My concern about office buildings as a revitalization strategy

Washington Gateway PUD
Originally uploaded by rllayman

has to do more with the creation of monoculture environments--all office districts--and the reproduction of residential and mixed use areas into new districts dominated almost completely by office buildings.

The Washington Gateway development at Florida and New York Avenues NE is a case in point.

Granted that area was previously industrial. But the previous project proposed for this space was residential. Instead, an office development is going forward.

I think of this as constant reproduction of space out from the core into an ever expanding central office district. Areas around Capitol Hill, NoMA, along 2nd Street NE, the East End, Mount Vernon Triangle, are experiencing the reproduction of space into office districts.

It's an almost inexorable and inevitable process because of the building height restriction.

In a "normal" city, taller buildings could be built, allowing a more compactly developed central business district.

Instead DC is constructed of a bunch of squatty 10-13 story buildings of 500,000 s.f.

I am a preservationist, and favor the height restriction in many respects, and I favor the protection of key viewshed corridors for the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Monument, and other landmarks.

But there are unintended consequences. And one is the ongoing encroachment and expansion of the "central business district" east and south.