I recently helped a friend in the process of moving out of the long-time Capitol Hill home, and was given a book for my troubles. Entitled Extending the Legacy: Planning America’s Capital for the 21st Century, it was published some time in the 90s by the National Capital Planning Commission, and contains their plan for D.C. in the next century. Given that we are almost ¼ of the way through that century, it seems like a time to see how much we have followed the plan.
But first, to the book. No author is given, but the commission was chaired by Harvey B. Gantt, architect and former mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, and it is he who writes the introduction. It is a nicely illustrated coffee table type book.
The endpaper of the book already shows how far we have failed to achieve the plan set forth in it. Over a painted aerial view of the city flies an aircraft with the words “Intercontinental US Shuttle” on it. While this sort of vehicle has often been proposed, nothing even close has ever flown.
The main idea of the book is to extend the McMillan plan of 1901, in particular to bring it into accord with the original L’Enfant plan. This means extending the city along the three main axes of North, South, and East Capitol Streets.
For Capitol Hill, this would have meant replacing RFK stadium with “a memorial, an environmental center and housing and commercial development,” which, to be honest, may still happen–– though in all probability not in the sweeping way that is depicted therein.
One recurring theme throughout the book is the reinvigoration of the D.C. waterfront, and it is in this regard that the most progress has been made in the last 20+ years. While probably not driven by the decisions set forth in this book, the revitalization of the Navy Yard, the Wharf, and the Georgetown waterfront has been a noteworthy change in the city.
Included in this reimagining is a new Anacostia Waterfront at the foot of Massachusetts Avenue. In their plan, this would have included a number of highrises along the water and an aquarium on Kingman Island. The painting of this shows a huge glass globe with walkways surrounding it and tubes running through it. It is one of those ideas that looks interesting on paper but sounds like an utter nightmare to implement.
One of the biggest changes proposed has never came to pass: the removal of the Southeast/Southwest freeway. In the plan as set forth, this would have driven the revitalization of South Capitol Street, most importantly in becoming “a new gateway to the city.” Again, this has happened even without the grand changes proposed, what with the new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, Nats Park, and the many new buildings lining South Capitol.
In short, while some ideas have been taken up, it seems to me that, in the main, this project did not do much to actually drive the development of the city. It is, nonetheless, interesting to see how the city might change over the next years.