The Plan To Throw Shade On Cleveland Park Looks For Approval

• July 21st

by UrbanTurf Staff

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The plan to add a shade structure along the Cleveland Park commercial corridor has received support from a key entity. 

DC's Historic Preservation Office is recommending approval — with a few caveats — to the pergola shade structure proposed for the Cleveland Park promenade along Connecticut Avenue, which UrbanTurf first covered last month.

The concept, designed by Megan Downey Studio, grew out of an effort to salvage wood from two heritage tulip poplars along the corridor that were slated for removal. Downey brought the idea to District Bridges, the nonprofit behind the Cleveland Park Main Street, and the project has since taken shape as a grassroots effort, with fundraising happening alongside the preservation review. In addition to shade, the design incorporates a play structure, benches, and planters woven into the pergola's metal cabling.

In a report ahead of the DC Historic Preservation Review Board's meeting this week, the Historic Preservation Office (HPO) is recommending that the board support the structure's overall scale and design concept. The report noted that the promenade, which underwent a hardscaping overhaul in 2024, still lacks mature trees and "can be uncomfortably hot on summer days" — a gap the four-segment pergola, stretching roughly 300 feet with intermediate gaps between segments, is designed to help fill.

That said, HPO isn't giving the design a full pass just yet. Staff flagged that the structure currently reads as disconnected from the historic storefronts behind it and recommended the applicant better align the support columns with storefront and window bays, adjust the roofline to more closely match the storefront cornices, and reconsider where the gaps between segments fall. HPO pointed to a 2022-approved pergola across the street as a model for how a shade structure can be scaled down and aligned with a historic building's fenestration.

The board will consider the project on Thursday.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_plan_to_throw_shade_on_cleveland_park_looks_for_approval/24834.