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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Waiting For The Streetcar

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Waiting For The Streetcar

It has been more than fifty years since the old streetcar service ended in 1962. The DC DOT (DDOT) has started construction along the H Street line. It is expected to begin service in 2013. DDOT is also working on additional lines across the city.

Many developers are waiting to see the first trolleys roll by before they make major commitments. They need more than a promised date for the service to start. Many are skeptical because the District appears to be behind schedule. The beginning of the streetcar service and proposed development projects are quite related. According to Gary Rappaport, a developer who plans to build a 300 unit building, "The most important thing in bringing those two things together is knowing when the trolley's going to start."

Reference: DePillis, Lydia, Gary Rappaport: No Trolley, No Building on H Street, Washington City Paper, May 18, 2012 and DC Streetcar

Photo:  A streetcar built by Inekon Trams and purchased in 2005 by the D.C. Department of Transportation for use on the Anacostia line. 

Photo Credit:  Tim1965 under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
 

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SmartBike DC

SmartBike DC started a bike sharing program in August of 2008 with 10 stations and 120 bikes. It lasted until January of 2011. It was a joint public-private venture between Clear Channel and DDOT, and was too modest in scale and logistical design. A larger bike sharing program with 100 stations and 1,100 bikes has replaced the failed SmartBike program. This program is known as Capital Bikeshare program, and is sponsored by DDOT and Arlington County.

Here is a brief video

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Washington DC’s Planned Unit Development Process

Josh Barro writes in “Height of Folly: Why Housing in Washington DC is so Awful” that it is awful because Washington DC is a “swamp full of dumb rules and jumbled zoning laws.”

He cites 102 year old law to limit height of most buildings to no more than 130 feet as one example. He says that DC’s planning and zoning rules are arbitrary, unevenly enforced and overall hostile to new development. He gives an example of a Wisconsin Avenue supermarket which applied for a special zoning approval in 2005, and just got an approval. The Wisconsin Avenue area is characterized by six to eight story buildings with FARs as high as 12.0, while this supermarket asked for an FAR of 2.0. A typical Planned Unit Development takes 3 to 4 years and costs a developer $500,000.

A short video on New York Avenue Gateway



Reference: Height of Folly: Why Housing in Washington DC is so Awful, The Atlantic
 

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GSA’s Carbon Footprint Tool

“GSA brings you the Carbon Footprint Tool. What started as a tool to make annual GHG reporting simpler has evolved into a decision assistance and analytics platform. Go beyond Executive Order 13514 compliance and start actively managing your inventory. By identifying ways to reduce emissions, you can help discover sources of financial savings as well.”

GHG stands for Greenhouse Gas Emissions. The tool allows you to measure and manage GHG data in alignment with Executive Order 13514 Guidance.

A video from the creators of the GSA tool


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Real Estate Development Taxonomy

How does a city develop into a global destination?  Is a city more than a collection of great buildings?  Is a city more than a collection of great people?  What makes a city great?  What are the forces that drive urban development?

There are many sites that provide tourism related information about cities.  While we want to understand what makes a city great, we are also interested in the messy gray area, where decisions are made about the future of a city.  What drives such decision-making?  Is that purely a speculative gamble or are there hidden forces at work?  What roles do design professionals play in such decision-making?  What role does leadership play?  Where does such leadership come from?  What role does local government play?  

We will focus on four broad categories of urban interventions:

Tourism development: 

Urban interventions intended to spur or support tourism.

Hotels, convention centers, museums, art galleries, public arts festivals, fashion shows, business shows, public expositions, public events. Ecotourism, sustainable tourism, heritage tourism, leisure, recreation, urban tourism, parks, sports stadiums, arenas, public plazas,

Smart infrastructure: 

Urban interventions intended to spur or support smart urbanization technologies.

Smart grid, smart design, smart transit, smart buildings, renewable energy, sustainable architecture, green building, smart architecture, smart meters, smart traffic signaling, mass transit, smart city, smart infrastructure, augmented reality, urban data networks, collaborative networks, digital city.

Economic development: 

Urban interventions intended to spur or support economic development.

Business incubators, start-ups, universities, research centers, innovation labs, demonstration projects, affordable housing, transit hubs, rezoning, urban renewal, environmental remediation, brown fields, urban design, new construction, renovation, mass transit systems, manufacturing, warehousing, freight delivery, transportation, logistics, urban upgrading, finance, law, regulations, institutions, leadership.

Branding and global identity: 

Urban interventions intended to create a unique brand.

Global influence, city image, uniqueness, branding, identity, signature buildings, global events, public expositions, leadership, historic preservation, tourist attractions, urban design, celebrations.

Miscellaneous Key words:

General information, summary, statistics, comparative study, geography, emergency preparedness, disaster mitigation, low income housing, urbanization, slum upgrading, geography, climate, culture, people, demographics, history.