The Best Plan to Deck Over a Street in DC

• December 22nd 2020

by Nena Perry-Brown

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This year, the Covid-19 pandemic upended our lives and had drastic impacts on the real estate industry, and most importantly, people's personal housing situations. With that in mind, UrbanTurf is wrapping up 2020 with an abbreviated Year-in-Review series.

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North Capitol Street is one of DC's highways, used as such by drivers even in areas where homes line each side of the thoroughfare.

Community organizations, with the support of residents, have been leading a grassroots effort for over a decade to deck over portions of the North Capitol underpasses between V Street and Seaton Place to create an at-grade park/promenade. That effort inched forward in 2020. 

As designed by ZGF Architects, the promenade would have a variety of activated areas, including a "streetcar café" and incorporated streetcar tracks near the intersection with Rhode Island Avenue, lawn and seating areas, an amphitheater and a children's splash park near T Street, and timelines highlighting the histories of the abutting neighborhoods. 

Perhaps most importantly, however, the deckover park would restore some connectivity between the neighborhoods on either side of North Capitol, which include Bloomingdale, Eckington, Stronghold, Truxton Circle, and Edgewood.

The project likely requires approval from the Federal Highway Administration, but in the meantime, its organizers are trying to drum up support and funding from the city to build momentum through the approval process. This year was less productive than the organizers hoped, although Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie requested, for the second consecutive year, a $40 million budget allotment for the deckover. Amid austerity measures brought on by the pandemic, the request was left out for the 2021 fiscal year.

However, both the Mayor and members of the DC Council have expressed interest in the project and Bloomingdale Village Square hopes to meet with them to present the concept in-person and in greater detail once it is safe to do so. 

All renderings courtesy of ZGF Architects.

Other 2020 Year in Review Articles:

• The Best Listing of 2020 (For the Mere Mortal)
• The Little Change in 2020 That Could Have a Big Impact on DC Alleys
• The Wildest Attempt in 2020 to Give Some of Virginia Back to DC
• Bezos, Scherzer, Howard: The Year in Celebrity Real Estate in DC
• The Best Listing of 2020 (For the Well-Paid Lobbyist) 
• The Bill Proposed in 2020 That Could Have the Biggest Impact on Housing in the DC Region

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the-best-plan-to-deck-over-a-street-in-dc/17668.