Klein demands better plan for 14th & U

After reviewing the separate streetscape plans for 14th and U Streets, NW, DDOT Director Gabe Klein has asked the 14th Street project team to present a better plan for the key intersection of 14th and U that creates a more distinctive civic space.

In deciding that this historic intersection will be designed by the 14th Street project team and not the U Street team, Klein is handing the job to the more urban-minded of the two project teams. He asked the 14th Street project team to report back “with street furniture options, trees, and other elements” in front of the Reeves Center.

At the 14th Street project meeting late last month, in correspondence to Director Klein after the meeting, and here on Greater Greater Washington, we and others argued that the design alternatives for 14th and U were uninspired and did not adequately take the needs of users, such as the farmers market, into account.

In a followup email, Klein also brought up the streetcar issue, which 14th Street planners identified as a looming question mark for this streetscape project. Both 14th and U are designated streetcar corridors. “I also want to give extra review to all future streetcar corridors,” Klein wrote. “We plan to make them ‘streetcar ready’ when we reconstruct to minimize future cost and construction pain.”

This suggests that DDOT will not be including streetcar tracks in these reconstructions, as it did with H Street NE, but will instead design the corridors so that tracks and stops can be installed later without requiring another major overhaul of the corridor.

Previous designs for the corner of 14th and U hesitated to propose significant changes because of the possibility that the Reeves Center site would be redeveloped, reducing the sidewalk area on the northwest corner. Klein has instructed the project team to move forward assuming that the Reeves Center footprint will remain unchanged.

With this decision, DDOT is demanding a public space more befitting the importance of this historic corner. We look forward to seeing what the project team produces.