Public Spaces

Blank wall of the day

by David Alpert   •   March 16, 2008 10:36 pm

Just what the Penn Quarter needs: another blank wall building with no retail, right next to the MLK Library. The architects even drew in a relatively dead street, with only a few scattered pedestrians and more parked cars than people. At least they know what they are going to get. Via DC Metrocentric.

Since this isn't a historic district (unless I'm reading the list wrong), and we don't have any design review outside historic districts, nobody is forcing these types of buildings to engage the street more directly. I'm hoping the zoning review, perhaps the Retail Strategy group, will be able to require retail and/or other active street uses in these commercial districts. Apparently the blankness is because the bottom will be a church, replacing the church that was already there. But since the church is surely profiting greatly from the development on the parcel, requiring an urban-friendly design (and they do exist) and some windows or stores on at least part of the block doesn't seem too much to ask.

David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington. He has had a lifelong interest in great cities and great communities. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.