Downtown (Washington, D.C.)
Downtown Historic District | |
Location | Roughly, 7th St. from Pennsylvania Avenue to Mt. Vernon Sq., and F St. between 11th and 7th Sts., NW, Washington, D.C. |
---|---|
Area | 50 acres (20 ha) |
Architect | Multiple |
Architectural style | Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals, Late Victorian |
NRHP reference No. | 84003901[1] |
Added to NRHP | September 22, 2001 |
Downtown is the
…most residents, workers, and visitors think of Downtown in a broader sense — including areas as far north as Dupont Circle, as far west as Foggy Bottom, and as far east as Capitol Hill. Only about half of the central city workforce is located within the city’s traditional Downtown. [2]
ِِِA small portion of this area is known as the Downtown Historic District and was listed on the NRHP in 2001.[1]
Geography and subdistricts
The Washington, D.C. government does not officially define neighborhoods or neighborhood boundaries,[3] so there are varying definitions of which areas constitute Downtown D.C. or the central business district of D.C.
In a 2008 map, the city's planning department showed as existing Downtown areas a broad swathe of everything between Georgetown on the west and Union Station on the east, with a northern boundary of and Massachusetts Avenue, and a southern boundary, roughly, of E Street, thus including the West End, Foggy Bottom, Golden Triangle, Traditional Downtown, Chinatown, Mount Vernon Square, and Downtown East.[4]
This diamond-shaped area stretches from Union Station in the east, south to the National Mall, northwest past the White House to Washington Circle in Foggy Bottom and northeast to DuPont Circle. It includes not only the Traditional Downtown and the Golden Triangle (which is the southern part of
Traditional Downtown
The Downtown BID boundaries roughly conform with the more traditional definitions of Downtown and those of the Downtown Urban Renewal Action Area[5] and are:[6]
- North-northeast: Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. and the Mount Vernon Triangle, Mount Vernon Square, Shaw, and Logan Circle neighborhoods,
- East: North Capitol Street, N.W. and Louisiana Avenue, N.W. (roughly Union Station), and the Capitol Hillneighborhood,
- South: east of 6th Street, N.W., by Constitution Avenue, N.W. and the National Mall, and west of 6th Street, N.W., by Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. and Federal Triangle
- West: 15th and 16th streets, N.W. (roughly, the White House grounds) – to the west of the White House is the Golden Triangle BID –
The Downtown BID thus encompasses
Golden Triangle
The Golden Triangle is an area defined by the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (BID). It is part of a larger Downtown area according to The Washington Post and DC Department of Planning. The Golden Triangle boundaries are, very roughly:[7]
- Northwest: New Hampshire Ave., N.W., and the DuPont Circleneighborhood,
- Northeast: Massachusetts Ave., N.W., and the DuPont Circleneighborhood,
- East: 16th Street, N.W.and the DowntownDC BID,
- Southwest: Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. and the Foggy Bottomneighborhood,
- West: 21st Street, N.W., and the Foggy Bottom and the West End neighborhoods.
Character, attractions, and services
By the 1990s and continuing into the 2010s, the core of the downtown district was almost exclusively commercial, and its primary commercial use was as office buildings.
However, even as late as 2010, most of the core area tended to be empty of pedestrian foot traffic at night, except for streets immediately around theaters and restaurants.
Notable downtown restaurants include Fogo de Chão, Loeb's NY Deli, Old Ebbitt Grill, and Wok 'n' Roll (located in the Mary E. Surratt Boarding House). Chinatown and Gallery Place are noted for being geographically small but also having a very large number of restaurants.[10]
Capital One Arena (originally MCI Center, later Verizon Center), a major basketball, hockey, and events venue, opened on Mount Vernon Square in 1997.[16] It proved to be a major attraction, drawing more than 20 million visitors in its first decade of operation.[16]
Cityscape
The majority of downtown Washington is composed of office buildings of varying architectural styles. The oldest tend to be of the
Height restriction
Unlike other large cities in the U.S., Washington's downtown has a low skyline. With the advent of the
As of 2006[update], the tallest building in downtown Washington—excluding the Washington Monument, U.S. Capitol, Washington National Cathedral, and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, all of which are outside of the downtown district—is the Old Post Office Pavilion, whose 315-foot (96 m) tall clock tower looms far above other nearby structures.[25] The tallest commercial building is One Franklin Square, at 210 feet (64 m).[26]
Parks and public squares
A number of public urban parks exist in the downtown area. Among the more prominent are: Farragut Square, Franklin Square, Judiciary Square, Lafayette Square (the portion of President's Park north of the White House), McPherson Square, Mount Vernon Square, the National World War I Memorial (formerly Pershing Park), Scott Circle, Thomas Circle, and Washington Circle.
The largest paved square in the city,
Governance
Two business improvement districts cover the downtown D.C. area. The Downtown DC Business Improvement District (Downtown DC BID) is bounded by 16th Street NW, Massachusetts Avenue NW, and Constitution Avenue NW, and is funded by a voluntary tax provided by 825 businesses in the area.[30] The Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (Golden Triangle BID) is bounded by 16th Street NW, Massachusetts Avenue NW, 21st Street NW, and Pennsylvania Avenue NW.[30] Both BIDs work to enhance the diversity of business in their respective jurisdictions as well as the quality of life by providing directions for tourists, improving street and sidewalk cleanliness, and advising police about potential or existing problems.
Various federal (
Education
Higher education
See also
References
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ a b The Comprehensive Plan for the National Capital: Chapter 16, Central Washington Area Element (PDF). District of Columbia Department of Planning. p. 16-1. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
- ^ "Neighborhood Clusters". opendata.dc.gov. Archived from the original on July 3, 2020. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
- ^ "Map p.2-3 in "Center City Action Agenda 2008", District of Columbia Department of Planning" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
- ^ "Map of Downtown Urban Renewal Action Area, National Capital Planning Commission site, accessed July 2, 2020". Archived from the original on October 18, 2020. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
- ^ "DowntownDC | BID-Map". Archived from the original on July 4, 2020. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
- ^ "Golden Triangle | The Heart of DC's Business District". Golden Triangle. Archived from the original on March 11, 2023. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
- ^ a b Bednar, p. 243.
- ^ Jabado, p. 57-60.
- ^ a b Jabado, p. 57.
- ^ Jabado, p. 60.
- ^ a b c d Davenport, Christian; du Lac, J. Freedom; Rosenwald, Michael S.; Schulte, Brigid; Shapira, Ian; Shin, Annys; and Sieff, Kevin. "Fights, Teens Among Challenges as D.C.'s Gallery Place Entertainment Area Matures." The Washington Post. August 13, 2010.
- ^ Jabado, p. 59.
- ^ a b O'Connell, Jonathan. "Mixed-Use Project Is Coda for Downtown D.C. Revival." The Washington Post. April 5, 2011.
- ^ Pristin, Terry. "Washington Makes Downtown a Destination Again." New York Times. September 1, 2004.
- ^ a b McGregor, p. 285.
- ^ "How Union Station was Saved in the 1980s". November 12, 2014. Archived from the original on January 26, 2023. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
- ^ "Washington Union Station's 2nd Century Plan | Amtrak Northeast Corridor". Archived from the original on January 26, 2023. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
- ^ "Mellon Indorses Building Program of Classic Style." The Washington Post. December 11, 1927.
- ^ Smith, et al., p. 85.
- ^ "12-Story Building for District." The Washington Post. November 12, 1960.
- ^ Hilzenrath, David S. "Building In Defiance of the Bust." The Washington Post. December 31, 1990; "Franklin Tower." Washington Times. January 17, 2000.
- ^ Denby, Grand Hotels: Reality and Illusion, 2004, p. 221–222.
- ^ "Grunwald, Michael. "D.C.'s Fear of Heights." The Washington Post. July 2, 2006". Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
- ^ Minetor and Minetor, p. 38.
- ^ "One Franklin Square." Emporis.com. 2011. Accessed 2011-09-02.
- ^ Asmelash, Leah (June 6, 2020). "Washington's New Black Lives Matter Street Mural Is Captured on Satellite". CNN. Archived from the original on July 7, 2022. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
- ^ Johnson, Martin (June 6, 2020). "Bowser Addresses Record Crowd at Black Lives Matter Plaza". The Hill. Archived from the original on April 16, 2022. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
- ^ Johnson, Ted (June 6, 2020). "DC Mayor Chides Donald Trump at Largest Protest Since Death of George Floyd: 'We Pushed the Army Away from Our City'". Deadline. Archived from the original on June 7, 2020. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
- ^ a b Ford, p. 69.
- ^ Dempsey and Forst, p. 45.
- ^ Manning, p. 113.
Bibliography
- Bednar, Michael J. L' Enfant's Legacy: Public Open Spaces in Washington, D.C. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.
- Dempsey, John S. and Forst, Linda S. An Introduction to Policing. Clifton Park, N.Y.: Delmar Cengage Learning, 2012.
- Dickey, Jeff. The Rough Guide to Washington, D.C. New York: Penguin, 2011.
- Ford, Elise Hartment. Frommer's Washington, D.C., from $80 a Day. Hoboken, N.J.: Frommer's, 2004.
- Gutheim, Frederick A. and Lee, Antointte J. Worthy of the Nation: Washington, D.C., From L'Enfant to the National Capital Planning Commission. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.
- Jabado, Salwa. Fodor's 2010 Washington, D.C. New York: Fodor's, 2010.
- Manning, Peter K. "The United States of America." In Plural Policing: A Comparative Perspective. Trevor Jones and Tim Newburn, eds. New York: Psychology Press, 2006.
- McGregor, James H. Washington From the Ground Up, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.
- Minetor, Randi and Minetor, Nic. Washington, D.C.: A Guided Tour Through History. Guilford, Conn.: GPP Travel, 2009.
- Smith, Bruce R.; Pistolesi, Andrea; and Kelly, Michael T. Art and History of Washington D.C. Florence, Italy: Bonechi, 2007.
External links
Media related to Downtown Washington, D.C. at Wikimedia Commons