Posts tagged History
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Then and Now: Union Station
Oh, how cute: people once played baseball across from Union Station. The U.S. Senate long ago took over this public space for storage of their personal vehicles. Via DC Metrocentric. Top: Union Station and Columbus Circle, 1925. Photo from the National Photo Company Collection. Bottom: Union Station today as seen in Google Earth. Keep reading…
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Then and Now: 470 Louisiana Avenue
Shorpy highlighted this circa 1925 photograph of buildings at 470 Louisiana Avenue. What’s at 470 Louisiana today? Keep reading…
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Then and Now: The Schneider mansion
DCist highlights this photo (left) of the Schneider mansion, which once stood at 18th and Q. The Dupont East condo building (right) now occupies the site. Keep reading…
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From Wallach to Hine
The presentation from the recent Capitol Hill Town Square meeting contains this heartbreaking nugget: Keep reading…
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The Master (Re)builder
The NYT writes about DC’s Capitol Quarter project, which is replacing the failed Capper/Carrollsburg housing projects with new mixed-income townhouses. It includes enough low-income units to accommodate all residents of the old projects, but also has its critics. Keep reading…
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Bush budget terrible for cities
Not only is President Bush seeking to raid the transit trust fund to pay for more highways, it cuts funding for Amtrak and eliminates the HOPE VI program that is helping cities like DC turn failed urban renewal projects into desirable mixed-income housing. Smart Growth America has a detailed analysis and is asking citizens to urge their Congresspeople to reject these terrible priorities. 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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Replacing people with cars
Via DC Metrocentric, this is the intersection of Virginia Avenue and 8th Street SE, in 1928 and in 2007. When mid-century planners tore apart cities to enable large volumes of cars from the suburbs, neighborhoods like this one disappeared forever. DC’s original plan for freeways would have destroyed more of what are now considered beautiful and historic; this one, though,… Keep reading…
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Maybe they can build ‘em like they used to
During the dark ages of urban planning (the 1960s and 70s), many old residential buildings were replaced with boxy, alienating public housing projects, until Jane Jacobs discredited the idea. Block after block of attractive row houses are gone forever, even though brownstones in places like Brooklyn, Boston, San Francisco, and DC sell for a million dollars or two, or more. Can… Keep reading…
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Hope for DC’s waterfront
DC’s Southwest Waterfront neighborhood is a classic example of failed urban renewal - old row houses and tenements (some nice, some less so) were razed, replaced with a freeway and 1960s/70s-era buildings where cars enjoy more square footage than people. The dinner cruise on the Potomac Stefanie and I took for our six-month anniversary departed from a pier in Southwest, and… Keep reading…