Posts about Development
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Onion: Nation’s Gentrified Neighborhoods Threatened By Aristocratization
Hilarious. “If this trend continues, these exclusive, vibrant communities with their sidewalk cafés and faux dive bars will soon be a thing of the past… ‘Around here, you used to be able to get a Fair-Trade latte and a chocolate-chip croissant for only eight bucks,’ said Getz, who is planning to move back in with his parents after being forced out of the lease… Keep reading…
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Zoning Review discusses retail
Wednesday’s Zoning Review meeting on Retail Strategy discussed the good and the bad of retail. The previous meeting’s notes included a line that the Cleveland Park overlay may not be serving the community well. This brought out several overlay defenders including George Idelson, president of the CP Citizens Association, who argued that the overlay works very… Keep reading…
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Where to put the noise?
Mixed-use development is the best kind for so many reasons, like enabling people to live near where they work, and maintaining “eyes on the street” all day. However, it does create a few problems, like noise. There’s a big market for restaurants, bars, nightclubs and live music, but it can also be disruptive to residents. Keep reading…
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Arlington looking to legalize accessory dwellings
Accessory dwellings are rentable units inside another home, like a basement apartment or an upper floor with a separate entrance. These are common in DC, but illegal in Arlington. What’s Up Arlington reports an intiative underway to change this law. 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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Gaithersburg could get a downtown
BeyondDC reports that the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, “right where downtown Gaithersburg should be, if only it existed,” will move, creating a perfect opportunity for real urbanism in what is now “an incoherent conglomeration of strip malls and fast food shacks.” Keep reading…
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The un-urban Marriott Wardman Park
Woodley Park sits right atop a fault line between walkable urbanism and the dense sprawl-style architecture you get when architects and developers simply transplant suburban forms onto smaller city lots, like the Hilton in Dupont. Despite having a Metro station, most of the larger apartment towers follow the Le Corbusier-style form of large islands in a sea of parking set far back… Keep reading…
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Kojo on density
On today’s Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU, Post architecture critic Roger Lewis discusses good and bad design for density, analogies of Washington to Paris, transit-oriented development, Smart Growth controversy in Tenleytown and Annapolis, and the architectural and political sides of density. Keep reading…
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Convention center plans nice except for skybridges
DCMud summarizes plans for the new development at the old convention center site. They look good, with mixed-use, street level retail, public spaces… but what’s that? Skybridges? Keep reading…
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A DC Planning Commission?
Does DC need a citizen Planning Commission to oversee planning decisions, the way the HPRB oversees historic preservation or the National Capital Planning Commission governs the use of federal property? The Post’s Roger Lewis is skeptical. This week’s Current quotes various members of influential neighborhood groups who are disappointed with an interim report… Keep reading…