An RFP isn't a plan: redux

I caution against cities releasing RFPs--requests for proposals--without being built upon a planning process.  Without a plan, anything can come over the maw and what comes reflects the developer's preferences, not necessarily either "the city" or "the public".  And proposals tend to be conservative because cities are conservative.

A great example of this is the redevelopment of the Walter Reed Military Hospital Campus in DC.  Hey, they've done a good job.  But it's mostly housing and retail, because the city economic development group is most comfortable with that ("Nice looking five story brick apartment building, Parks at Walter Reed development, Washington, DC," 2026).

Some of the RFPs included wacky hope of getting MIT involved, etc., because the campus included the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, which basically was a set of buildings turnkey that could have been used to start a medical school, biotechnology campus, etc.

That happened sort of, but not by the city's hands.  The Children's Hospital of DC separately lobbied Congress to get control of that property and they did.  Stuff's happening there, not sure about how breakthrough it is.

I wasn't involved at all in the public process around Walter Reed even though it's less than two miles from our DC house, because I had been working on a bunch of other stuff.  

Later, some people came to me with their concept of using the new hospital building (since torn down and it cost more than $125 million to do so) and the Pathology facilities to create a graduate medical education program (the aim was to get the Royal College of Surgeons Dublin to open a medical school, and with Washington Adventist University--there is a medical school at Loma Linda University and many Adventist colleges have medical professions education, and other institutions, open other allied medical education programs) and a biotechnology research initiative/research park.  And I wrote it up.

We were far too late in the process, again the city is conservative, and it didn't help that the leaders of the effort were somewhat wacky, one's focus was to use the H1B Visa program for funding, and we couldn't get either the Royal College or Washington Adventist to sign on the dotted line so that the city would take it seriously.

But in contrast to the housing and retail, it could have supported thousands of high paying jobs, including technology associate positions that didn't require postgraduate work.

St. Elizabeths East campus (West is for the federal government).

Later I wrote it up as a proposal for the city's St. Elizabeths campus in SE DC.

-- "POrdinary versus Extraordinary Planning around the rebuilding of the United Medical Center in Southeast Washington DC:  Part Two: Creating a graduate health and biotechnology research initiative on the St. Elizabeths campus," (2018)

And after that went nowhere, suggested the University of Maryland could do it at the new Largo Hospital--UMD's biomedical research is mostly in Baltimore.

-- "University of Maryland could seed a complementary biotechnology and medical education initiative in Prince George's County" (2021)

I learned the importance of pre-planning from the example of Kennedy School in Portland.  Residents wanted a say in how it would be sold and remade.  They ended up supporting the idea of a bed and breakfast ("Vision and Versatility: The Story of McMenamins," Spirited Magazine, "Preservation Brotherhood," Chicago Tribune, 2004, "Preserved in Alcohol: Case Studies of Adaptive Reuse Projects by McMenamins, Inc.," thesis). And the McMenamins Company came up with an amazing response resulting in an award winning property.

Edgefield Manor

But they moved from brewpubs and cinemas to larger property redevelopment earlier, buying the 300 acre Multnomah County poor farm,  Edgefield Manor..

By the time they got the property it was pretty much wrecked.  They found the money to rehabilitate it.  Now it has a hotel, golf course, brewpubs, distillery, gardens, and other amenities.

They've gone on to do this with many properties in Oregon and Washington, they didn't stop with Kennedy School.

Sadly, it's rare to find a developer that is (1) super creative, (2) committed to historic preservation, and (3) willing to work with "white elephant" properties that are difficult and costly to redevelop.  (Note that while the firm doesn't deal that much with former public buildings, Jemal Development is fine with historic buildings, first in DC, then in places like Frederick, Maryland, Richmond, Virginia, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo, among others.)

Northampton State Hospital in 2007.

Other cities have either been good or bad at this dimension.  This article laments that such a path and a company like McMenamins isn't active in Massachusetts, ("Miracle Manor," Valley Advocate), suggesting that the old Northampton State Hospital could have been developed similarly.

-- "A planning process done right | NYC to build affordable housing on a city parking lot & points about DC and Montgomery County" (2026)
-- "Adaptive reuse of a high school to a concert space in Portland, Oregion: Revolution Hall" (2023)
-- "One way to encourage community input into development planning" (2010)

TGM photo by Sammy Kogan.

Toronto Waterfront.  Conclusions in the Toronto Globe & Mail article "A bigger Biidaasige Park is another waterfront triumph for Toronto," encapsulates this argument, also mentioning the failure of the Province of Ontario in its quest to "revive" Toronto's waterfront separate from the City.

There is a lesson for other governments about how to make a place. Think hard up front, with public input, about what your goals are; then hire excellent designers, give them direction, and rigorously defend their vision.

... Mr. Glaisek says success began with decades of public advocacy – the citizen group Bring Back the Don was central – and basics: “We had strong leadership, we had funding, and we had the continuity of an organization that could focus attention for 20 solid years.”

While city staff and others helped realize the project, Waterfront has been at the helm. In meeting after meeting, year in and year out, their staff has defended the idea of “leading with landscape” and the specifics of this huge, complex, fragile project.

Of course, that presumes the local government doesn't blow off the opportunity.  In DC, like with Walter Reed, St. Elizabeths, and many other civic building projects. Which the writer points out is a problem with Toronto's city agencies.

Over at Toronto City Hall, none of those conditions exist. The parks department’s output is chaotic and nobody seems to know how its decisions are being made or by whom, much less what the guiding principles and design standards might be.

Waterfront has been different. The expanded Biidaasige invites thoughts of a city that can build great things, and whose greatest times are still ahead of it.