Don't forget the massive parking lot to end all parking lots in terms of wasted space next to RFK, which spends 99% of it's time totally empty. Even worse part of it was orginally supposed to be a Metro station.

by Doug on Jun 6, 2011 12:19 pm • link • report

There's also some down in the Capitol Riverfront by Nationals Park - surely those will also be turned into new development as the city continues to grow - it would be interesting to see the number of surface lots downtown 10 - 15 years ago to see how much has happened

by DCS on Jun 6, 2011 12:27 pm • link • report

Wait! I thought downtown was all built up, and we don't free ourselves from the Colonial era height limitation DC is doomed!

by charlie on Jun 6, 2011 12:32 pm • link • report

I'm not surprised to see that alot of these lots are in NOMA - for those with a long memory, a parking lot used to be the most economically productive use of land in the area. Now that the NY Ave Metro is open and there is more construction and development in the neighborhood, these parking lots will over time no doubt be built on as it becomes economically viable to do so. Is the author of this post arguing for something different?

by grumpy on Jun 6, 2011 12:40 pm • link • report

This highlights how slow the development around the Convention Center has been. That whole area is a huge disappointment so far. Five lots just east of the Convention Center.

By the way, one of those lots is actually a (stalled) construction site, the O St. market on 7th St. I don't believe they are using that lot for parking.

by Ward 1 Guy on Jun 6, 2011 12:48 pm • link • report

The forthcoming O Street Market should be orange too?

by shawres on Jun 6, 2011 12:49 pm • link • report

Great map!

One small gripe that I saw though...The lot that is slated to be torn up for the O Street Market project is shaded in red, but as far as I know construction (demolition and remediation) should be starting by September '11. One less parking lot in Shaw, thank God.

by Merarch on Jun 6, 2011 12:51 pm • link • report

shawres, looks like you beat me to it

by Merarch on Jun 6, 2011 12:52 pm • link • report

I think the most egregious surface parking lot in the District is the one for the House of Representatives directly next to the Capitol South metro station. The District must lose tens of millions of dollars each year in revenue by not having development there.

by Ben on Jun 6, 2011 12:53 pm • link • report

A lot of MVT used to be parking lots. When I moved into my building most of the buildings around me were still showed as parking lots on google maps.

A lot of these parking lots are planned developments that were stopped because of the financial crisis. While 425 mass seems to be doing well now, the project went bankrupt as the Dumont only a couple years ago.

It would be interesting to see this map compared to a map of 5 years ago and, if possible, what is planned for the next 5 years.

Give the convention center time. It took MCI (now verizon) a while to build out chinatown. The development will come.

by Sam on Jun 6, 2011 12:53 pm • link • report

This map is not extensive enough and does nt include the giant surface parking areas around the Capitol South area- including a monster right atop the Metro station- this should be a national embarassment and scandal- what a total waste of resources. And what is "downtown"? anyway? There has been loads of new development south of the SW-SE freeway in the past 10 years so does that make this area a subsidary of "downtown"? In Lenfant's and Jefferson's original vision of DC the "downtown" was slated to be positioned between the Capitol Building and the Navy Yard- this was the most populated and important part of the city for most of our history and yet it is always ignored by mapmakers and pundits alike [ they all congregate in NW and never venture out into the "rest " of the city].
Please expand this map and get ovet your NW- centricism.

by w on Jun 6, 2011 12:55 pm • link • report

There are a couple missing...On our last vacant property survey, MVSNA identified vacant lots, parking lots and empty buildings. you can view it here:

http://lifein.mvsna.org/index.cfm/2011/2/2/Vacant-Property-Survey

Pink is for parking lots, orange for vacant lots,(blue under construction, yellow vacant buildings...)

by si kailian on Jun 6, 2011 1:02 pm • link • report

Good map. What really sticks out to me is the terrible waste of land space adjacent to Union Station. All those government surface lots stealing activity potential from a major transit hub for the region. Similar to what happens at Capitol South, which is an underutilized metro stop because of the vast House office building parking lots adjacent to it, but Union Station is worse because it's the more important transit location.

@Charlie, downtown DC IS built up; the lack of surface parking in the core of downtown is remarkable. Save for maybe Midtown/Lower Manhattan and San Francisco, DC probably has the fewest surface lots. Actually, if you lifted the height limit, you'd probably see more surface parking, since the same amount of developed sq. ft. would be possible on a much smaller land area.

by Bryan on Jun 6, 2011 1:02 pm • link • report

Interesting to compare DC to some other cities:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=191539

by Bob See on Jun 6, 2011 1:04 pm • link • report

@Bryan

No, if you lifted the height act now, you would not suddenly see people demolish existing buildings in order to get surface parking.

If the height act never existed as the city has begun to grow again, then maybe your hypothesis would be correct - but that's certainly a very different case than modifying the height limit starting from today's conditions.

by Alex B. on Jun 6, 2011 1:09 pm • link • report

The two adjacent red rectangles in Foggy Bottom are now under construction for new GWU buildings. anyways, one of the two lots was actually a basketball court.

by thedofc on Jun 6, 2011 1:13 pm • link • report

@Ben -- while I agree the House parking lot by Capitol South is awful, DC is never going to get revenue out of it directly. More Congressional office space is really the ost likely scenario.

More Congressional office space though requires enough time to convince anyone that a new construction project wouldn't be a repeat of the budget busting Capitol Vistors Center fiasco.

by Kate W on Jun 6, 2011 1:13 pm • link • report

@Alex B. You're right about how it would be under current conditions; I should've been clearer that I was describing a hypothetical case where downtown DC's post-WWII development would have happened without such significant height restrictions.

by Bryan on Jun 6, 2011 1:14 pm • link • report

On the upside, it was significantly worse in the Mount Vernon Square area just 15 years ago.

1) Regarding the 7th Street lots: those are part of some old projects, one of which I happen to live in, owned by Washington Apartments. One group of buildings with the same architectural style are getting torn down and replaced by rowhouses soon. My guess is that it'll take a revitalization of the actual Square to revive the area around the Convention Center.

2) Most of the lots along K in MV Triangle are slated for redevelopment.

3) You missed a big one: Above 395 between H and K. It's not quite a surface lot, but it's street-level parking with some sort of structure beneath.

by OctaviusIII on Jun 6, 2011 1:18 pm • link • report

Downtown is called such because of its location and its present function and its irrelevant where downtown was or where it was wished to be.

by spookiness on Jun 6, 2011 1:21 pm • link • report

So, why is street parking excluded? Should not ever street have to red lines along it? Virtually every street has street parking. Why is that not a waste of space?

by Jasper on Jun 6, 2011 1:26 pm • link • report

Two thoughts:

The NW focus of this graphic is unfortunate.

Pennsylvania and Maryland Avenues between 1st and 3rd streets are effectively surface parking lots and should be added to the map.

-M

by MDE on Jun 6, 2011 1:28 pm • link • report

@Jasper

Because the streets will still be streets - whether that street space is used for traffic lanes, parking lanes, sidewalks, trees, grass, landscaping, or whatever you might think of, that right of way is (largely) the same now as it has been since it was first laid out.

Surface parking lots, on the other hand, are located on otherwise developable land. That's a big difference.

by Alex B. on Jun 6, 2011 1:29 pm • link • report

Does this mean NOMA can still have a public park after all?

by John on Jun 6, 2011 1:31 pm • link • report

There are alot near Howard University plus several above ground parking garages. As someone who went to an urban university in Boston, I am shocked at the amount of surface parking Howard has around it.

by Eric on Jun 6, 2011 1:35 pm • link • report

@MDE: This is examining downtown or future downtown expansion specifically. The other quadrants, for better or worse, don't have that capacity and, therefore, don't fit the purpose.

by OctaviusIII on Jun 6, 2011 1:38 pm • link • report

What sticks out is the insistence of the House and Senate for maintaining their own surface parking lots, thus inducing traffic in the city and creating eyesores for visitors and neighbors.

Eric, Howard plans to build on a substantial portion of their surface lots in the coming decade. I'll write about it when they finish their campus plan final draft, which should be soon.

by Eric Fidler on Jun 6, 2011 1:45 pm • link • report

Missed one at the SE corner of 17th St and O St (behind the Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business)

by rock_n_rent on Jun 6, 2011 1:46 pm • link • report

The huge gas station at 15th & U NW with 4 curbs cuts is little more than a short-term parking lot for cabs.

by Tom Coumaris on Jun 6, 2011 2:18 pm • link • report

I'm 99% certain that in the minds of our elected officials, new Congressional office buildings occupy the block south of Canon and two blocks north of Dirksen/Hart. There's a map in this report that shows the areas controlled by the Architect of the Capital.

by PeakVT on Jun 6, 2011 2:27 pm • link • report

@ Alex B: Because the streets will still be streets... Surface parking lots, on the other hand, are located on otherwise developable land. That's a big difference.

But street space can be used for street parking or something else. There are plenty of narrow side walks that could use widening. There are plenty of streets that could use a bike lane. Plenty of streets that could use some extra trees.

If you say that surface parking lots are wasted space, why not say the same about street parking?

by Jasper on Jun 6, 2011 3:32 pm • link • report

I suppose street parking fulfills three purposes unique to its location: buffer between traffic and pedestrians, loading/unloading areas for businesses, and convenient parking for quick trips. Although an ideal world wouldn't have street parking, and all car-storage would take place off the streetscape, that is certainly not low-hanging fruit. Indeed, I'd suspect that land values and pedestrian traffic would have to be quite high to justify using part of a development envelope for a parking structure in place of street parking. Manhattan strikes me as one example, but even there one sees cars parked on the street in all but the most frequented areas. One area where road width, and therefore parallel parking, should be examined is 16th from U to Columbia Road, where the sidewalk is often clogged with people and bikes.

Diagonal parking, however, is another beast. The amount of street width used by such parking is often enough to justify switching it to parallel or eliminating it altogether for bike lanes or increased sidewalk width.

by OctaviusIII on Jun 6, 2011 4:04 pm • link • report

More Congressional office space though requires enough time to convince anyone that a new construction project wouldn't be a repeat of the budget busting Capitol Vistors Center fiasco.

Ironically, much of this bloat was caused by the House/Senate's tremendous shortage of office space, which is why less than a quarter (or is it an eighth?) of the CVC is actually used as a visitor's center.

It's been politically unfeasible to construct a new legislative office building since Reagan came into office. Both the House and Senate lease a lot of space around DC for administrative functions to free up space on the Hill. The CVC was full of earmark bloat because it was likely going to be the legislature's first and last chance to add more office space on Capitol Hill in a long time.

Like it or not, offices require more room to efficiently operate today than they did in 1960, and the amount of space on the hill has not caught up to meet that demand.

That said, I see no reason why they cannot use that extra land for a park instead of a parking lot.

And, also: Tell congress to stop air-conditioning and heating its parking garages. It's embarrassingly wasteful.

by andrew on Jun 6, 2011 4:16 pm • link • report

There sure are a lot of parking lots in NoMA. Where were people going there that they needed to park?

You can also add the entire 700 block of 2nd St NE. They knocked down a row of historic rowhouses last year for a new development, which fizzled out, and is now a parking lot. They did some work there a few weeks ago, which gives the appearance that the lot is here to stay for good. Pity.

by andrew on Jun 6, 2011 4:21 pm • link • report

mostly crack and hookers.

by eric on Jun 6, 2011 4:23 pm • link • report

Plus you have the ocean of parking at the Pentagon, where you could conceivably have put up more buildings instead of locating more people in Mark Center/etc.

by EJ on Jun 6, 2011 4:46 pm • link • report

Jasper:

But street space can be used for street parking or something else. There are plenty of narrow side walks that could use widening. There are plenty of streets that could use a bike lane. Plenty of streets that could use some extra trees.

If you say that surface parking lots are wasted space, why not say the same about street parking?

Because the parking isn't the issue here. Parking is merely a proxy for intensity of land use.

On-street parking is irrelevant, because that land is used as a public right of way for many uses.

Off-street parking is incomplete - there's a great deal of off-street parking not shown on that map because it's all structured, above or below ground. Ergo, off-street surface parking lots are shown as a means to show under-developed parcels of land.

by Alex B. on Jun 6, 2011 5:12 pm • link • report

True story: we have an acquaintance who lives four blocks from the Senate office buildings. He actually drives to work and parks in that surface lot at 2nd and C NE every day. For some, driving instead of walking is sacrosanct.

by lou on Jun 6, 2011 5:49 pm • link • report

At North Capital & K St there is a large vacant lot used by MegaBus and Gonzaga High School. This is within the NoMA neighborhood.

The land owned by Gonzaga is the blacktop parking lot on that map and is used by students for parking. That lot is probably one of the few utilized lots, as the school's parking permit requires a carpool of at least 3 people to park, for students. Faculty/staff I'm not sure about, although I know many of the faculty drive students home as part of a carpool deal as well. Part of the condition of Gonzaga acquiring the land, so the stories go, is that the school is not allowed to use it as a surface parking lot, although they are presently doing so. I believe there are tentative plans to do something with it, but what I'm not so sure.

To the west of that lot, and appearing to be dirt / grass on this photo, is also a blacktop, and currently used by Megabus for their general operations. This is a metro-accessible location and seems exactly where Megabus would want to operate. They have no permanent structures there.

The northern part, also appearing dirt / grass, is also a blacktop. This lot is separated from the other two lots by an alley with chainlink on either side of the alley. This is a daily parking lots, typical of the others. This lot also supports people who drive to the church across L St to the north.

by Xavier on Jun 6, 2011 7:42 pm • link • report

The small red zone at 17th and Rhode Island, a couple blocks southeast of Dupont, is set to be the new building for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). They're currently renting at 1800 K Street, but have the plans in order for their new location - the building should be complete by the end of 2013.

by Shannon on Jun 6, 2011 7:56 pm • link • report

2 things - (1): could we turn a few of these into "urban" parks? See this article from the Atlantic I just read: http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/06/how-to-turn-a-parking-lot-into-an-ideal-green-community/239973/

And (2): I would suggest turning 7th street from Penn to Mass (with openings at E, H and I) into a large La Rambla type pedestrian street since it's basically a parking lot for cars and buses throughout the day?

by Shipsa01 on Jun 6, 2011 10:01 pm • link • report

Missed one at the northeast corner of 11th and M and another at the northeast corner of 11th and N.

by AwkWord on Jun 7, 2011 9:34 am • link • report

Another non-NW parking lot ripe for development:

14th & D St SW

Everything else is built up nicely around that ugly lot. Was there a building there at some point in the past?

by Tom on Jun 7, 2011 9:51 am • link • report

The NE corner of the convention center lot is staying a parking lot for the time being;

the lot where the convention center hotel is going up should be orange, yes?

There's also a small lot at the Reagan building facing 14th;

there's a dirt lot at the nw corner of 17th and P;

a lot at 14th and P (Studio Theater) has a project planned, but hasnt broken ground;

another lot at 14th and P behind Barrel House and P at 15th where the Tortilla Coast is going in;

zipcar lot at 14th and Q

by parking lot hater on Jun 7, 2011 11:02 am • link • report

You missed a sizable lot on 10th Street NW between O and N. It's owned by the New Bethany Baptist church. They claim it's necessary for their parishoners yet it sits completely empty on Sundays. It's packed Monday thru Friday because they now lease out the spaces. So, they're making money off the illegal lot that they pay no taxes on. They also own a smaller lot on 10th across the street and a huge lot on 11th and N.

by Scott on Jun 7, 2011 12:09 pm • link • report

You missed the "CarPark", just north and east of two others you noted, in Shaw which garnered the most public outcry from residents, several community meetings, a resolution from Ward 6 and Ward 2 ANCs, virtual silence from the (departing) Shaw Ward Councilmember, an email from then-Mayor Fenty's Ward 2 MOCR (now Director of Mayor Gray's ONE constituent services political social media arm Francisco Fimbres), and it's own dedicated web site:

Bundy, 400 b/o P St NW:
http://friendsofbundy.wordpress.com/

by CCCA Prez on Jun 9, 2011 1:09 pm • link • report

Other lots you missed:

10th and L NW- NE corner
12th and Q NW- NE corner
R between 10th and 11th.

by EWO on Jun 16, 2011 12:00 pm • link • report