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KLMNO the new arena stage} the neighborhood


Confronting the barriers to a better Southwest


New theater displays promise, potential for neglected quadrant


by Philip Kennicott The new Arena Stage facility


isn’t just another amenity added to an encouraging list of redevel- opment projects in Southwest. It is an aesthetic and intellectual challenge to the city and devel- opers to do better than they have done in the past. Sitting at an important in-


HOFFMAN-MADISON MARQUETTE WATERFRONT


WATERFRONT RENAISSANCE: There are big plans for the Arena Stage area, as seen in this rendering, but the neighborhood faces challenges that new shops and restaurants alone won’t solve.


tersection in a neglected quad- rant of the District, it is a power- ful enough architectural pres- ence to force the city to rethink


the usual ways it does business, the longstanding barriers to a better Southwest, and the reflex- ive habits of uninspired devel- opment that have marred so much of Washington.


Some of those barriers — rel- ics of the bad urban planning of two generations ago — are close at hand. Others can’t be seen from Arena, but make their pres- ence known through diminished street life and a sense of psycho- logical isolation. The Southeast-Southwest


Freeway, for instance, creates a jumble of bridges and ramps that make accessing the fish market by foot at best a maze and often a hazard. The highway is three long blocks away from the Arena Stage building, but its impact is just as profound. Sight lines are interrupted, and pedes- trians are loath to pass under its dark, wide overpasses. The CSX rail line — another gash in the urban texture — only deepens the insularity of the neighbor- hood.


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Although it can’t be seen from Arena Stage, a single structure — the Department of Energy’s For- restal Building — has an enor- mous and malign effect on ev- erything in Southwest. Sitting astride 10th Street on Independ- ence Avenue, it discourages tourists and everyone else from walking 10th Street SW to the Banneker Fountain and the 10th Street Overlook. This prom- enade might be the best antidote to the problems created by the freeway and the rail line — if it were better connected to the wa- terfront below it. But the Forres- tal Building all but screams at would-be pedestrians heading to Southwest: Go some other way. And yet, even after accounting for three years of economic downturn, the city has moved forward in the past decade, add- ing mixed-used, transit-oriented development, new parks and civ- ic spaces, and bike and pedestri- an paths, including the Anacos- tia waterfront path that could eventually link the Southwest waterfront to Nationals Park and the National Arboretum. The next challenge is to do all of the above better. Despite the incorporation of good urban de- sign principles in much of this new development, the architec- tural quality of almost all these new buildings is desultory. They are oversize boxes of brick or paste-on faux stone, with a bland mix of sleek contemporary and historical references and ge- neric, cookie-cutter design. Bing Thom’s new building de- mands better neighbors. And it calls for a more holistic ap- proach to the waterfront — more porous and open. There are not enough details in the existing plans for redevelopment of the blocks nearby to be sure that it will get what it deserves. The city and its chosen developers, PN Hoffman and Madison Mar- quette, have big plans for the wa- terfront just opposite the Arena Stage building, but will it be overbuilt? Will views be main- tained? Or will it turn the water- front in on itself, surrounding the marina and public plazas with structures that are so big they encircle the space, creating an insular, commerce-heavy, over-produced “urban space” that is in fact a giant suburban shopping mall? Unfortunately, initial project renderings by PN Hoffman are not promising. They show a pha- lanx of 10- and 12-story build- ings blocking views of the water from the city — and they’re all the usual glass and masonry boxes.


But Shawn Seamon of PN KLMNO For more information visit washingtonpostads.com/leadership or call 202-334-7634. Source: Erdos and Morgan Opinion Leaders Study, 2008-2009. “Regularly” is defined as at least three out of four issues published or programs viewed. A095D 4x15


Hoffman says those were early ideas, from 2007, and the com- pany will announce much more detailed and sensitive plans on Wednesday. He says that views from Arena Stage will be pre- served, that lot sizes will be kept small, and that at least 10 sep- arate views through the water- front development will link the neighborhood to the river. That’s encouraging, as are some other promising elements in the current plans, but it is the execution and the details that will determine success or yet more urban failure for this un- derappreciated neighborhood. A staircase connecting the 10th Street Overlook to Southwest is a good start. But what will become of the overlook itself? Designed by landscape architect Dan Kiley, the overlook, now a barren and disused space, shouldn’t be over-


The execution and the details will determine success or yet more urban failure for this under- appreciated neighborhood. . . . The best plan would extend the area that feels like waterfront as deep into the city as possible.


looked. Connecting it directly to the waterfront makes a lot of sense, but the connection must be done sensitively. Plans now are for a temporary staircase — perhaps designed for the next 10 years — until a “grand public” stairway can be built, integrat- ing a new museum or cultural at- traction, the overlook and the waterfront. Plans to avoid slab-style build- ings are also promising. Simply reorienting a building 90 de- grees can ensure visual perme- ability, keeping the view of the waterfront as a civic amenity. Keeping a low profile of devel- opment opposite Arena Stage — and moving any higher-profile buildings back from the water and away from the theater — would be a boon not just to theatergoers, but to everyone living near or visiting what has been identified as the new “neighborhood center” at Fourth and M Streets SW. The best plan would extend the area that feels like waterfront as deep into the city as possible. The recent reopening of


Fourth Street SW, between I and M streets, has had a major and positive impact on the area — creating what may become a vi- tal north-south corridor, with new retail already filling space. Other connections should be considered as well. A pedestrian connection near where the Tidal Basin and the Washington Chan- nel come together would link the waterfront to East Potomac Park, opening the island to more pedestrians. That’s part of the National Capital Planning Com- mission’s Framework Plan, and it can’t happen soon enough. More ambitious — and distant — plans call for car and pedestrian bridges directly from Southwest to East Potomac Park, but those require creating new canal ac- cess to the Potomac River for boats too tall to pass under the bridges. If they’re built, they should be stunning bridges that rise to the level of art. The impact of these kinds of improvements raises the ele- phant-in-the-room question: What to do about the Southeast- Southwest Freeway? Nothing has traumatized the Southwest neighborhood more severely than this stretch of highway, originally envisioned as part of an inner ring road that (thank heavens) was never finished. Most plans involve mitigating its impact, with new pedestrian connections to the Mall. But this is a perfect example of the Dis- trict’s ingrained habit of think- ing small whenever the problem is big. And there is no bigger problem facing this neighbor- hood than the freeway that sev- ers its connection to the city at large.


Other cities have done what is necessary, removing the neigh- borhood-killing relics of the dark age of city planning. Con- verting the freeway to a street- level boulevard should be on the immediate agenda, not the dis- tant, pie-in-the-sky agenda. On the shortlist, with rerouting the CSX line just after it. kennicottp@washpost.com


SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2010


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