WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE—SO LET’S ENJOY IT!

ROGER K. LEWIS

A new initiative to develop waterfronts in Washington, DC

On March 22, 2000,Mayor Anthony Williams, working with both city and federal officials, launched the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative. This is an ambitious effort to generate a set of visionary, yet feasible, plans for transforming both sides of the Anacostia River, plus the Southwest Waterfront along the Washington Channel near Arena Stage. Perhaps you are wondering exactly what needs transforming. If so, then you probably haven’t spent much time along the shorelines of the Anacostia and Potomac rivers. Few people have, as metropolitan Washington has miles of waterfront that are inaccessible or hard to reach, environmentally degraded, unsightly, underused, or used in ways no longer appropriate.

How can the nation’s great capital city, founded over 200 years ago at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, and brilliantly planned by Pierre L’Enfant, have failed to capitalize fully on its river frontages? Why is the city so disconnected from these historic rivers? Indeed, why aren’t Washington’s urban waterfronts more like those of London, Paris, Prague, or Florence, or perhaps those of Savannah, Charleston, New Orleans, Baltimore, or even Boston? All of these are cities whose centers are linked intimately to waterfront destinations teeming with public and private activity, day and night. People find places to live, work, recreate, eat, and socialize along the waterfront, enjoying a tranquil ambiance not found elsewhere in such cities.

To be sure, much of Washington’s river frontage is attractive parkland. But much of this parkland is traversed by limited-access regional highways and parkways that restrict or compromise parkland use at the water’s edge. Coupled with all the other parkland in the city and region, the quantity of riverfront parkland we now have is both excessive and user-unfriendly. Moreover, our nation’s capital is lacking places where inhabited city fabric, not roads, intimately engages the city’s rivers.

Throughout the Washington metropolitan area, there are remarkably few opportunities to enjoy the riverscape. Where can you sit at the river’s edge—on a terrace, deck or boardwalk—to have a drink, eat a meal, entertain guests, or just sit in the sun? In the District of Columbia, the only choices are Washington Harbour in Georgetown, or one of the few remaining tourist-oriented, suburban-style restaurants providing mediocre cuisine along the Southwest Waterfront. In Alexandria, only a bit of Old Town meets the river.

In the District of Columbia, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts might have provided real river connectivity and a waterfront amenity, but this poorly sited, poorly designed edifice fails utterly to link either itself or the city to the Potomac River, which is invisible from the Center’s grand foyers and can be seen only from the edges of its broad, cantilevered terrace. In reality, there are lots of governmental and commercial offices, hotels, and apartment buildings in Washington, Alexandria, and Arlington from which the river is distantly visible, yet none are waterfront buildings. We are a waterfront city without waterfront architecture.

WATERFRONTS AND HOW WE MISTREAT THEM

This sad state of affairs has historical origins.Well into the 20th century,America’s urban waterways played three primary roles. First, they served as transportation corridors. Rivers served boat traffic while their shorelines served as rights-of-way for roads and expressways. Second, the shorelines of rivers, lakes, and bays often were claimed by the military for building defensive installations, naval bases, or airfields. Third, waterfronts with transportation links were ideal places for factories that needed either a seemingly unlimited source of water for manufacturing purposes, or a seemingly bottomless sink of water in which to dump industrial waste. Consequently, along with port facilities and industrial plants, urban waterfronts hosted warehouses, maritime trading offices, cheap hotels, bars, and brothels. Rarely were waterfronts considered respectable places to inhabit, especially since rivers, marshes, and lowlands were believed to be sources of disease. The notion of a desirable river view didn’t exist.

Although metropolitan Washington was never industrialized as intensively as such cities as Baltimore, Pittsburgh, or Philadelphia, it nevertheless was affected by similar attitudes about waterways. Historically, Alexandria’s Potomac River banks were lined with factories, depots, and port facilities, as was Georgetown’s. Only since World War II have the Georgetown and Alexandria waterfronts been recognized as special places with aesthetic value and non-industrial economic potential. Prior to World War II, Arlington’s flat, marshy river frontage was considered ideal for an airport, which today probably never would be built in that location. Rosslyn’s waterfront once was home to a brewery, a lumber yard, and a number of seedy taverns. In the District, the US Navy has long flanked both sides of the Anacostia River. The Army’s Fort McNair and National War College hold the ground at Buzzard Point, where the Potomac and Anacostia rivers meet. And below Buzzard Point, the entire, three-mile long eastern shoreline of the Potomac is occupied by Bolling Air Force Base, the Naval Research Laboratory, and the Blue Plains Sewage Treatment Plant.

This inventory ofWashington’s urban waterfront uses, some dating back two centuries, helps explain why there are so few riverside places for people to “hang out.” It also partly explains why the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative is an idea whose time has come, as some of Washington’s waterfront real estate is in transition. The Navy Yard recently turned over much of its Anacostia River property in southeast Washington to the General Services Administration for creation of the Southeast Federal Center. Directly across the river, National Park Service land at Poplar Point is slated for new uses. Farther upriver, on the Anacostia’s western shore, dozens of acres encompassing D.C. General Hospital, the D.C. Jail, and RFK Memorial Stadium are to be redeveloped. And the Southwest Waterfront along Maine Avenue, a product of ill-conceived 1960s urban renewal, also is to be totally redeveloped. Within walking distance of the Mall and well served by Metro, the Southwest Waterfront has long been an urban design disaster with its vast parking lots and redundant roadways, unattractive buildings, and perceived remoteness. It is downtown Washington’s last chance to connect meaningfully to the Potomac River.

MAKE NO SMALL PLANS

The scope of the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative is so vast that the city had to retain and coordinate multiple planning consultants to produce concepts for each of the waterfront study sectors and adjacent properties. Teams of designers worked closely with government officials, civic groups, neighborhood organizations, local businesses, and non-governmental institutions. The challenge was to recommend new, diverse uses—residential, commercial, institutional, cultural, educational, recreational—and appropriate new densities, and to create imaginative designs illustrating how these new uses and densities would be configured to take advantage of unique waterfront locations. Plans show new or modified street and block patterns, urban parks and open spaces, and generalized building types and geometry.

This Initiative continues Washington’s remedial planning and rebuilding tradition. First laid out following l’Enfant’s seminal plan, the city periodically has been obliged to correct past oversights or mistakes made in crafting and carrying out previous plans. In the 1870s, to make the muddy, poorly drained city livable and hygienic, public works commissioner Alexander Shepherd— better known as “Boss” Shepherd—spent millions of public dollars to realign, regrade, and pave streets, install stormwater and sanitary sewer lines, and plant trees. At the end of the 19th century, repeated flooding of the Potomac River marshes and low-lying areas of the city motivated radical reconfiguration of the shoreline. Dredging and engineered landfills created the western end of the Mall, the Tidal Basin, Hain’s Point Peninsula, and the Washington Channel.

The 1902 MacMillan Commission plan, developed with the goal of extending and bringing to fruition the promise of l’Enfant’s plan, cleared the Mall of the 19th century railway station, other ad hoc structures, and Victorian-era plantings, entirely transforming the Mall landscape. The MacMillan plan also helped reinforce the notion that the city’s waterfronts should be parkland, to the exclusion of other uses, especially industrial ones. This was the era of the City Beautiful movement, which originated in England in the late 19th century and had a great impact on attitudes about cities and civic architecture in America. The City Beautiful movement was a reaction to conditions arising during the Industrial Revolution, when coal-burning factories polluted crowded, slum-filled cities; and social reformers advocated creating new towns with extensive public parks, gardens, and greenbelts. A century later, in the same spirit, the National Capital Planning Commission published its “Legacy Plan,” yet another plan update advocating improved connectivity of the city to its rivers. The Anacostia Waterfront Initiative builds on all of its predecessors.

Of course, like those of its predecessors, the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative plans will not be easy to implement. Consider the number of stakeholders involved, each with a say and each with its own mission, perspective, and responsibilities. Over 90 percent of the riverfront is publicly owned by the Department of Defense, the National Park Service, and the District of Columbia. Numerous federal agencies and commissions have jurisdiction over use of these lands and adjacent waters.

Some of the other players involved in the Initiative include the General Services Administration, Transportation Department, US Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, National Capital Planning Commission, and Commission of Fine Arts. Equally involved are multiple District of Columbia agencies, departments, and commissions, including the Office of Planning, Zoning Commission, Public Works, Transportation, Health and Human Services, Economic Development, and Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, not to mention the mayor and City Council. Numerous neighborhood residents, local businesses, civic groups, and private property owners have a keen interest in the Initiative’s plans.

Overlapping, competing, and sometimes conflicting interests, ownerships, and authorities are but one set of obstacles. Planners also must draft and obtain enabling legislation, primarily zoning overlays or amendments, to make waterfront property redevelopment legally feasible and, where appropriate, to provide investment incentives for private developers willing to be pioneers. Finally, daunting financial hurdles must be faced. Future waterfront projects could require property assembly and acquisition, perhaps through condemnation; extensive demolition of existing structures; shoreline restoration or structural stabilization; and new or modified infrastructure. Thus, the Initiative’s ultimate capital needs, in the aggregate, could be enormous and are likely to require public funds as well as projectfocused investment from private sources.

But imagine inspiring plans with the right uses and densities, plus enthusiastically supportive local communities and political officials. Though it’s still early in the planning process, a number of proposals are being discussed. There is great interest in developing a 20-mile waterfront bike and pedestrian path along the Anacostia River, for instance. This path would link new office buildings, housing, retail centers, and the dozen or more parks along the waterfront, including the recently constructed public marina and park in Bladensburg, Maryland. The riverfront path also would link up with recreational fields in Kenilworth Park that are slated to be built by the National Park Service, US Soccer Federation, and DC Sports and Entertainment Commission.

Another proposal calls for the transformation of Kingman and Heritage Islands, located in the Anacostia River, into areas designated for outdoor recreation and education. The District Department of Transportation is adding wide sidewalks to the Benning Road bridge, along with a new pedestrian gateway to Kingman Island. Also, as part of this project, the Army Corps of Engineers will be restoring wetlands along the islands’ shorelines. Elsewhere along the Anacostia River, the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service will be re-opening or “daylighting” several storm sewers and creeks that had been channeled under concrete covers, creating new wildlife habitats and attractive riparian scenery.

The timing for this coordinated master plan could not be better, as a number of the waterfront areas included in the Initiative already are slated for development. At Poplar Point, a new charter school is nearing completion. At Buzzard Point, the land is being rezoned to permit residential uses. In southeast Washington, the US Marine Corps Band will have new barracks and practice facilities, as well as a ballfield to share with the neighborhood. A $35 million grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development will be used to create over 1,500 new housing units in a mixed-use, mixed-income, waterfront neighborhood in southeast Washington.

In some cases, unused or decrepit facilities along the waterfront are finding brand-new uses. The Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO), the DC government, National Park Service, and the Navy have partnered with Earth Conservation Corps and the National Geographic Society to transform a former PEPCO pump house into the Mathew Henson Center, where local schoolchildren can receive a hands-on environmental education experience on “floating classrooms” on the Anacostia and Potomac rivers. The Mathew Henson Center also is involved in raptor rehabilitation efforts, including the reintroduction of bald eagles along the waterfront. And the DC Department of Transportation has transferred a building under the 11th Street bridges to the Capitol Community Rowing Center, which has turned the former storage facility into a community boat house for local rowers.

The Anacostia Waterfront Initiative hopes to coordinate dozens of revitalization projects along Washington’s Anacostia and Potomac rivers. Map courtesy of the District of Columbia Office of Planning.

At the Southeast Federal Center, bounded by M Street and the Anacostia River, between First Street and the Navy Yard, the General Services Administration is aiming to develop a neighborhood on the banks of the Anacostia, with new residential, retail, and recreational buildings, as well as office space. The Department of Transportation is slated to relocate to the Southeast Federal Center, bringing with it an additional 7,500 federal employees.

At the Washington Channel, efforts are under way to revitalize the Waterside Mall site. Plans were announced in early 2002 to construct a new luxury hotel as part of the Portals project, a mixed-use office, retail, and restaurant development scheme along the Washington Channel. The new hotel, scheduled to open in 2004, is sited where the Tidal Basin and the Washington Channel meet. The US Army Corps of Engineers and the DC Department of Housing and Community Development, meanwhile, are working together to expand the Washington Marina. The plans also call for restoring historic structures and improving access to the Fish Market on Maine Avenue.

An estimated 60,000 people already live within a 10- minute walk of the Potomac or Anacostia rivers, according to US Census figures. Joining them could be hundreds of thousands more local residents, along with the millions who visit the nation’s capital each year, to enjoy countless new ways to connect to Washington’s revitalized riverfronts. Having a visionary plan in place for all of the waterfront areas as a whole will help ensure that these connections are made.

Roger K. Lewis (CC ’77) is a practicing architect and planner in Washington, DC, and a professor of architecture at the University of Maryland, College Park. His column on architecture and urbanism, “Shaping the City,” appears on Saturdays in The Washington Post. Illustrations from his column have been on exhibit at the National Building Museum and the Cosmos Club.

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