Dupont Circle Underground

Washington DC’s Dupont Circle has 75,000 SF of underground tunnels that were once used for the city’s street car system. Other than a short-lived plan to create a food court in 1995, the tunnels have stayed dormant since 1962. Dupont Underground, a local non-profit has ambitious plans to develop wineries, cafes, bookstores, art galleries, pop-up retail and community events space, but needs the backing of various stake holders, which include the local government, private developers, local preservationists and the National Park Service.

“The project is the brainchild of Julian Hunt, an architect who has been fascinated by the space and envisioned big possibilities for it ever since he moved from Barcelona to Washington in 1995. Hunt and his colleagues draw parallels between their efforts and New York’s High Line – a grassroots redevelopment effort that snowballed to become a major success story for the city.”

Reference: Holeywell, Ryan, New Life For D.C.'s Tunnels?, Governing Magazine, June 5, 2012

Photo Credit:  Bachrach44 under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.  
 

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