District Continues Efforts to Enhance Areas Within Downtown

The District of Columbia continues its efforts to enhance the downtown areas, with the most recent planning efforts coming from the Gallery Place/Chinatown Task Force (Task Force). This Task Force issued its initial vision for the future of the downtown area on May 4, 2024, which included eight main ideas for their focus.

The "8 Big Ideas" include:

8th Street as a Gallery Walk: With these changes, the Task Force will study options for moving pedestrians to the center of the right-of-way, while maintaining street access along the edges of the right-of-way. The goal is to create civic space on this street and to create Gallery Square as a focal point, with public space renovations around the Reynolds Center and active uses framing the public realm.

Arena as a Great Neighbor: This idea seeks to bring activation from inside the existing arena to the outside of the arena. The goal is to create a strong focus on F Street, similar to Half Street SE at the Washington Nationals' stadium.

7th Street Spine: The Task Force concluded that 7th Street is an important corridor as it connects the area surrounding the Shaw neighborhood all the way to the Wharf. The goals are to bring tourists between these areas, with a focus on the connection from the National Mall up through the Gallery Place neighborhood.

Botanical Streets: This idea recommends the integration of urban and cultural environments with trees and plantings. The goal is to find ways to introduce greenery in more expansive ways as well as in small, intimate ways.

Judiciary Gardens: Given Judiciary Square's size and lack of activity, the Task Force would like to reimagine it as Judiciary Gardens – with it being a courthouse within a park-like setting.

Chinatown – Old and New: The Task Force recognizes that Chinatown has strong symbols but believes that the District needs to reintroduce activity and the celebration of culture, which can be achieved through festivals, markets and food opportunities.

Growing Residential Community: The Task Force seeks to build a neighborhood, not just housing. In the different areas that have been studied, office to residential conversions and selective infill development could lead to the creation of 7,500 residential housing units. However, there are also large spaces that could lead to long-term redevelopment, including the current sites of the FBI, U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) and U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). 

Vacant to Vibrant: The final idea is to take vacant spaces and transform them into vibrant ones. This goal can be achieved through introducing markets and block parties within existing plazas and open spaces, as well as through activating empty spaces with pop-up programs and retail uses.

These "8 big ideas" are the initial strategies to achieve the vision statement of the Task Force, which is to establish a "mixed-use cultural district fostering inclusive community in the heart of the nation's capital, where people from across the region, the country, and the world come together to collaborate, celebrate, and share their stories." (See Gallery Place/Chinatown Task Force, May 4, 2024, Presentation, page 87.)

The Task Force encourages you to provide your ideas, which are being accepted through its website.