Youth, Violence, & Vigils

This summer a number an unusually high number of incidences have rocked the Southwest community, from large social disturbances to assaults and murders.   The past Saturday, a candlelight vigil was held for the recent Half and P Street murder; another vigil is being planned to commemorate the anniversary of a 2008 Southwest killing.  Beyond commemorations, responses to the disturbances in Southwest have varied.  Fortunately, in part because of Southwest’s strong legacy of integration and remarkable depth of socially-conscious entities, most incidents continue to be isolated and don’t create social or physical division. 

Nonetheless differences are notable.  In the past, individual residential complexes have reluctantly resorted to more extreme solutions, such as perimeter gating to improve security by limiting access and permeability.  This summer however, residences have focused on increased or more strategic monitoring.  One case is Tiber Island.  While the most effective solution might be to gate off the property, Tiber Island believes there is a tremendous amount of value in having an open and accessible environment--particularly for greater Southwest, but also Tiber Island.  So Tiber Island has changed the routes for it security patrols and is considering a large investment in high-resolution cameras.  In addition, there is an effort to coordinate private security among the residential communities along 4th Street, south of M Street.

At a higher level, Southwest's community organizations have also been grappling with these issues. 

Monday night Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells headlined a meeting led by a number of community entities including two ANC Commissioners, Sasha Bruce Youthwork, and leaders from several of the affordable housing complexes.   The meeting was ostensibly organized around a $250,000 Sasha Bruce grant for "job-readiness training, mentoring, college-readiness prep, enrichment and health/wellness" targeted for youths 14-20 years old.  Meeting highlights included:

• Tommy Wells announcing he was having success in getting the council to  permit community social workers to have access to police information on juveniles and how he was trying to get the curfew hours moved earlier. He also told of the $250,000 grant that enabled service providers to provide older SW youth crime prevention services.
• MPD Lt. Nicholas Galluci explaining how the police knew every juvenile in SW and were having success preventing violence, with emphasis on K and L St. SW
• The head of the public housing police department who recommended residents call 411 (not the housing police) to tell the city of troubling activity.
• The head of the DC Housing Authority reporting on the installation of new lights – courtyard, front porch, back porch, etc. – on Housing Authority property at Syphax Village, James Creek, and soon at Syphax Gardens and Greenleaf Gardens.
• DPR representative Tim Murphy recommending the Wilson High class in Alternatives to Violence as an applicable model.  The class explores the successes of successful peacemakers such as Mandela, King, Day, Gandi, and Schweitzer.

It's not clear what, if any conclusions or next steps were identified; I was unable to attend the meeting.  Feel free to report any additional details of the meeting by adding comments.

Ironically, at the same time a lively and informative discussion on youth development was taking place at the Southwest Neighborhood Assembly's community meeting.  A spectrum of Southwest's educational leaders were invited to discuss their initiatives, proposals, and suggestions. 

Veronica Hegens of the Water Front Child Development Center spoke of an entrepreneurial day care center that is leveraging a number of community assets including Fort McNair and churches near the 1547 1^st Street SW child center.  She expressed how she is working to develop a 360 degree safe haven that involves parents, sociologists, and psychologists. 

Amidon-Bowen Elementary School principle LaShante' Knight discussed her many efforts to encourage parental and community involvement, such as a ‘fall fitness day’ with parents.  She noted there are a number of ways community members (and parents) can volunteer, from mentoring to office work.  Knight heartedly conveyed that the students have the understanding that the community doesn’t like them (due to the youth-crime perception), but they are “determined to prove everyone wrong.”  She also is looking to develop an enlivened PTA.  Gratefully, one of her ultimate goals is to make Amidon the first choice for Southwest families.

Speaking of, another featured guest was Ward 6 School Board candidate Melissa Rohan.  The upwardly-mobile Southwester spoke of her strong belief in public schools and on reinvigorating Southwest schools in particular.   Audience members warmly embraced Rohan who argued that investing in public schools was much preferable to having to fall back on corrective or disciplinary programs.  Discussion on recommended approached followed.

One hopes that this tumultuous period will mark a turning point for Southwest youth and community development rather than the anniversary of a dark one.

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

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.

Community Coordination

Southwest is blessed with many civic-minded residents.  Indeed Southwest's long-standing volunteer corps is undoubtedly one reason why Southwest has been one of the region's most diverse yet stable and successful communities over the past fifty--and arguably two-hundred years.  Buttressed with many well-intentioned and capable leaders, Southwest civic institutions have effectively responded to new threats and opportunities.  

Over the past several years however, many community leaders have become increasingly concerned at the splintering of organizations and initiatives; a splintering that is compromising our ability to successfully introduce, discuss and reconcile what are often competing opportunities.  In many cases, these conflicts arise simply because of inadequate coordination.

This coming week there are at least three major general "all hands" meetings which overlap with many more specific meetings like a monthly condo board meeting.   Next week's general meetings include:

• The Southwest Neighborhood's monthly community meeting, featuring Southwest's educational leaders (Monday)
• A Youth Violence Task Force community meeting, supported by Tommy Wells (Monday)
• PN Hoffman's unveiling of their Southwest Waterfront Proposal (Wednesday)

Southwest Waterfront Concept

While organizers of these general meetings are each targeting the same audience, none of the announcements were distributed more than a week in advance.  As a consequence, some of the 'specific' meetings are now being cancelled.  Attendance at the general meetings will be lighter despite the importance of the subject matter and the investment of the meeting organizers and speakers--many of which are volunteers.

Undoubtedly it is challenging to find ideal dates for events, but many of our major conflicts can be eliminated by better coordination.

Randall School Art Gallery Moves Forward

Corcoran proposal for Randall School site

As the Washington Business Journal reported yesterday, the D.C. Council just endorsed the transfer of the Randall School site from the Corcoran Gallery of Art to a joint venture led by D.C. development company, Telesis Corp and Miami-based CACB Holdings LLC.  As many of you will remember, Corcoran had planned to relocate their arts school to the Randall School building.  The move was to be financed by Monument Realty, who secured approval to add a residential component to the rear of the Randall site.

Like many Southwesters when this new arrangement first developed, Council members expressed some concern, but ultimately concluded this is the best option available.  While this proposal wouldn't return the School to a traditional educational facility, it would retain an educational component and provides additional advantages.

CACB holdings has demonstrated its interest and abilities in the community by artfully resurrecting the neighboring Capitol Skyline Hotel.   Since purchasing the property, CACB holdings has transformed the Art Deco gem into a hub of activity not only for visitors, but residents with an upgraded cafe' and a variety of programming from comedy nights to synchronized swimming contests and other popular pool events.

The new Randall School proposal would build a housing, hotel, and a gallery on the property, an arguably stronger mix of uses than the previous proposal.  Southwest has no shortage of housing.  Indeed the high proportion of housing is one reason why despite the density, Southwest has less pedestrian activity and retail opportunities than areas like Dupont Circle, Clarendon and Capitol Hill.  Integrating a hotel and a museum to the project better complements Southwest's existing assets by bringing new employment, retail, and cultural opportunities, supporting more daytime activity, and thereby increasing public safety.

The new proposal also provides an attractive set of public amenities, including landscaping for the Eye Street Park, space for community meetings, art exhibitions for Southwesters, a free art festival, free admission to the museum for Southwesters, and new sculpture on the traffic circle at H Street and Delaware Avenue.  The building program itself offers advantages: instead of projections into public space planned in the Corcoran development, the new proposal increases public space by partially reopening Half Street.

Southwest D.C. - a model for New York City

In the coming months, we will have the opportunity to help shape a defining development for Southwest and the D.C. region at large.  EEK Architects, led by the Southwest Waterfront developers have put together a compelling vision to redevelop the city's leading maritime center.   It features a variety of uses, structures, and open spaces.  To knit these components and draw people into the 26-acre site, the plan draws on design inspirations from around the western world.   At the same time, Southwest's own design template provides important precedents.

Several hours to the north, a renounced Danish urban planner, Jan Gehl is radically and thoroughly transforming New York City under the Bloomberg administration.  The concepts Gehl uses to describe this radical transformation are remarkably similar to those that characterize Southwest DC.

The Danish planner recognized earlier in his career that architects in Copenhagen had "started building buildings" without building cities.  He found this to be a retreat from the "garden city"tradition featuring "complexes of high-rises" where "everyone could see the garden and later, the parking lot."   Recognizing the pitfall, he "decided to make the public realm so attractive it would drag people back into the streets, whilst making it simultaneously difficult to go there by car"  "This phenomenon can occur outside in the garden, in the parking lot, in the common house, and along walkways."

As the plans for Southwest's waterfront develop over the next several months, we should carefully consider how this development will  integrate with and enhance Southwest's existing garden city template.

Posts in the coming days will further explore Southwest's basic "garden city" template and 21st Century additions to the fabric.

Upcoming Events

Southwest Waterfront Plan Unveiling: The PN Hoffman – Madison Marquette Waterfront Team will present the proposed redevelopment plan and seek community input for this signature mixed-use project on Washington, DC's waterfront. 
 The forum will be held at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth Street, SW
  on Wednesday, September 29, 2010.   A informal information session & open house from 6:00 - 7:00 will be followed by a formal presentation and Q&A from 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Book and Bake: On Saturday October 16, the Friends of the Southwest DC Public Library will be hosting a book sale from 10 am to 3 pm.  The library is at 900 Wesley Place SW, near 3rd & K SW. Meanwhile, the adjacent Church of Christ is hosting a pancake breakfast, flea market and bake sale.  Enjoy free entertainment.


9th Annual Jazz Preservation Festival: On Saturday September 25, Westminister Church will host a free all day jazz festival featuring over 50 area musicians, as well as artists, vendors, food and horse rides.