Billionaire Todd Graves Hopes to Use Art to Fuel Infrastructure Improvements
Graves plans to display and then donate a group of Carlos Diniz drawings depicting the 1988 renovation of D.C.’s Union Station.
By Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly
Todd Graves, founder of the Raising Cane’s restaurant franchise, is hoping an art exhibition will help spur on the long-awaited renovation of Union Station in Washington, D.C.
A proposed $10 billion redevelopment would be the train station’s first major facelift in more than three decades. With an upcoming display of illustrations detailing its last major renovation in the 1980s, Graves hopes to remind the city of the station’s potential.
Currently on display at Raising Cane’s Union Station location, the six drawings were made by Carlos Diniz, one of the most iconic architectural illustrators of the 20th century. Graves, who acquired a dozen of Diniz’s illustrations of the station for around $200,000, will donate the entire batch to a yet-to-be-announced museum in Washington, D.C., later this year.