About Franklin School Renovation
963 13th St NW, Downtown, Washington, DC 20005
Developer Dantes Partners, in partnership with design firm Beyer Blinder Belle, is leading up the renovation of the Franklin School (a historic 50,000-square-foot Adolf Cluss-designed building adjacent to downtown D.C.’s Franklin Square Park) into Planet Word, an interactive museum dedicated to the power of language. The building - vacant since 2008 - is one of 13 building in Washington, D.C. that has been given interior landmark protection, so it’s going to be delicate renovation process.
Inside Planet Word there will be a gallery where visitors can “paint” with words, a 5,000-LED globe with word games from languages across the world, and a voice-activated 22-foot-high word wall with 3-D words that will light up. The more than $20 million project will be privately funded.
Renovations were slated for completion in late 2019, but due to a 4 month stop work order, this date was delayed. Renovations halted in early September 2019 and resumed in early January 2020.
Planet Word will open to the public on May 31, 2020.
