inspiration behind her piece Up til Now during a walking tour of Golden Triangle Art.

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Penn Ave now Vision for Penn Ave

BRINGING ART TO PUBLIC PLACES The Golden Triangle works with non-profit arts organizations, city and federal agencies, and artists to commission and install projects that create a true sense of place. We are uniquely positioned to bring high quality art beyond the city’s museums and galleries into public spaces, making them accessible to a large and diverse audience who otherwise may not experience art. Thanks in part to the experience and partnerships nurtured over the past ten years, the Golden Triangle has developed a level of curatorial expertise that consistently produces public art that is highly visible, widely recognized and approachable.

Future initiatives will leverage the success of past projects and capitalize on the vibrancy of the community. The Golden Triangle’s portfolio of upcoming art projects includes recurring sculptures on the Connecticut Avenue median, an annual winter pavilion in Farragut Square, and sculptures and cultural programming on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Top: The annual Golden Haiku competition invites poets from throughout the neighborhood and the world to share their verse with others. Each winter, thousands of poems are judged by internationally recognized Haiku poets and placed in downtown tree boxes, bringing joy and anticipation of spring to thousands of passersby during the late winter.

Middle and bottom right: The DC Department of Transportation, GT BID, and others are partnering to transform Pennsylvania Avenue west of the White House into an international avenue, leveraging its location near global institutions like the World Bank, IMF and embassies.

The redesign will include transportation improvements, more green space, smart cities technology and park improvements. Areas for art and cultural events are integrated into the design.

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INCREASING URBAN SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CAPITAL REGION Green infrastructure initiatives that contribute to the sustainability of the metropolitan area are a priority for us. The Golden Triangle leverages its knowledge of public spaces, relationships with agency partners, innovation and expertise to create rain gardens and other green projects in highly visible locations. These projects not only protect natural resources but also educate a diverse audience about sustainability each day. Our goal is to demonstrate that fairly simple efforts can retrofit dense urban areas with infrastructure and projects that support the environment.

19th Street before

Since 2012, the Golden Triangle has built six rain gardens and converted 12,000 square feet of asphalt and concrete into green space. We have installed a rain garden at the Rhode Island and M Street island, a sustainable rainwater harvesting system in Duke Ellington Park, and four rain gardens at the corners of 19th and K Streets. In June 2019, we broke ground on 11 additional rain gardens and 10 expanded tree boxes on 19th Street, establishing 19th Street as a model green corridor.

The GTCC is seeking funding to continue to advance green infrastructure projects and lead the way in supporting sustainability in cities.

19th Street after

Top: Rain garden on Rhode Island M Street.

Above: Above: 19th Street before and after the installation of a rain garden. The rain garden captures and filters runoff.

Left: In 2019 the Golden Triangle expanded its annual landscaping competition in partnership with Smithsonian Gardens. The two-year collaboration encourages building owners to plant pollinator-friendly gardens in downtown tree boxes, demonstrating that urban landscaping can support ecosystems and educating thousands of passersby daily.

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REDUCING HOMELESSNESS Washington’s greater downtown is home to many of the region’s chronically homeless individuals.

Since the early 2000s, in concert with a network of homeless outreach organizations, the Golden Triangle has provided services to people living on our sidewalks, in our alleys, and in our parks. We fund a team of four outreach workers who help people get services, jobs, and ultimately housing.

2019 Outcomes

33 People Received Housing _________

241 People Received Assistance _________

3,125 Face-To-Face Interactions

We have seen a shift in the type of homeless services needed by those living on our streets. Approximately 76 percent of the people we work with have mental illnesses that require more services than we currently provide. From our experience, mental illness is the largest impediment to helping people into housing. It undermines a person’s recognition that living on the street can be harmful to their health and safety, and prevents them from trusting the outreach specialists who are offering support services.

The GTCC is seeking funding to reinforce and expand our homeless outreach program by increasing medical, psychiatric and other support services. The GT BID will continue to provide its current homeless outreach program which costs approximately $250,000 annually.

A Place to Call Home Antonio, an honorably discharged veteran, was living on the street for more than six years after losing his job. Struggling to find employment while experiencing homelessness, the father of two felt stuck. When he connected with a member of the Golden Triangle Homeless Outreach Team in 2014, his fate started to take a turn. Today, Antonio is proud to hold the keys to a home of his own and have a job again.

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BUILDING A RESILIENT COMMUNITY The Golden Triangle’s award-winning safety and security program was born of a passion to keep our nation’s capital safe following the September 11th attacks and has grown into a model for urban areas throughout the country and the world. The trainings and educational materials we have developed are used far beyond our community.

The Golden Triangle works between the private and public sectors— understanding the strengths, weaknesses, and challenges of both—to create a nation’s capital that is stronger against all hazards, man-made and natural. The Golden Triangle understands the complex needs of property owners, nonprofits, and businesses of all sizes—as well as those of the many law enforcement agencies in the nation’s capital. We are able not only to identify areas where education and training are necessary but also to present information in a way relevant to all parties.

We are seeking funding to expand and develop our education and training program to help communities plan for a broader range of hazards.

CREATING MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES Each year, the Golden Triangle hosts more than 100 free outdoor events in downtown Washington parks, just blocks from the White House and the National Mall. We partner with the National Park Service and a diverse mix of cultural organizations to make some of our country’s most visible urban parks more active and enjoyable for residents, workers, and visitors from across the country and around the world. Imagine the surprise of a family on a Friday afternoon as they experience an unexpected encounter with a park that offers free games like table tennis and Jenga, an opportunity to paint clay pots from Oman, a scavenger hunt curated by the International Spy Museum and a concert produced by Wolf Trap.

We transform encounters with ordinary urban parks into exceptional experiences that are active, educational and fun for thousands of people each year. More than 40,000 people visit Farragut Friday annually— a daylong event in Farragut Park—held weekly between May and September.

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PARTNER WITH GTCC! The GTCC is seeking $950,000 in funding from like-minded partners to directly support its critical programs. We welcome the opportunity to develop customized plans that meet the needs of philanthropic partners, marketing sponsors and other contributors in order to fulfill our vision for the metropolitan Washington, DC area. The GTCC offers contributors high visibility recognition opportunities and customized benefits for all of its projects.

Support for the GTCC comes from the Golden Triangle BID and its members as well as local and federal government agencies, corporations and foundations interested in supporting the Washington, DC metro area. The Golden Triangle BID provides staff resources, rent, insurance, equipment, and accounting support to the GTCC. Additional partners who can provide expertise, services, and financial and in-kind resources will directly help expand the work that is currently underway. Join us!

To learn more about these critical programs and how to get involved, please contact Drew Jubert at djubert@ goldentriangledc.com or by phone at 202-463-3400.

PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS PUBLIC ART

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Embassy of Belgium Embassy of Poland Lyft National Park Service Smithsonian American Art Museum/Renwick

DC Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management DC Metropolitan Police FEMA FBI Metro Transit Police National Park Police US Secret Service

SUSTAINABILITY

Carr Properties DC Department of Energy & Environment DC Department of Transportation OTO Development Pepco – An Exelon Company PSI Rockrose Smithsonian Gardens The Tower Companies US Environmental Protection Agency Wawa HOMELESS SERVICES

DC Department of Behavioral Health DC Department of Human Services Pathways to Housing DC Unity Health Care

COMMUNITY EVENTS

CallisonRTKL Comcast Business Core Power Yoga DC Public Library Eye Street Massage Humane Rescue Alliance International Spy Museum KGP Design Studio MakeOffices National Geographic Museum National Park Service Plaza Arts Red Bull Smithsonian Institution Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS James E. Brawner, Chairman Brawner Management, LLC

Jake Bender The RMR Real Estate Services

Leona Agouridis, President Golden Triangle BID

Steven Gewirz Potomac Investment Properties

Susan Breitkopf, Treasurer Corcoran School of the Arts & Design, GWU

David Kaufman CNA

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