No area municipality does it better: Arlington County extracting mixed primary use benefits from publicly supported facilities

The obituary of Tom Newman in today's Post ("Arlington Official Pushed for Ice Complex")states:

A lifelong hockey fan and player, he spearheaded the county's efforts to build a pair of skating rinks on top of a parking garage, eight stories above the Ballston business district at North Glebe Road and North Randolph Street. They are the only full-size ice hockey rinks inside the Capital Beltway in Northern Virginia.

The $42 million project was completed in late 2006. Since then, the Capitals have used the facility, called the Kettler Capitals Iceplex, as the team office and practice site. They had previously practiced in Anne Arundel County. "It's the finest practice facility in the NHL," Capitals General Manager George McPhee told The Washington Post in 2006.

The Ballston complex also houses the front office of the Washington Mystics WNBA team. When the Capitals are not practicing, the twin rinks are used by the hockey teams of Georgetown and George Washington universities, six high schools and several youth leagues.

Imagine, a sports facility built for a professional hockey team that also supports another professional sports team, and college, high school, and youth league hockey when the facility is not in use by the Washington Capitals.

That's a form of what Jane Jacobs called "mixed primary use" at least in my book.

Rest in Peace Mr. Newman. Your creative efforts will be remembered and will continue to be appreciated.

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From "Who wears Jane Jacobs’s mantle in today’s New York? " in the Downtown Express, on last year's (or was it the year before?) Jane Jacobs exhibit at the Municipal Arts Society:

Four conditions, Jacobs argues, are indispensable for exuberant diversity in a city’s streets and districts. First, mixed primary uses. A city’s internal parts (basically its neighborhoods) must serve more than one primary function, and ensure that people go outdoors on different schedules. Second, most blocks must be short, with frequent opportunities to turn corners, run into people, vary a route, etc. Third, streets must mingle buildings of various ages. And fourth, there must be a sufficiently dense concentration of people, including residents, for various purposes.

I argue that the "mixed primary use" concept needs to be applied not just to areas ("districts") but to municipal capital improvements planning. For example, shouldn't a senior wellness center be combined with a recreation center, and better utilize and leverage the municipal investment in the facility for as many hours in the day as possible?

Or how about putting in an expanded "gym" at the Thomas Jefferson Junior High School in Arlington, a gym that has an indoor track and exhibition capabilities that can be used for the entire county, not just the students in the school?

Or having a theater and theater company attached to a branch library (Shirlington), etc.

Even Takoma Park combines a community center, city library, and city hall into one (expanded from time to time) facility.

Etc.