January 16, 2008
Washington Looks Greener in 100 Years, Architects Say
Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP won yesterday’s City of the Future design challenge to imagine what Washington would look like in the year 2108. The winning team went green, envisioning a self-sustaining city with soaring towers built on the sites of former forts that once defended Washington, transforming them into centers for wind and solar energy production, hydroponic farming and defensive security systems. In this environmentally friendly city, cars have no place. Metro has been drastically expanded. The diagonal streets designed long ago by Pierre L’Enfant have been turned into pedestrian-friendly green belts, or the “lungs of the city,” as described by Hanny Hassan, partner at BBB. Above-ground public transportation runs on the square street grid of the city.
The Washington Post also has a story up about the competition today.
DCist readers wondered if any of the teams would dare break the sacred height limit on buildings, which has long served as a design guide. BBB preserved the height limit in the historic section of the town, but dared to break it in other segments of the city, to allow for additional density.
A photo of the winning design is at right. The bottom segment is an up-close look at the Anacostia neighborhood. The middle shows the overall design and layout for the city, while the top expands upon the vision for some of the new eco-friendly features in any representative neighborhood. The orange buildings show strategic allowances for density. Underneath, the blue zone collects rainwater to reuse in irrigation projects. The green zone represents harvested energy from the eco towers. The yellow zones represent the expanded Metro system. The vertical reddish tubes represent thermal wells for energy.
Would you want to live in this Washington in 2108?
Photo courtesy The History Channel
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Washington would be a lot "greener" if the city hadn't cut down so many trees in the 1960s to make way for the sainted automobile and if the Barry administration had bothered to hire an arborist in the zillon years he was mayor.
What is that, a city for ants? It needs to be at least 3 times bigger!
The questino should say 2108, right? I mean 2018 isn't too far away and I'd imagine the only hydroponics in the city would be for "crop growers" and wind generation would only be provided by the political blowhards on the Hill.
Las Vegas is building high-rise, multi-story farms to grow crops for the hotels and restaurants. The same could work in DC, but they'd need to deal with that darn height restriction.
If SimCity has taught me anything, by 2108 you will be getting so much tax revenue you can build anything you want! But watch out, alien attacks usually increase significantly.
woodstock, consider us lucky we have this many trees already. just take a look at New York and the surrounding boroughs. when a teacher first told me of the book, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," i bust out laughing. with the exception of a few small parks and Central Park, hardly a tree can be found.
but here? so many trees. sure, we could always do for more. but everywhere could use more trees.
In terms of tree growth, DC is in far better shape than most major American cities. You recognize that rather quickly after a few days spent shuffling around NYC, Chicago, Dallas, San Diego, etc.
... "Greener" means a lot more than trees...
...enviable?