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For all the talk of how valuable the land along the Potomac River in Georgetown is, little has been done with it. That's now changing.
The Georgetown Current is reporting today that the long-awaited nine acre Georgetown Waterfront Park is finally becoming a reality, with bulldozers starting to tear apart the parking lot that has to date blocked access to what could otherwise be spectacular river views. The park, which over its 25 years on the drawing board has had to jump through numerous fundraising and legal loopholes, is set to cost $15 million and will take 18 months to complete. Once completed, it will include a number of features that will brighten the otherwise dreary area, including a labyrinth, rain gardens, and a bike path connecting the Rock Creek Trail to the Capital Crescent Trail.
We're excited for the prospect of a new park along the Potomac River. Along with the planned development along the Anacostia River waterfront, a few years from now could see a District that's exploiting its riverfront property to its fullest potential. Now if only someone would take a bulldozer to the existing Washington Harbor and replace it with something a little less sterile and uninspired, we might have something that didn't suck at all.
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Washington Harbor is better than the rendering plant and cement factory that predated it.
I am glad this is finally happening.
...it will include a number of features that will brighten the otherwise dreary area, including a labyrinth...
I hope they don't model it after this labyrinth. Although 80's David Bowie romping around Georgetown with his androgenous predilections would be a sight to behold.
the labyrinth will just be another place for indigents to pee.
Don't forget the new House of Sweden/Swedish embassy. Looks like a cool building.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/20/AR2006062001653.html
uh, I forgot a link. Silly me:
http://www.houseofsweden.com/
Georgetown waterfront park on the making. For design intend please see page 4/12:
http://www.ncpc.gov/actions/pdf/2005/GWaterfront060205.pdf
Wow that House of Sweden building is pretty cool. European governments have jumped onto the innovation bandwagon -- developing creative buildings for government workers. The new headquarters building for British Intelligence -- open floor plans, all glass, no offices -- is already being credited for helping solve the London tube bombings. It would be great if U.S. government buildings were a little ahead of the curve. It certainly would help in recruitment for government jobs if the buildings were a little less FBI building and a lot more Apple campus.
I just hope they don't use this construction as an opportunity to tear down the Whitehurst. I don't defend the Whitehurst on commuter grounds (I think it actually would be better for circulation if it weren't there). I actually like the Whitehurst for aesthetic purposes. It gives K st. a really cool industrial feel, which is appropriate for its history. The lack of traffic (at least west of the movie theater) makes it a very pleasant road to walk along. And it provides much needed shade in the middle of the summer.
People advocating the destruction of the Whitehurst say that the waterfront park will be hurt by it. I think that's total bunk. Turning K st. into a four lane highway would do a lot more harm than good for the park.
The only people that would benefit from the destruction of the Whitehurst are the condo owners along the highway, who would get one of the most ridiculous government subsidies ever as their properties' value skyrocket.
I love the Whitehurst Freeway and the space beneath it on K Street. Is there a "Save the Whitehurst" campaign that I can become a part of?
Hey "*", I assume you are using that symbol as a nickname for yourself in the Vonnegutian (Breakfast of Champions) sense. "Indigents"? Who talks like that except for characters in Dickens' novels?
A picture of a passive park for a gentrified community. How incredibly weak, down to the PC use of the African-American father and son team in the promo photo.
The whole area, including the GU's private boathouse, GW's private boathouse, and the public boathouse need to be designed as a unit. This piece-meal pap they're feeding us ain't EVER going to be anything like the pictures.
I call BS
Mark - Was waiting for that comment. It's alwaysa catch-22 with these renderings. If you put white people there, it's racist. If you put non-white people there, it's manufactured and "PC".
Where are the boathouses.. west of the Key Bridge? I'm not sure I understand the criticism.
The park is urban, but also urbane.
Final jewels? Basking? Labyrinths? Displays of splashing water and light?! Where are the naiads and dryads?
Urbane?
"I say, Nigel, have you heard the news?"
"Not at all, Godfrey."
"There's been a frightful dust-up at the Dean and Deluca. It seems that they ran out of Beluga!"
"Never!"
"'Fraid so, old chap."
Will the park have a croquet lawn as well?
Thanks for the question. My comment, a part of which highlighted the use of the passive park by non-whites, was really trying to highlight how deceptive and unrealistic the plan and rendering is.
There is something called a "non-motorized boathouse zone" (NBZ). It stretches from 34th St to roughly 1,100 ft upstream of Key Bridge. That puts it in the C&O Canal National Historical Park (C&O NHP). There are currently 2 private boathouses planned for this area. One is for GU, and has a 20,000sqft footprint, is 50 feet tall, and has a 75 foot dock. Another is for GW, the size and exact location of which is unknown. And there may also be a third boathouse built, which would be public. People have been talking about these things and planning for them since 1987, and the locations of them are set to the NBZ, but not settled within it.
The question, and my reason for calling BS, is: Where exactly are these things going to go? GU (naturally) wants to build theirs on land directly below their campus, in the C&O NHP. They've got an EA from NPS saying they can, and the matter is headed towards litigation between NPS and various (powerful) recreation, conservation, and historic groups and associations- there are 22 opposing groups in all.
I think it’s clear that GU will lose this fight to put their private boathouse in a public national historical park. But where does it go? Well, downstream of course, in the same 10-acre Georgetown Waterfront Park we’re commenting on the design of. And so will the GW boathouse, which is already planned to go there (did you see any mention of that in the announcement?) and so would any public boathouse, not that anyone is really pushing for that too hard. The public seems to lack effective representation, unlike GU and GW. In any event, that’s a lot of boathouse use, and a sizeable riverside chunk of the 10 acre park. Of course, these private interests could be combined into one super Thompsons-style boathouse, which could also serve the public, but no one in power is talking about that, yet.
The real problem is that DC and NPS and Fine Arts and etc have not planned the area comprehensively, and have given piece-meal approval to a large number of special interests. And then they show us a picture of a passive park and say it's a done deal? Yeah, right, it's just not realistic to believe 1) that this is anywhere near a done deal and so 2) that what we’re being shown is what we’re going to get.
Ahh.. I thought the boathouses already existed. Thanks for the info.
where the hell am I going to park now? what the f! How am I supposed to drive there after work, get tanked at tony and joes while ogling scantily clad 22 year olds and drive back to VA drunk as shit at 10pm? The horror!
Is anything happening with the Whitehurst Freeway? I heard there were plans to relocate it a while ago for this park.
Finally, all the boat ho's will have a place to vomit their Bud Lites. Hopefully they will have those automated toilets with a shower for the joggers and bikers who smell like funk and wander into the shops and theaters to stink up the place.
Last I heard, the plan was to move the Whitehurst Freeway above a housing project in Anacostia. I believe this was the suggestion of the Georgetown Park Tenant's Association, who were awoke one morning and were appalled to discover a highway in the back of their condos. Really ruins the mating habits of the upscale urban honkey.
Bring back the goddamned rendering plant. At least that serves a purpose.
Where's Joe Englert when Georgetown needs a rendering plant-themed bar?