Spy Museum nixes move to historic DC library

BRETT ZONGKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The popular International Spy Museum is pulling out of a planned redevelopment of Washington’s historic Carnegie Library that would have kept the museum in the city and created a new home for the attraction near the downtown convention center, officials said Tuesday.

The museum had been working with the convention center authority Events DC on the proposed redevelopment since 2012. But the District of Columbia Historic Preservation Review Board declined to approve the project’s second major revision last week amid community objections to expanding the library’s footprint. Both the museum and Events DC said they will no longer pursue redeveloping the library.

Museum spokesman Jason Werden said the museum needs space to grow and can’t move into the historic site without an expansion. Plans announced in 2013 called for adding a new underground exhibit space, as well as glass pavilions on both sides of the library building to house a cafe, museum store and a visitor’s center for the city. But neighbors and historic preservationists didn’t want any changes to the historic library.

With the project cancelled, the museum’s future in the city is left in doubt. The attraction remains open, however, in the downtown space where it was created in 2002. The museum draws 600,000 to 700,000 visitors annually and is expected to move out of its current space in the coming years.

“We’re keeping all of our options open,” Werden said. “We love being in D.C. It makes sense for this museum to be in D.C. There are more spies per capita than there are anywhere else in the world.”

The museum has a lease at its current location through early 2017.

Gregory O’Dell, president and CEO of Events DC, said he hopes the city will not lose the museum and that “we will work proactively to keep them in the District.”

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Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat .

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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