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Good morning, DC. The Fall festivities are starting to ramp up. Supplement your weekend plans with weeknight events to take advantage of all the DMV has to offer.

In today’s District Download:

Let’s get to it.

A dozen empty office buildings across DC are being gutted and reimagined as apartments, with developers racing to deliver nearly 3,000 units as the city's office vacancy rate hovers at a record 22 percent. The conversions range from Brutalist government buildings near Judiciary Square to Georgetown's historic Flour Mill complex, with projects featuring everything from rooftop pools to pedestrian-friendly alleyways where Duke Ellington was born. Mayor Muriel Bowser's administration is sweetening the deal with 15-year tax freezes through the new "Office to Anything" program, aiming to transform 2.5 million square feet of dead office space. The city's first major conversion, Accolade at 1425 New York Avenue, just welcomed its first residents this week to what's now the closest residential building to the White House—though at luxury prices that won't solve anyone's affordable housing prayers. Applications for the tax incentive program opened in January, with developers eyeing older buildings built before 2000 that make up 75 percent of the city's vacant office space.

DC's fall arts season kicks off with a life-size butter cow taking up refrigerated residence at the Renwick Gallery, where Iowa State Fair sculptor Sarah Pratt created the 600-pound bovine masterpiece on-site as part of "State Fairs: Growing American Craft"—the first butter sculpture ever displayed in a Smithsonian museum. The National Gallery counters with "Photography and the Black Arts Movement," featuring 150 works by artists like Gordon Parks, Carrie Mae Weems, and Roy DeCarava that captured three decades of civil rights activism and Black cultural identity from 1955 to 1985. Meanwhile, the Kreeger Museum spotlights four local recipients of the prestigious Anonymous Was a Woman award, including Baltimore's Joyce J. Scott and DC's own Renée Stout, showing their latest works that pick up where a recent New York retrospective left off. The National Museum of Women in the Arts examines how Dutch and Flemish women artists navigated the male-dominated art world of the 1600s, while American University Museum anchors a massive 16-venue exhibition featuring hundreds of women artists from the DMV region. For those seeking something different, the National Gallery also unveils 200 works of Australian Indigenous art rarely seen outside Melbourne, including pieces by "Star Lady" Gulumbu Yunupiŋu that inspired the exhibition's title.

A two-story honky-tonk with a custom mechanical bull and DJ booth built into a vintage Chevy truck just opened at 400 Morse Street, filling the country music void left when Hill Country BBQ shuttered in Penn Quarter this March. Desert 5 Spot, operated by Georgetown alum Dan Daley's Ten Five Hospitality group (which runs locations in NYC and LA), features live music nightly on two stages, Wednesday cowboy karaoke backed by a house band, and Sunday line dancing classes led by instructors from New York's Buck Wild crew. The 7,000-square-foot space serves Nashville hot chicken and brisket alongside mezcal-heavy cocktails like the "Ring of Fire" and frozen drinks, with a rooftop "cactus garden" made of scrap metal since DC's climate can't handle the real thing—plus drunk people touching actual cacti proved problematic at their LA location.

DC's version of Paris's Nuit Blanche returns September 12-13 with over 150 artists taking over 28 neighborhoods from 7pm to 3am, transforming everything from libraries to parking garages into pop-up galleries, with the Shaw neighborhood hosting fire dancers, wrestling matches, and a street parade where the festival first began in 2011. The free festival, which has exploded from 30,000 attendees in its first year to over 180,000 in 2023, debuts a new mobile app this year that lets festival-goers build custom itineraries and find which of the 80+ participating restaurants are offering special "Dine All Night" menus and extended hours. Mayor Bowser's administration is backing the two-night creative marathon with over $5 million in Main Streets funding, treating it as both an arts celebration and economic development strategy to boost foot traffic for local businesses during what would typically be dead hours.

Here’s what’s going on around DC this week:

Channel your inner state fair artist during this lunchtime craft session at Farragut Square, where you'll decorate custom coffee mugs and coasters inspired by the Smithsonian's "State Fairs: Growing American Craft" exhibition.

📍 Farragut Square | 🕐 Noon–2 PM

Join hundreds of cyclists for this monthly community ride where the District's signature go-go music soundtrack meets two wheels, as riders cruise through the city at a conversational pace with portable speakers pumping Chuck Brown beats.

📍 Dupont Circle Fountain | 🕐 7:30 PM

Catch the premiere of DC's newest dating and romance reality show inside an actual Metro train car turned cocktail bar, where singles looking for love navigate the District's dating scene.

📍 Metrobar | 🕐 8 PM

Experience the intoxicating blend of cumbia rhythms from across Latin America as this DC-born sextet brings their signature fusion of punk attitude and Colombian beats to the Walters' Graham Auditorium.

📍 The Walters Art Museum | 🕐 6:30 PM

Wednesday

70 🌡 61 | 🌧️ 20% | 💨 8 mph

Thursday

81 🌡 60 | 🌧️ 5% | 💨 6 mph

The Atlantis | Darren Kiely with Ryan McMullan | 6:30 PM

9:30 Club | SpaceyJane | 7 PM

The Fillmore | Our Last Night with Grayscale | 7:15 PM

The Wolf Trap | The Teskey Brothers with The Paper Kites | 8 PM

The Anthem | Rilo Kiley | 8 PM

Soundcheck | Riot V | 10 PM

The Bullpen | Kip Moore | 5 PM

Birchmere Music Hall | Ruben Studdard | 7:30 PM

EagleBank Arena | Anuel AA | 8 PM

Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts | Steep Canyon Rangers | 8 PM

Echostage | Big Wild with Shallou | 9 PM

Soundcheck | Blossom | 10 PM

It’s the last day to register for DC Fray's fall leagues, which include basketball, pickleball, volleyball, softball, soccer, and bar sports like cornhole and shuffleboard, with games starting soon at venues across DC including the National Mall, Bridge District, and various neighborhood bars. Other major options include Volo Sports (which recently merged with ZogSports to become the nation's largest social sports network), District Sports for soccer enthusiasts, FXA Sports serving Northern Virginia with 19 different sports, and specialized leagues like DC Pickleball League with ladder play at Rock Creek and Anacostia courts, plus Stonewall Sports for LGBTQIA+ inclusive leagues. Most organizations welcome individual "free agents" who get placed on teams, making these leagues popular for newcomers to DC looking to stay active and meet people, with typical costs ranging from $60-90 per person for an 8-week season.

Did You Know? The football huddle was invented right here in DC at Gallaudet University in 1892, when quarterback Paul Hubbard gathered his deaf teammates in a circle to use sign language for plays without the opposing team seeing their signals.

Till next time,