Posts tagged Ncpc
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Is our city a little more suburban today than it was yesterday?
[Autoposted while I’m in France] Keep reading…
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Tonight’s and tomorrow’s meetings
[Autoposted while I’m in France] Keep reading…
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Speaking of circles: 15th and New Hampshire
Monumentality suggests a circle (technically a modern roundabout) for the intersection of 15th, New Hampshire, and Florida Avenues NW, at the bottom of Meridian Hill Park. The far-too-wide 15th meets these avenues in a giant intersection with too many lanes, long crossing distances for pedestrians, and hazardous bicycling. How about a circle? Keep reading…
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A busy day for NCPC
This morning, the National Capital Planning Commission (the federal government’s planning body for the DC area) released a great proposal for the future of the Federal area of the city. It calls for decking over not only the E Street Expressway but almost all of the “ramp spaghetti”, creating space for new buildings east and northeast or the Kennedy Center and… Keep reading…
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Don’t call it a park
NCPC, NPS, and the DC government have a new site for a new parks partnership, CapitalSpace. The alliance aims to improve DC’s smaller parks, link larger parks with greenways, and balance the various demands on the major parks. Keep reading…
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Feds v. Feds on AFRH
The Federal Government has an enormous impact on the shape of DC through the large number of Federal properties. It represents some of the worst planning and also the best planning at the same time, through different agencies and boards that have very different approaches to design. The proposed Armed Forces Retirement Home development shows off both the good and the bad. Founded… Keep reading…
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The Yards waterfront park squeezes bikes to the edge
NCPC has preliminary plans online for a new watefront park at The Yards, a new development next to the Navy Yard in Southeast. The park has many very nice features including a large terraced lawn, a landscaped garden, and a cool-looking pedestrian bridge (though one NCPC staff recommends be made to look more open, light and inviting). But the designers seem to have forgotten about bikers,… Keep reading…
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From spaghetti maze to grande allée
The area around the Kennedy Center is surely one of DC’s greatest failures of urban planning. Earlier this decade the Kennedy Center attempted to fix the situation with a new plaza, until its funding was blocked in 2005. But the idea is still a great one. Today, DC Metrocentric found a concept study by architects Ehrenkrantz Eckstut and Kuhn, which takes the idea even… Keep reading…
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North Capitol: Competing visions for handling traffic
Capitol Quarter isn’t the only bland urban renewal project being replaced with townhouses. Last week, Express reported that developers have been chosen for Northwest One, which will replace the Sursum Corda and Temple Court projects near New York Avenue and North Capitol with mixed-use redevelopment that has the potential to become a walkable neighborhood. But… Keep reading…
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Ramp spaghetti on the Potomac
The National Mall in Washington DC is an American icon, visited by millions of tourists, but also somewhat threadbare-looking; since 2001, increasingly choked with security barriers; and gradually becoming overbuilt with memorials for every group with clout in Congress. The National Coalition to Save Our Mall is fighting these disappointing trends. Keep reading…