Is Foggy Bottom lagging in vitality?

Demonstration in solidarity after the 3/11 train bombings in Madrid. Photo from InDCJournal. The Spanish Embassy is just west of the Circle.

Maybe, because of the dominance of the GWU campus. I haven't made up my mind. But it's also a "between place," it's between Downtown and Georgetown, Georgetown and Dupont Circle, and Dupont Circle and the National Mall. So, to make the area more vital is it worth allowing more density--students, office and classroom buildings, dormitories, on the GWU campus--in return for mixed-use non-university uses on the old GWU hospital site.

See this article from the WBJ, "Square 54 development hinges on GW expansion," which has this delicious quote from Bob Peck, formerly head of the GSA, of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, etc... From the article:

"It's 2.5 acres -- hello? -- on Pennsylvania Avenue and next to a Metro," says Bob Peck, a senior vice president of The Staubach Co. and former president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade. The proposed mixed-use project would bring some activity to an area that is "lagging in vitality," he says.

Speaking of brinksmanship, other than the Federal Government, George Washington University is the largest property owner in DC, and a significant portion of its endowment and annual revenue comes from office buildings that it owns and rents out in the vicinity of its campus. So there is a strong likelihood that the school intends to do a for-profit development on that site, because of the upside profit potential...

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Index Keywords: growth-machine