Howard University Students Study Potential Futures for Divinity School Site
✉️ Want to forward this article? Click here.

Amid Howard University being knee-deep in planning for the future of their Central Campus and property holdings off Georgia Avenue NW, the plans for their old Divinity School campus in Brookland (map) have been on the back burner.
In 2017, Howard selected a development team for the 23-acre property led by FLGA Real Estate and ZOM Living. Some charrettes and overarching visions for the property followed in 2019, although nothing has been set in stone yet.
In the meantime, some current professors, students and alumni have been working on their own vision for the East Campus.

Led by Howard University adjunct professor Curry Hackett and City College of New York adjunct professor Jerome Haferd, architecture students from both schools conducted case studies for the Divinity School East campus last summer and fall. Their visions largely retain the institutional use of the property while paying homage to long-ago indigenous occupants and enslaved workers of the land.

"I think there is a desire to kind of reimagine the site in a way that fully understands what's at stake here," Hackett said at a meeting held this week by ANC 5B02 Commissioner Ursula Higgins, who represents the single member district that encompasses the site.
"My position is that this is a Black landscape, so there's real spiritual and cultural and aesthetic implications here that are quite profound, and I would just hate to see this undermined by potentially myopic approaches that don't fully consider the Black and indigenous presence on the site, especially in the name of efficiency or broader fiscal concerns. There's environmental and social ways of being profitable as well."
The school's planning thus far has envisioned a variety of low- to moderate-density housing along the fringes of the campus. Representatives from the University and from the selected development firms expressed a desire to keep the conversation going and ensure that past and present students have input moving forward.
CORRECTION: Haferd's role has been corrected since publication; it has also been clarified that CCNY students participated in the case studies.
See other articles related to: blackspace, brookland, howard university, howard university divinity school, howard university east campus
This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/howard-university-students-study-potential-futures-for-the-divinity-school-/17994.
Most Popular... This Week • Last 30 Days • Ever

The housing market is off to a slow start this year.... read »

In this article, UrbanTurf will explore some of the more common methods that parents ... read »

Canal House, a Tribute Portfolio hotel, will open near the C&O Canal later this month... read »

As we head into the weekend, UrbanTurf decided to take a closer look at how much home... read »

The new project will be located at a site that the developer purchased several years ... read »
- Slow Start: DC-Area Home Buyers, Sellers Cautious To Start 2025
- How Can Parents Transfer Real Estate to Their Children?
- Marriott Set To Open 105-Room Boutique Hotel in Georgetown This Month
- The 10-Year Trajectory Of DC-Area Home Prices In 4 Charts
- Jair Lynch Pitches 8-Story, 203-Unit Development For Arlington's Barcroft Neighborhood
DC Real Estate Guides
Short guides to navigating the DC-area real estate market
We've collected all our helpful guides for buying, selling and renting in and around Washington, DC in one place. Start browsing below!
First-Timer Primers
Intro guides for first-time home buyers
Unique Spaces
Awesome and unusual real estate from across the DC Metro