• Breaking down scale to fit context

    The requirements challenged the architect to design a large 8-story building that is harmonious with much smaller scale neighbors.
    Avec on H Street in Washington DC is a transit-oriented development with 420 units (32 affordable) and 54,000 square feet of retail on three acres, completed in 2020. It is located in the urban core of the city. This 8-story building is a redevelopment of a former strip mall and parking lot on the...Read more

  • Disentangling the Loops

    CNU’s biennial Freeways Without Futures report is out now! Article 5 of a Public Square series covers the transformation of downtown loops, which cordon off central business districts.
    Downtown loop highways are a particularly egregious example of misplaced freeway logic. These overbuilt roads cordon off cities’ central business districts in an effort to ensure every square foot of downtown is accessible via highway. The Downtown Loop in Kansas City, Missouri takes this type of...Read more

  • Former psychiatric hospital now affordable housing

    The redevelopment of the former St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington DC combines historic preservation with affordable housing and opens a large campus to the public realm.
    The redevelopment of the historic 180-acre campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital, a mental health facility that closed in the 1980s, gives a long-awaited boost to the Congress Heights neighborhood in southeast Washington DC. I wrote about this plan in 2017, when it was an appealing vision. Now it’s an...Read more

  • When is a highway cap appropriate?

    In a series of articles, Public Square is exploring common threads from CNU's recent Freeways Without Futures 2021. This article explores recent proposals for highway caps.
    In our previous coverage of Freeways Without Futures 2021 , we looked at three ways to tame major highways . One possible solution is to cover the highway. Highway caps, also known as lids, can be a contentious topic among urbanists. Critics argue that highway caps are little more than greenwashing...Read more