Urban Renewals

Mid-Century Renewal Plan, with Cloethiel Woodard Smith

During the middle of the 20th century, in a controversial process Southwest was given a clean slate.  Almost all natural and built landscape features were cleared.  In it's place, the period's most well-regarded professionals and policy-makers were asked to create a new community.  It would become the largest, most complete urban renewal effort ever undertaken.

Southwest's new shape was remarkable departure from preexisting 19th century development patterns, patterns which recently have been boldly resurrected and repackaged as "new urbanism" and "transit-oriented-development."  The former promotes active, pedestrian-oriented streets, typically laced around a moderate level of density (rowhouses and 3-5 story buildings) and often typified by neo-traditional architecture.  The latter encourages concentrated development around transit, typically fixed-rail.

Both of these recent interpretations of urbanism have emphasized undulating street-front walls at ground level.  By encouraging developments to uniformly extend to the front of their property line, both pedestrian and building activity is focused, thereby creating inter-connected and lively areas.  This approach has become today's standard design template: examples include  Capper-Carrollsburg,  Capitol Hill Oasis, Clarendon Commons...and ostensibly the Southwest Waterfront.

Capper Carrollsburg Senior Building #2

While this historicist approach toward development has been popular and in many cases successful, Southwest may not want to wholeheartedly accept it as the best template for our waterfront area.  Southwest's urban form has many distinguished and desirable features that for various reasons have not been well capitalized or appreciated.  We will examine these features in the coming days.