DC Metrocentric

The City of the Future competition sponsored by the History channel went off without a hitch Tuesday and we were there capturing it all and enjoying the show.

As we mentioned earlier this week, eight groups of architects assembled at Union Station to compete and assemble a model of their vision for the future of DC. The winner ended up being Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP but the real highlight of the competition was the politically charged presentation by Sorg and Associates (shown above).

Sorg and Associates’ plan included leaving the central Washington monuments intact and building out the surrounding area, like Haines Point and National Airport, as higher density mixed use transportation hubs. Most interesting though was their assessment that the Pentagon would no longer be necessary. Their plans called for using the DoD building as the new Institute for Peace.

We also spent some time speaking with Jose, a representative from the American Institute of Architects, who told us that the competition ”is not merely an exercise in model building…” in fact he mentioned that “some of the ideas from last years competition winner are currently being implemented in the greater Chicago area…” It’s great to hear that competitions like this can create some really relevant and useful innovations! 

Follow the jump for a close up on Sorg and Associates model, plus a bunch more pictures of all the other competitors…

Sorg and Associates (left) had a ton of bridges connecting all their developments which the Judges seemed to question. Grow-DC (right) had some interesting river developments that you could make spin with the cranks on the right side of the display.

The Winners Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP

Assembling part of the Grow-DC model with only 45 minutes left in the competition.