On a Thursday afternoon this spring, Elliot Gerson and Jessica Herzstein sat in the conservatory of their multi-million-dollar Spring Valley home, discussing the upcoming wedding of their daughter.
“I’m really hoping there’s no game that day,” Herzstein said, gazing out the window toward Jacobs Field, and beyond that, American University. As of April 2024, you can’t see either, because there’s a 15-foot-tall highway-grade noise barrier separating the couple from the University across the way.
The noise wall, built at a cost of over $500,000, is American University’s latest attempt to appease its wealthy neighbors at the expense of the growth of athletics, according to athletes, coaches and administrators who spoke to The Eagle.
Since building Jacobs Field in 2005, American has vied to balance the often competing interests of developing the athletics program and maintaining good relations with their neighbors. In response to demands from neighbors and the city government in recent years, the University has banned amplified music at Jacobs, in addition to banning outside groups from using the field.
These restrictions hinder AU Athletics both monetarily and competitively, University Athletic Director JM Caparro said. The restrictions on Jacobs cost the University millions of dollars in potential revenue from summer camps and after-school clinics that are not allowed to take place due to the neighborhood agreement.
The competitive effect is more nuanced — the absence of amplified music does not directly affect the performance of the Eagles on the field, but the inability to use music to get hyped up before games is a bummer for athletes and could turn recruits away from the program, Caparro said.
“Imagine trying to recruit some of the best players in the world when you can’t have music, [and] there’s almost no atmosphere at the games,” Caparro said.
‘There are high schools with a more intense atmosphere’
The situation is unique. According to Steve Jennings, decorated AU field hockey coach, American is one of just a handful of schools in the country that cannot play music on their fields.
Lizzie de Guzman, who played on AU’s lacrosse team for four years, described the lack of music as a mixed bag. Sometimes it worked to the team’s advantage — American’s teams are accustomed to the quiet, unlike their opponents. However, she would still rather have the sound.
“There are high schools that have more of an intense atmosphere,” de Guzman said.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the grey wall, Gerson and Herzstein feel they are doing their best to reach an agreeable partnership with the University, but the school isn’t doing enough to hold up their end of the bargain.
Herzstein’s parents owned the 2.78-acre property, which encompasses all of the land behind Jacobs Field, for decades before she and her husband bought it in 2017. Her parents were promised that Jacobs would not host varsity sports, before being told it would only host one. Today, it hosts two sports: field hockey and lacrosse.
This reneging on what Herzstein calls “assurances” might have flown in less-moneyed neighborhoods. But, Spring Valley is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the District, and is currently in the top 1 percent for housing prices across all U.S. neighborhoods, according to Zillow data.
The Washington Post describes Spring Valley as a “haven for the elite,” home to “Supreme Court justices, billionaires and no fewer than three U.S. presidents.”
Gerson is no exception: A graduate of Harvard, Oxford and Yale, he clerked at the Supreme Court and currently serves as the executive vice president of the Aspen Institute, a prestigious Washington non-profit.
The couple reported that before the agreement that banned most amplified sound, they would often be woken up on weekends by explicit “modern” music, and before the construction of the wall, the sounds of girls yelling would infiltrate their home office and bedroom. The amplified PA system bothered them, as well.
“We could hear the names of every one of the players being announced,” Gerson said.
Now, with the noise restrictions and the sound-reducing wall, they feel cautiously optimistic for the future, as long as nothing changes.
‘I really wish we could work something out’
However, AU’s Athletics Department and the lacrosse and field hockey teams are fighting desperately for things to change. There are ongoing talks with AU’s Community Liaison Committee to allow music to be played at games.
According to de Guzman, pregame music would only last around 40 minutes, and there are already restrictions on how early games can start. For example, no one can use the field before 12:00 p.m. on Sundays. Additionally, Gerson and Herzstein are provided game schedules by the University far in advance of the season, though they expressed some frustration at not being able to impact the schedule.
Gerson said he once notified the University of a garden party at his home, planned months in advance, but the University could not promise the field would not be in use during the party.
“Maintaining strong relationships with our residential neighbors is a priority for AU,” Matt Bennett, University vice president and chief communications officer, said in a statement to The Eagle. “No immediate changes in the use of the field are being actively contemplated and any modifications in the conditions limiting use of the field would be discussed collaboratively with neighbors through the Partnership’s Facilities Planning Working Group.”
The tight restrictions on noise not only affect the game-time atmosphere, they ripple through every aspect of the programs that use Jacobs Field.
There have never been lights on Jacobs Field, and there probably never will be, due to neighborhood noise restrictions that have been in place for decades. Lacrosse athletes said they are unable to work on skills individually outside of team practices, as the field is booked all day and is unavailable at night.
Bryn Underwood, a graduate student on the field hockey team, said she and her teammates were once approached by campus police after neighbors alerted them one evening to the sound of the ball hitting the goal cage.
The University’s inability to host night games detracts from the entertainment value of games and discourages attendance, Underwood said. Underwood’s parents often have to take off work to attend games, which would not be necessary if night games were an option.
“There’s only around eight home games a year, I really wish we could work something out [with the neighbors],” Jennings said.
Herzstein described lights as a non-starter: “If there were lights, I wouldn’t want to live here,” she said.
The couple was beginning to consider that possibility in 2021, when they met with the neighborhood commission to present their concerns surrounding the noise. This kicked off a multi-year process in which dozens of meetings were held and lawyers got involved. Eventually, the commission found that the University was in violation of residential zoning regulations. AU was then forced to stop playing amplified music and build a sound wall.
The half-million dollar wall
The wall, built in 2024, cost upwards of half a million dollars, a representative for Terra Constructs, the builders of the wall, told The Eagle. An AU Athletics spokesperson declined to confirm the figure. The goal of the project was not to allow additional sound on the field, but rather to keep the existing sounds of referees’ whistles and athletes’ screams from floating over to the neighbors’ property on game days.
The effect of the wall is still up for debate. The neighbors said it has made a “substantial” difference, but that might be due to the ban on amplified music. Noise testing to find out its true efficacy is ongoing, and the University is footing the bill.
The construction of the wall, which likely cost well over its $507,150 price tag when factoring in things like irrigation, tree work, architectural costs and sound monitoring, came amidst the University’s projected $68 million budget deficit for the 2025 fiscal year. The University has been running a budget deficit since the pandemic and is projecting an even bigger deficit for the 2026 fiscal year.
As things stand today, the neighbors are happy, but coaches and players are not. The Athletics Department is still fighting to provide, in coach Jennings’ words, “a normal gameday experience,” and some athletes are hopeful.
Underwood, who has seen two different administrations during her time at AU, said she feels much more hopeful with President Jonathan Alger and AD Caparro in charge.
Back on the other side of the wall, Gerson and Herzstein do not want to be seen as the villains of the story. According to the couple, they sometimes go to the games at Jacobs and have been friends with some of the athletes.
“I like to watch the games,” Gerson said, “I just don’t want to listen to screaming right before I wake up.”
This article was edited by Jack Stashower, Penelope Jennings and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Olivia Citarella, Sabine Kanter-Huchting and Nicole Kariuki.
