How does vacated land isolated by a polluted river and an elevated freeway, including the city’s largest concentration of public housing, evolve into a mixed-income, mixed-use, transit-oriented, waterfront neighborhood?
A product of extraordinary coordination across local and federal governments, the reimagination of the Near Southest transformed hundreds of acres of vacant and polluted lands through a series of creative public-private partnerships. Home to the historic Washigton Navy Yard, the nation’s oldest continuously operating federal facility (1799), the neighborhood now includes the headquarters of the U.S. Marine Corps Band, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Washington Nationals Ballpark. Today, with $3.5 billion in public and private investment over 25-years, over 20,000 mixed-income residents call the neighborhood home. Starting with a $35 million HUD Hope VI grant in 2001, the Capper Carrolsburg public housing project was transformed into a high-density, mixed-income, transit-oriented community with no net loss of public housing units. With a network of active and passive public spaces, the iconic Yards Park forms the neighborhood’s present-day identity, embodying the spirit of open public access to the shores of the Anacostia River for all.
Responsibilities included the preparation of public redevelopment plans, land disposition, rezoning of hundreds of acres of land, project management, stakeholder engagement, inter-agency procurement, urban design and development management. Completed while serving as Vice President, Director of Planning & Capital Projects, Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, 2000-2007. Key collaborators include WC Smith, JBG, Urban Atlantic, Forest City Washington, HR&A, Beyer Blinder Belle, Shalom Baranes Associates, Torti Gallas + Partners, Michael Graves Associates, M. Paul Friedberg and Partners, among many others.