Upside of Downturn: Parkland
19 08 2009One interesting upside to this whole slow down in development projects is that a lot of property around the country that was slated to be developed is now being unloaded on the cheep and apparently local and federal governments are buying the land and turning it into parks.
Last week the Post had a great stoy on the subject about how Montgomery County bought 53 acres to turn it into parkland paying only half the original value. It brings up the questions of what properties in the District would you like to see bought up and turned into a park?
The first one that comes to our mind is of course the old convention center site. Can you imagine some how the District or even the Federal government could scrounge together the money and convince the developer to sell? That would be one great location, and maybe they could even incorporate the temporary tennis stadium and trapezes into the design. Wishful thinking we know, but what do you think? Any other development sites that are sitting empty and would make good urban parks?
[Photo: Grundlepuck]
New parkland is all well and good, but how about we maintain/improve the parks we have first? Nearly every triangle park in the District is in disrepair and needs a mowing and some landscaping. The ball fields all over are either barren or overgrown. I generally support more parks, but lets get the ones we have up to snuff first.
I agree with dano.
Due to the District’s complicated inter-government relationship with the USFG, all parks in Washington are a mess. The District’s hands are loosely tied on what they can do to improve them and the USFG generally has little to no interest in giving money to spruce up its capital.
We must first have a series of vibrant parks before we add another.
I’d also add the the proposed development will actually make the “new” convention center useful and desirable. Many conference planners reject the notion of using the Washington Conference Center due to a lack of adjacent hotels, dining venues and shopping.
Can you imagine flying across country to be stuck in Mt. Vernon Sq for a few days? Ick!!
Build more hotels and stores nearby please.
I live to the east of City Center and am not in favor of it simply becoming a park. Franklin Square is of similar size and only a few blocks away to the west. It’s also woefully undermaintained and underutilized. I’d prefer doing more to maximize Franklin Park than creating more greenspace just for the sake of doing so.
That said, so far I haven’t been bowled over by the development plans I’ve heard for City Center and I feel I should be. The project should be ambitious. Yet I’ve only heard that it would include 4 residential towers, 2 office buildings with ground floor retail throughout. Those are solid mixed use best practices but where is the anchor? A project of this size and potential should have a real hook to create a sense of identity whether it civic infrastruture or a tenant that would truly make this a destination. Perhaps the MSG 6000 seat theatre being buzzed about last week could be that anchor?
We don’t need new parkland. Now if the city is going to hold onto this land and then sell it for a profit later on that would be fine… Just make sure everyone knows its a temporary park so that the same situation that happened with the Capital Crescent Trail doesn’t happen again.
Part of the design for CityCenterDC includes a park on the northwest corner of the site.
The District, particularly central DC, has adequate open space. What downtown needs is density and the mixed use proposal for the old convention center site is good for downtown.
I think it would be cool to make it into a park but include features like an outdoor performance space, and recreational features like climbing rockwalls, playgrounds, and of course they should make the trapeze school permanent.
I don’t want a park. I want a plaza.
You know what would really be nice? If DC bought up a few of the empty buildings around the city, like the DuMont, and turned them into “workforce housing” (e.g., priced for incomes around $50k). Bringing some more middle class people from the suburbs would do wonders for civic engagement and school performance, and should also generate enough new tax revenue to make sense from a purely financial standpoint, too.
I wouldn’t want more parks either. I play kickball in DC and many of the parks, such as Marie Reed in Adams Morgan, are so badly maintained that you can barely throw the ball along the ground without it popping up into the air from hitting a rock, a hill that needs to be smoothed, or something more sinister. The grass is sporadic, at best, and the lighting needs replacing, among other things. It’s quite sad, though they have been renovating parks in Dupont along New Hampshire.
CityCenterDC needs to be built AS PLANNED. A park there would be disastrous simply because it would be too much. I also agree the city needs actual plazas (European and South American in style) with stores and restaurants lining them (see: La Placa Real in Barcelona).
most paRKS IN dc are just DangEROUS during the evening.
no more needle/homeless parks in dc, please. thks.
Wow, I’m pleasantly surprised by how many people don’t want a park on the old convention center site. I don’t want one either! Not because I don’t like parks, but because it’s SO hard to get adequate transit for transit oriented development, and this space is smack-dab in between three metro stops. It’s such a triumph every time metro use goes up and auto use goes down, so I say build condos/apartments, retail, offices, and a smaller park in between. Workforce housing would make it even sweeter. Maybe kids could even walk to Franklin park from their homes on the old convention center site - can we even imagine such a world?
There are so many “dilapidated” areas of DC, why not redevelop those areas first? Use this lot for a park! Its rare to have so much space in downtown. With regards to more housing and shops, we have enough empty condos and storefronts in downtown DC.
Agreed, definitely a bad idea to turn the old convention center into a park. Downtown DC is filled with parks, large and small, and many of these are already inadequately cared for. What downtown DC does need is a major shopping/entertainment/hanging-out destination to connect Penn Quarter/Chinatown, Metro Center, and the new Convention Center. And that perfect site is the old convention center.
I agree with FourthandEye though that the released plans for the CityCenterDC are as underwhelming as its name. (Seriously, I hope nobody was paid to come up with that brilliant tag.) We need some much bolder developments in this town.
Hmm. Those writing that the land would be better-used on a density-enhancing project are probably right. But I have to take issue with a couple of other suggestions:
- The city does not have “plenty” of parks. Upper Northwest has plenty of parks. I live in the Mount Vernon area; discount the useless, paved-over triangle parks and you’re left with a bunch of school fields that aren’t available for public use, and Meridian Hill. Adding a playing field or two wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
- The idea that we need to prop up that money-loser of a convention center is silly. Ignore sunk costs. There are plenty of hotels serving downtown. If you want to revitalize the area, revise the tax code to encourage the negligent owners along 9th street to sell or develop their properties at long last. But let’s not bend any further backward to satisfy out-of-towners who can’t bear to walk an extra block from their hotel to their convention. We already get plenty of tourists.
Oh come on. Mount Vernon Square is DIRECTLY ADJACENT to the Old Convention Center site. Seriously. You do not even have to walk one single block to get to an existing park from that location. And if you don’t like Mount Vernon Square, Franklin Square is two blocks away, McPherson Square is four blocks away, and Lafayette Square five blocks away.
Sorry, but “park” is not the best use for every piece of available land. It would be a particularly terrible use of this particular piece of land, which is well-served by lots of existing parks, as well as lots of transit and other good amenities that make it perfect for high-density development (and after all, development has to go *somewhere*).
BeyondDC - well said!
Seems like the article is more of a hypothetical and it doesn’t even really say it should be a park, more like a public space with parks, performance spaces (sports and theater), and other features, which none of the surrounding parks have at all, I think it’s a good idea.
Its pretty cool the way it is now. It makes for a nice opening between downtown and Chinatown. It kind of provides an easement for people that work around that area.
DCsocialite.com
[…] Open Space By Alex Block Last week, DC Metrocentric floated the idea of leaving the old convention center site free from development, turning the area into a park, […]
DC does need more parks but here is not the place; most of the parks in DC are more or less all along the same areas Upper NW, Downtown and a few small parks placed throughout NE, SE, SW and the eastern portion of NW. There needs to be more parks spread out among the areas of the city.
I say build a new MLK library there with ground floor retail and and offices on top of the library with workforce housing (30K)
DC owns the land and therefore the land should go to something benefiting the residents of the city as a whole which a does not mean retail; most residents wont go to the retail or office which most workers wont be DC residents.
I say we build office, residential plus something that is for the benefit of the residents it can be a library, dmv/some dc government offices that citizens regularly visit in masses, a transit station for all the buses that serve the block, post office, community center etc
Not everything has to be for a damn profit and somethings should just be for the mentality of the citizens and raising moral or for a public benefit which offices, condos/apartments, retail does not provide except for people working/living or can afford to shop there.
Que - the city is planning for a transit center in a very large project directly north of Union Station which will tie all mass transit services including H Street streetcars, etc into one central mass location. It’s well thought out. The old convention center needs to incorporate retail, restaurants, lounges, affordable and market rate residences, and office space to be successful. Very few residents require a DC government office when they can take care of most business via the DC Gov website which is very effective. The primary reason downtown is still “sleepy” is because of the large percentage of buildings with no 1st floor retail presence. To anyone who suggests a park as a option for this very valuable piece of property is not in touch with sensible and realistic urban planning. Besides, the plans are already approved. This project is shovel ready. It just needs to get the financing in place. I anxiously await this.