Posts about Howard University
Roads
Florida Avenue gets closer to a "complete street"
DDOT has developed 3 options to redesign 9th Street and Florida Avenue, NW from U Street to just past Sherman Avenue. All make the road move closer to being a complete street, but also leave a few disappointing gaps.
All 3 options widen the notoriously narrow sidewalk on the east side of 9th Street between U and V Streets. All 3 options also redistribute sections of the right-of-way to pedestrians, cyclists, and permeable surface.
Intersection of 9th, Florida, and V Street in Option 3.
Option 3 stands out as the best option. Its most notable feature is to reconfigure the intersections with Vermont Avenue and Sherman Avenue to traditional right angles. Currently, the intersections are designed like highway ramps to aid drivers in speedy turns between the avenues. As expected, when you engineer a road for fast driving, people will drive fast regardless of the speed limit signs.
Vermont Ave & Florida Ave. Left: Now. Right: Option 3 proposal.
To discourage speeding, option 3 curves both of these avenues to intersect Florida Avenue a right angles. This will require sharper turns that will calm traffic and reduce the distances pedestrians must traverse to cross the avenues.
The elimination of the high-speed turn lanes creates the opportunity for two small plazas at these intersections.
Option 3 also reduces the amount of impervious surface (orange) and allows for a planting strip with trees on the east side of Florida Avenue just south of Vermont Avenue. Furthermore, it includes for curb extensions that reduce the distance pedestrians must spend in the path of traffic when crossing the streets.
Bike lanes will extend from Sherman Avenue to 9th Street and will connect the bike lanes on V Street, W Street, and Sherman Avenue.
These changes are very welcome, but there are several regrettable omissions. The intersection at V Street lacks a crosswalk on the north side, as does the north side of the intersection of Vermont Avenue. The intersection with W Street lacks any crosswalks for crossing Florida Avenue at all.
To cross Florida at W, a pedestrian will have to detour nearly 900 feet to and from the nearest crosswalk, or cross without a marked crosswalk. Under DC law, any edge of an intersection is still a legal crosswalk, but by avoiding striping one, DDOT is sending a signal that it isn't designing the intersection to be safe to cross.
W St & Florida Ave. Left: Option 3. Right: Author's proposed improvement.
As Howard University increases the number of students living on campus while encouraging walking and biking, the city must build the infrastructure that makes walking safer, easier, and more comfortable.
Curb extensions and crosswalks at W Street would provide an excellent pedestrian accommodation, yet options 1 and 2 show one isolated curb extension at W Street and option 3 shows none.
In 2009, DDOT agreed to add a crosswalk to a Fort Totten intersection which had a missing leg. Including safe crossings at all intersections in street designs should be one of the ways DDOT follows through on its "complete streets" policy.
Another disappointment is that DDOT's 3 design proposals ignore the roundabout envisioned in the Office of Planning's Duke Plan.
Left: Intersection of Florida and Sherman today.
Right: Older plan for the intersection with extended Bryant Street.
A roundabout would lie at the intersection of Florida Avenue, Sherman Avenue, and a newly created Bryant Street, which would be constructed on a DC-owned parking lot that lies east of the intersection.
DDOT staff will present this design and take questions at tonight's meeting of the ANC 1B Transportation Committee. The meeting starts at 7 pm at the Thurgood Marshall Center, 1816 12th Street NW.
Development
Howard faces dilemma with mixed-use development
Plans for Howard University's proposed mixed-use development project, Howard Town Center, have been dragging on for years. The university is making the tough call to hold out for the ideal project rather than build what it can in this investment climate.
An earlier design proposal. Image from DMPED.
Troy Stovall, Howard University's chief operating officer, revealed Thursday that the difficulty in financing the project is not due to the retail and supermarket component, but due to the number of apartments slated for the site.
Rather than letting the developer proceed with building the garage, supermarket, retail shops and half the number of apartments originally planned, Howard wants the full project, including all of the apartments built into project at the same time.
When asked on the status of the retail component, Mr. Stovall said that the developer has received several letters of intent from supermarkets interested in the space. The problem, though, lies upstairs. The banks, Mr. Stovall stated, are less convinced about the financial viability of building so many apartments on lower Georgia Avenue.
U street developer JBG, however, has recently purchased several properties within a few blocks of the Howard Town Center site. JBG and Howard's banks clearly differ in confidence in the area's potential.
Is Howard letting the perfect become the enemy of the good? Neighbors appear to strongly support the arrival of a supermarket, especially since the closest one, a mile away, offers a paltry selection.
However, to abide by the banks' requirements to reduce the number of units reduces the viability of the area's retail revitalization. More residents, after all, means more potential customers, and thus more chances for success along Georgia Avenue.
It's certainly debatable as to whether the delay in the arrival of a grocery store is worth the slowing of Georgia Avenue's revival. One the one hand, Howard's desire for delayed gratification will make the avenue's retail revitalization more durable. On the other hand, holding out for the ideal project postpones a catalyst for the avenue's revival.
Development
What should DC do with Walter Reed?
The District government has received many proposals from government agencies and non-profits for redeveloping 62.5 acres of the 113-acre Walter Reed campus in northern DC.
In 2005, the Pentagon decided to relocate the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to the campus of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. Last year, the State Department selected 18 acres on the west side of the campus to host foreign embassies, much like the former National Bureau of Standards campus in Van Ness.
The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages much of the Federal Government's office real estate, chose to keep 32.5 acres on the northeast corner of the site. The remaining 62.5 acres will go to the District for certain acceptable uses.
One would expect DC to auction the site to the highest private bidder, but the federal base closure process requires proposals from government agencies or non-
In April, the District selected Perkins + Will as the master planner of the city's allotment. The Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development has posted all the proposals online.
More than half of the applicants propose a combination of affordable, workforce, senior and rehabilitative housing. Five applicants propose public charter schools and Howard University proposes relocating its medical schools and hospital from their current campus. DC Fire and EMS proposes to relocate Engine 22 to the site while DDOT proposes testing highway materials. Even WMATA proposes a building a new bus garage on part of the site.
Social Services:- Help USA: 75 units of permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless veterans
- So Others Might Eat: 277 units of rental housing for the chronically homeless, the elderly, the mentally ill, veterans, and others requiring rehabilitation
- Transitional Housing Corporation: 120 units of mixed-income affordable and workforce housing, 110-120 units of affordable housing for the elderly, 3500-4000 sq. ft. of office space for the program
- Zenith Community Arts Foundation: housing for 20 artists over age 50, an art gallery, art classrooms, parks
- Concerned Citizens: housing for seniors
- Manna, Inc.: 30 units of affordable and workforce housing
- DC Dept. of Housing and Community Development & DC Dept. of Mental Health: Artist housing, homeless housing, student housing, Section 8 housing, market-rate rental housing, first-time homes, and senior housing
- Veterans and Military Family Life Progress: two-year transitional housing for veterans
- DC Dept. of Human Services: family shelter and permanent supportive housing
- Urban Matters/ Emory Beacon of Light: 146 units of permanent supportive housing for veterans, the chronically homeless and families and 209 units of workforce housing
- Veterans and Military Family Life Progress: (unknown)
- Ayeni International Inc.: job training and emergency, transitional, and permanent housing for homeless and low-income families.
- DC Fire and EMS: Relocating Engine 22 and building a community service unit.
- DDOT: Materials testing and research laboratory
- WMATA: garage for 100 - 250 buses
- Building Hope: Charter school incubator facilities.
- Center City Public Charter Schools: New public charter school teaching pre-K through 8th grade
- Friendship Public Charter Schools: New public charter school teaching pre-K through 12th grade; 1,125 students, IB program.
- Latin America Montessori Bilingual: New public charter school teaching pre-K through 6th grade; 200 students.
- Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School: Relocation of existing school, expansion to teach pre-K through 12th grade; IB program.
- T & T Healthcare -(unknown)
- Howard University (and Howard University Hospital) - relocation of Howard University's existing hospital and medical schools.
The deputy mayor's office will soon determine which applicants are qualified to continue and, over the coming months, will award the site to one or several of the applicants. Since many of the applicants do not propose using the entire site and since the city has hired a planning firm for the site, it seems highly likely that Walter Reed will host several of these projects together.
What would you like to see at Walter Reed?
History
Lost Washington: Old Main, Howard University
"Old Main" was the first building to be erected for the newly created Howard University. It was designed by Rochester, N.Y., architect Henry R. Searle Jr. in 1867, who also created the master plan for the university grounds.
It was a composite of styles, mainly Gothic and Second Empire. The overall impression was to convey a moralistic message. The structure had thirty-six rooms, including the offices of the president and chief administrators. Two mansard-roofed pavilions were at each end, and the main entrance was located in the center of the facade within a six-story octagonal tower. The tower rose to a height of 185 feet and contained the university bell after 1872.
"Old Main" was razed in 1940 to make way for the present main library.
Development
Howard Town Center racing to hit the low bar
On Monday evening, CastleRock Partners, the development team selected by Howard University after a decades-long back-story for its Howard Town Center project on Georgia Avenue at V Street, presented its concept for the site at a meeting hosted by the Pleasant Plains Civic Association. As part of its long-term ground lease agreement with the university, which the developers said should be signed within a week, the project must include a grocery store and the developers were looking to include approximately 450 apartment units. Otherwise, the developers stressed that their proposal was in its initial phases and things like design and potential tenants were subject to change.
Conceptual floor plans. Images from the developer.
That's good, because the Howard Town Center proposal as it stands needs some work. Here are the areas of contention:
Duke plan proposal for W Street.
Howard University needs to better connect with surrounding neighborhoods. There are few better ways to do that than to stitch together the missing street grid that separates the university from the neighborhoods to the west. As it stands, this proposal fails to achieve this community goal. The Town Center proposal includes a mid-block pedestrian cut-through, but it's located closer to V Street. Perhaps it would be more effective closer to W Street, where the connection is actually missing.
Parking: Since the exact amount of retail is not yet determined (the number floated Monday was up to 125,000 square feet, including the grocery store), the developers wouldn't put a number to the amount of parking they plan to include. They acknowledged the forces competing over parking, with the DC Office of Planning pushing for fewer spaces than required and potential retail tenants (on whom project financing depends) interested in more suburban amounts of parking. It looks like OP has learned the lesson of DC USA, even if retailers have not. When a neighbor raised the issue of the water table hampering underground construction, Tim Kissler told her that it just costs a lot of money to build deep. Since all of this project's parking will be underground, there is a big opportunity cost to building as much parking as retailers demand. That money could be used for a lot of other things that actually make the project better.
Affordable housing: The project is participating in DC's Inclusionary Zoning program, but the developers are only meeting the IZ minimums, proposing that 8 percent of the residential units be priced below market value. This was a big concern for many residents at the meeting, who were dissatisfied with such a low number.
Sidewalks: A DDOT representative at the meeting noted that Georgia Avenue's sidewalks are their narrowest at this project's location. Despite the high-traffic retail proposed for this project, the developer didn't provide for wider sidewalks in this draft plan and seemed reluctant to do so when asked about it by a neighbor. DDOT's representative said that this is something DDOT will be negotiating with the developer. This project is also within Georgia Avenue's Great Streets plan, and the timeline for streetscape improvements on lower Georgia Avenue coincides with the construction timeline for this project.
8th Street streetscape: One neighbor raised her concern that 8th Street, NW would become a de facto alley for this project, with loading docks and insensitive design not unlike DC USA's treatment of Hiatt Place. While there will be loading docks, residential units will also be located on the upper floors of the project along 8th Street. The devil will be in the details for 8th Street - loading docks may move or become larger or smaller, drastically affecting the quality of the streetscape.
Conceptual rendering of Howard Town Center. Photo from the developers.
Although the developers stressed that their $150 million proposal shown Monday was preliminary, they also laid out an aggressive timeline for development despite the sluggish economy, with groundbreaking in one year and another 18 months until the project's completion. The developers said that they decided not to go through the Planned Unit Development process because it would have taken too much time, and the project is not seeking any zoning variances. PUDs give the public, through the Zoning Commission, an opportunity to improve the design and push for benefits for the community.
While an improvement for Georgia Avenue, the project as it stands barely meets the minimums for responsible development. Because the developer isn't planning a PUD, citizens will need to work hard to ensure the developer improves the product.
Pedestrians
Florida Ave reconstruction mustn't block Duke plan
DDOT is reconstructing the segment of Florida Avenue between U Street and Sherman Avenue (around 9th and 10th Streets, NW). It's only changing a few things: there are a couple of new bulb-outs (good) but a ridiculously narrow sidewalk is staying as is (bad).
Left: Bulb-outs on the island and southwest corner of Florida and Vermont, and on the north corner of Florida and 9th. Right: The segment of Florida/9th between U and V. The sidewalk on the east side remains only a few feet wide. Click to enlarge.
The bigger question, though, is the future of this area. If we follow the Duke plan approved in 2004 and the Great Streets plan from last year, some of these intersections will ultimately look completely different.
Left: Intersection of Florida and Sherman today. Right: Great Streets plan for the intersection with extended Bryant Street.
Right now, the blocks south of Howard University between Sherman and Georgia are covered with surface parking in large superblocks. It's not walkable, and not even drivable: motorists have to drive a few blocks north or south to get east or west. The Duke Plan calls for connecting the street grid by extending W and Bryant across from Georgia to Sherman. A denser grid creates a more walkable experience, more opportunities for street retail or cafes, a more neighborhood feel, and less traffic. And a roundabout where the new Bryant hits the intersection of Florida and Sherman (along with another new one at Sherman's other end at New Hampshire and utilizing the already-extant one on 9th) would create a walkable and less wide-open intersection.
That is, as long as DDOT's work now doesn't preclude our ability to put in the roundabout or reconnect the streets. On 17th Street in Dupont, for example, we've been told nothing can be done about the excessively wide corner of 17th and R because DDOT recently redid it, reducing pedestrian space to increase the turning radii (which speeds traffic and hurts safety) instead of creating the bulb-outs that would be appropriate there.
There are plenty of possible reasons why DDOT might need to redo this street now instead of waiting. But it's important to ensure that this reconstruction won't create an obstacle to the better one down the road.
@ggwash
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- Bethesda gets new but terrible bike racks
- DC's divide need not be black and white
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