The fire broke out on a terrace and did not damage the interior of the cultural center. The cause is under investigation.
“The fire was quickly extinguished and contained to the terrace area,” said Arlington County Fire Department spokesman Capt. Gregg Karl. “There was damage to a piece of construction equipment and the terrace. The fire is under investigation by the Fire Marshal.”
From about 10:00 p.m. tonight (Friday) to system closing on Sunday, the Rosslyn and Arlington Cemetery Metro stations will be closed and both the Blue and Orange lines will be split into two segments.
The closure will “allow for tie and insulator renewal, joint and fastener renewal, tunnel leak repair, station sign installation and fiber-optic cable work,” Metro said in a press release.
The first incident started out as a mystery right out of a horror movie: several pools of blood were found this morning within a one block radius of Ray’s Hell Burger in the Rosslyn area.
One was found on the sidewalk along Wilson Boulevard, between N. Rhodes Street and N. Quinn Street.
The National Chamber Ensemble will be opening its sixth season with a concert dubbed “Night At the Palace II,” at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 3. The event is a collaboration with the Russian Chamber Art Society and will feature classical music from Russian composers like Glinka, Rachmaninov and Rimsky-Korsakov.
Arlington County Board Chair Mary Hynes is expected to be on hand as the concert’s “guest host.” Tickets are $28 for adults or $15 for students, and are available online. A reception will follow.
Arlington hosted the 37th Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday, bringing tens of thousands of runners and spectators to the county.
The race kicked off just before 8:00 a.m. on Route 110, just before Memorial Bridge, and wound its way through Rosslyn, up Lee Highway, down the Spout Run Parkway, into the District (for about 16 of the 26.2 miles), through Crystal City and back to the Iwo Jima Memorial. A record 23,515 runners finished the race.
The race will start at about 7:55 a.m. and the 26.2 mile course, which winds through Arlington and the District, will close at 3:00 p.m. During the marathon, Crystal City will be hosting an all-day family festival, complete with moon bounces, face painting, obstacle courses and live DJs. Rosslyn will be hosting the marathon’s finish festival, featuring live bands, a beer garden and free massages for runners.
The Arlington County Police Department is planning to close the following roads and highways to make way for the 30,000 runners expected to participate in the race.
The center recorded $1.22 million in revenue and $3.55 million in expenses for FY 2012. Net taxpayer support was $2,327,016, $3,842 less than originally budgeted. The result is a marked improvement over previous budgets, which contained unrealistic attendance and revenue expectations; Artisphere’s revenue came in nearly 75 percent below budget for its first fiscal year.
While FY 2012 expenses were under budget — thanks in part to “a reduced amount of programming following the departure of Artisphere’s previous programming director,” according to a just-released year end report — revenue figures present more of a mixed bag.
Arlington County Board Chair Mary Hynes had her chair “yarn bombed” at this afternoon’s Board meeting.
A group called the “Guerilla Stitch Brigade” created a colorful, monogrammed yarn cover for Hynes’ chair and presented it to her at the meeting. Hynes, whose gavel was also covered in yarn, seemed delighted.
Starting this week, the police department has assigned extra traffic patrols to the area during the morning rush hour, when gridlock gets especially bad on Lynn Street. (Although traffic is often heavy during the evening rush hour, as well.)
The officers will remind drivers that it’s illegal to block the box — to enter into an intersection during a green light when there is no room to clear the intersection. For now, the officers will not be issuing citations, according to ACPD spokesman Dustin Sternbeck, who called morning congestion on Lynn Street a “disaster.”
A cyclist was struck by a vehicle at the dangerous intersection of Lynn Street and Lee Highway around 8:15 this morning. The cyclist was treated for a reported knee injury and transported to the hospital.
Although emergency activity from the accident blocked a right-hand lane of Lynn Street, the bigger traffic problem was the ramp to the northbound GW Parkway. According to scanner traffic, ongoing rock stabilization work on the parkway — which has blocked a left-hand lane — is causing traffic on the parkway to slow and, in turn, is causing major delays for traffic merging on to the parkway from Rosslyn.
The art venue has often been the target of criticism due to a rocky first year in existence, which included low attendance and revenue. However, there’s been a concerted effort to turn things around by following a revamped business plan.
“We’ve had a really successful year and I think if people engage with the arts they understand the value of it. I would certainly encourage people to participate more to understand the value,” said Artisphere Executive Director Jose Ortiz. “Like any new organization or start-up, you go thorough some growing pains. I hope at this point we would have all moved past that.”
The vehicle rollover accident was reported around 11:30 a.m. The occupants of the vehicle were able to get out safely on their own and were unhurt, according to scanner traffic.
Paramedics and firefighters have cleared the scene, and police are awaiting a tow truck to haul away the wreckage.
