How do legacy institutions and interconnected parking lots get reimagined as a vibrant urban gateway to the Anacostia River?
An original element of Pierre L’Enfant’s Plan for the City of Washington (1791), the 67-acre Reservation 13 hosted DC’s public hospital and jail. It also blocked the historic Capitol Hill neighborhood, one of DC’s most populous and densely populated residential areas, from direct access to over a thousand acres public lands along the Anacostia River. A new mixed-use vision includes the accommodation of public and private uses, the creation of form-based zoning to establish a public gateway to the public waterfront. Planning documents helped to catalyze the transfer of land ownership from the federal to the District of Columbia governments which set the stage for subsequent development of mixed-income housing.
Responsibilities included preparing the Council-approved Small Area Plan, rezoning, land ownership transfer, project management, stakeholder engagement, urban design and development management. Completed while serving as Vice President, Director of Planning & Capital Projects, Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, 2000-2007. Key collaborators include Justice & Sustainability Associates, Perkins Eastman Architects, and Michael Graves Associates.