(G)Rumblings over plans for redeveloping DC's Old Convention Center site

Demolition of the old Washington Convention Center.

Tomorrow night, Hines Interests, the large development company, will be presenting their plans for redeveloping the Convention Center Site.

Thursay May 4, 2006
6-9 pm
Where: "City Museum," 801 K Street NW
Website: www.oldconventioncenter.com

Mayor Williams convened a committee to study his idea that the site had the opportunity to become a focal and civic place, with an active and well-used public plaza that could draw people out from their office cubicles and out on to the streets and sidewalks of the city--500,000 people come into the city to work Monday through Friday and they don't seem to venture out too much into various nooks and crannies downtown.

Two planning studies were performed for the site, and a set of criteria for what could and should be done for the site shaped the RFP that the city issued in search of a master development plan and sale of the land.


Some of the criteria included in the RFP and the winning proposal concerned public uses for the site, making it a center for activity downtown, which doesn't have a real focal place, now that it no longer has a theater district and a real shopping district lined with rows of department stores. (I like Hecht's, but it is only one store. There used to be many more--before my time of course--although I do remember Woodward & Lothrops and even Garfinckel's--just not Lansburghs, Kanns, Jeleffs, and Palais Royale).
This public art exhibit is a temporary use on the Convention Center site. Photo by Elvert Barnes.

Hines Interests "won" the contentious competition to develop the site.

And people are rumbling and grumbling over the Hines group concept, which has been being presented in private presentations over the past 10 days or so, there are rumblings loud enough to make it to my ears that the concept as presented is more focused on maximizing profits, by focusing on the construction of office buildings, rather than making a great development that through the variety of "mixed primary uses" provided, becomes the new and real focal point for Downtown DC and a center for civic life.


If that is the case, should Hines lose their privilege to develop the site, because their "final" site plan ignores the criteria laid out in the RFP, the same criteria that shaped the choice of Hines as seemingly the best qualified developer for the site?

Tomorrow's meeting should be perhaps the beginning of an interesting process? Not being well-connected, I haven't been the recipient of one of the private presentations. But apparently it falls short of the vision laid out on the Old Conventer Center redevelopment website.
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Vision
Live. Work. Shop. Celebrate. Learn.

Imagine a place of superior architectural quality, filled with functionality and flair - a world-class destination where culture, business and lifestyles converge.

Imagine this place is here, in DC.

The Old Convention Center Site redevelopment will reinvigorate the vacant 10-acre area, contained within 9th, H and 11th Streets and New York Avenue, and bring new life to downtown's East End. It will draw upon the rich, diverse fabric of the surrounding neighborhoods and represent the special qualities that make our city unique.

The rebirth of the Old Convention Center Site as a thoughtfully planned urban development signals a dynamic future for our city, a transformation that balances both beauty and function. It will enhance the civic, cultural and economic opportunities of our city and create a vital, all-encompassing community center where we all can live, work, shop, celebrate, and learn.

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This might be a lesson in being sure to check your final plans against what you write beforehand on your website...

Hines Interests is best known for their "mixed-use" Houston Galleria. Photo from the Tanglewood Investments website.

I do know that the City is desperately hoping that this site will be able to attract Nordstroms into opening a Downtown DC location.

See, 45 years after the publication of Death and Life of Great American Cities it really does still come down to the foundation that Jane Jacobs laid out for us, and that "city lovers" work to maintain, enhance, and extend for new decades and new conditions and new requirements. (Take that Nicholas Ouroussoff!)

Index Keywords: urban-design-placemaking