What Makes SW SW? (part 1 of 2)

by guest commentator Ilan Scharfstein
As the SW community prepares to engage with the planners (EEK) and developers (PN Hoffman) of the Maine Avenue redevelopment, I spent some time thinking about what makes the Southwest Waterfront the unique neighborhood that it is.  By better understanding the defining characteristics of our neighborhood, I reasoned, I can better analyze the EEK proposal that will be introduced at Arena Stage this Wednesday evening.  Most people from other neighborhoods in the city who visit me here are surprised by what they find.  “It’s so different here” or “It’s so quiet and peaceful here” are two of the most common reactions.  Why is that?

It strikes me that there are five notable characteristics of the Southwest Waterfront.  For one, we have the luxury of large open spaces, plazas, fountains, lush landscaping, and large distances between buildings -- not to mention access to a river.  Second, the large residential communities pair high-rise buildings that are set far back from the street with low-rise townhouses that reinforce the street wall.  This provides a comfortable scale for walking along the street, and allows the aforementioned sunlight to shine in.  Third, there is a clear separation of retail space from residential space: rather than buildings with ground floor retail, Southwest was planned with a neighborhood shopping center -- the former Waterside Mall -- at its heart, while the residential buildings remained residential from top to bottom.  This is quite different from, for example, more recent developments in Columbia Heights, U Street, and the Ballpark area, which all contain mixed-use buildings.  Fourth, the plan broke with L’Enfant’s road grid, creating numerous superblocks and cul-de-sacs to restrict through traffic.  Finally, the architectural expression of the buildings is unique in the city.

Waterfront Tower -- architect I. M. Pei

This architecture itself has five principles, originally formulated in 1926 by the influential Swiss-born architect and planner Le Corbusier.  One, buildings are lifted off the ground plane on concrete columns (the most muscular examples are at Tiber Island and Carrollsburg, but virtually all the 1960’s-era Southwest buildings display this).  On a practical level this allows for cars to more freely navigate under the buildings, but it also expresses the fact that the facade is free-floating.  This leads to points two and three, a free plan and free facade.  Put another way, the facade and interior plan are largely independent of the building structure, allowing for walls and windows to be placed where the architect desires rather than where the structural engineer requires.  Point four, ribbon windows: Le Corbusier advocated for long horizontal glass expanses because these proved the point that the facade was non-structural and free-floating.  Locally, large expanses of glass are more in evidence than horizontal stretches of windows.  Point five: roof gardens that compensate for the footprint taken up by the building (reference the expansive gardens on the roof of Harbour Square).

Pilotes at Carrollsburg

Pilotes Reinterpreted at Waterfront Station