Now that the District has secured the Washington Wizards and Capitals for the long term, it’s thinking big about what comes next for 30 city blocks centered on Capital One Arena.
The draft vision for Gallery Place-Chinatown and its surrounding neighborhoods would deliver a radical overhaul to this 130-acre area, from “rebalancing” a key corridor to favor pedestrians and mixed-use activations to delivering some 16,000 new residents through office conversions and the redevelopment of underused federal office buildings. It comes at a crucial time for downtown Washington, which, despite its Monumental victory, continues to slog through the post-pandemic times.
The plan, unveiled Saturday during an event at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, was developed by the Gallery Place Chinatown Task Force and a host of consultants, including urbanist Richard Florida’s Creative Class Group, landscape architect Field Operations, architect Perkins Eastman, Push Studio, Gehl and SiteLab Urban Studio.
