Posts tagged Ncpc
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Weekend links: Trains, buses and cars
Quite a joy ride; Germans back aboard intercity buses; Pick a new fuel economy sticker; Guardians of the Mall; NYC real estate hurt by transit cuts; Slowdown in Sydney; Sustainable transport studies around the world; No conviction, and new Silver Line plans. Keep reading…
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Live chat on activating federal places next Thursday
Federal buildings don’t have to be forbidding fortresses whose only engagement with the city is to create traffic in and out each day. Yet many of our federal buildings fail to interact with the city around them, adding nothing except sometimes-attractive architecture to the streetscape. Keep reading…
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DDOT will extend successful 15th Street cycle track
On Friday, DDOT released an assessment of the existing cycle track on 15th Street NW and designs for an extension from E to W Streets. Currently, a protected, one-way southbound bike lane runs along 15th Street from Massachusetts Avenue to U Street. The street has sharrows in the right-hand general traffic lane for northbound cyclists. Over four weeks in late September and… Keep reading…
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How would you improve the Washington Monument area?
In comparison to the relative clutter of some other areas of the National Mall and adjacent parks, the Washington Monument grounds have the opposite problem: they’re a desolate wasteland of grass without shade, amenities, or interesting programming. That wasn’t the original plan. Early concepts for the Washington Monument included a colonnade surrounding… Keep reading…
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Where should the Latino museum go?
Congress has declared the National Mall a “completed work of civic art” and declared that future museums and memorials should go on sites outside the Mall, but that hasn’t stopped them from making exception after exception. Now, the planned National Museum of the American Latino wants to be on the Mall, too, and looks likely to get it. After all, the National… Keep reading…
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National Park Service defines “important vistas”
The National Park Service has released its new Master Plan for the National Mall. I have only briefly skimmed it so far, but one interesting page deals with the visual vistas NPS deems important. Check out this map: The map’s blue lines are “vistas [that] are identified as contributing features of the L’Enfant Plan of the City of Washington, D.C.,”… Keep reading…
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NCPC not why DC lost streetcar grant, politics may be
A source familiar with the Urban Circulator grant process says that Urban Circulator grant awards had been decided before NCPC Chairman Preston Bryant sent his letter to the FTA. Keep reading…
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DC rejected for Urban Circulator streetcar grant
The Federal Transit Administration has selected 53 winners for transit grants, including the Urban Circulator which DC was hoping to get to extend the H Street streetcar across the Anacostia to Benning Road. Keep reading…
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District officials fire back on NCPC “bureaucratic blackmail”
National Capital Planning Commission Vice-Chair Rob Miller, who works for Vincent Gray, NCPC member and DC Planning Director Harriet Tregoning, and DDOT Director Gabe Klein sent strong letters to NCPC Chairman Preston Bryant objecting to his sudden attempt to block an FTA grant for DC streetcars. The letters make a number of important points. The FTA grant itself would pay… Keep reading…
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GSA considering ground-floor retail
The U.S. General Services Administration wants to upgrade and expand their current headquarters, on the block between 18th and 19th and E and F Streets, NW. They are considering two options: one fortress-like, and the other adding ground-floor retail to engage the street. Lydia DePillis noticed the NCPC staff report for the project, which NCPC will review tomorrow. The… Keep reading…