Anacostia: Le Nouveau Rive Gauche?

A view of Quai de la Course on Île de La Cité in Paris

On yesterday’s Kojo Namdi Show Nir Buras, head of Buras Architecture, spoke about his proposal for a new Anacostia River. Mr Buras, who is a Classical Architect, suggested the narrowing of the river and creating of European style quays on both banks of the river. His proposal also included the creation of a Naval Museum and a shopping district and marina development.

I have to say, that this is something I could really get behind. I’ve always felt that the waterfront on the Potomac was wasted. The river is too wide to be a focus for development, not to mention that there is the hurdle of getting two different municipal planning bodies to agree. In addition, currently the Rock Creek Parkway extension does a tremendous job of cutting the steps at the end of the mall off from the river. The South bank of the Anacostia, on the other hand, is ripe for development as a new urban node, with its easy access to downtown through the Green Line and the proposed streetcar lines in Southeast. This part of the city has maybe suffered the worst from mid-century urban renewal, with the destruction of the historic waterfront and creation of interstate 295 this strip of land has been effectively cut off from both near Southeast and the rest of Anacostia for decades. With some decent planning and effort I can see Anacostia becoming the next Columbia Heights.

The major issue I can see with Mr Buras’s Porposal, besides drumming up enough political will and public support for something this extreme, would be creating a method to mitigate possible flooding from constricting the river. By changing the topography and constricting the river, this plan faces many of the same challenges that currently plague the Mall and West Potomac Park. In addition, I can see there being a lot of backlash if the current green buffer is lost in place of more urban developed.

[Thanks to And Now, Anacostia for the heads up about this show.]

Author: spencer

I am an architect in the Washington DC metro area.

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