Washington’s largest hotel is officially under construction. The mammoth trophy hotel adjacent to the convention center will have almost 1, 200 guest rooms and is set to open in 2014.
The new hotel, at 9th and Massachusetts Avenue.
It’s hard to get a sense of the details based on the renderings available, but a few things stand out. The facade appears to be broken up into a number of sections, helping mitigate the building’s great mass. Also, preservation of the historic structure on the corner is a welcome respite from the otherwise endless walls of glass. On the other hand, there are going to be huge chunks of boring pretty much all over. For the most part, it looks like exactly what you’d expect a convention center hotel to look like: Sleek, corporate, and generic.
Do you think about the Metro while showering? Do you compose transit advocacy blog posts in your head while washing your hair? If so, home decor boutique RCKNDY, at 1515 U Street NW, has got the product for you. They’re selling this stylish Metrorail map shower curtain for $29.00.
Of course you think about the Metro while showering. Who doesn’t? Also, it’s taking all my self control not to make a Foggy Bottom joke.
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Over the weekend DDOT converted the 15th Street cycle track from one-way south to a two-way facility. Here is a photo:
The separation between the bikeway and parked cars is a little wider and more clear with the new paint scheme, so that’s an improvement. Presumably the temporary orange bollards in the photo will be replaced with the same narrow yellow bollards previously installed. Unfortunately, all those leaves along the curb discourage cyclists from staying in their lane; hopefully the city will pick them up ASAP.
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Arlington’s commercial corridors are so urban and bustling these days that it’s hard to imagine them as suburban strip highways, but until construction of the Metrorail brought a wave of transit oriented development, suburban strips is exactly what they were.
Consider these examples, side by side with contemporary aerials taken by M.V. Jantzen, Arlington County planner Andrew D’huyvetter, and myself. Click through for larger versions of each image.
The election is over and from an urbanism/transportation perspective, the results are mixed.
Locally the news is mostly good. O’Malley beat Ehrlich, ensuring the Purple and Baltimore Red light rail lines will continue to move forward. Tommy Wells and Chris Zimmerman, two of the loudest local voices for smart growth and multi-modalism, both won reelection to their city/county council positions. Arlington and Fairfax Counties passed bonds for transportation spending worth over $150 million dollars.
Nationally things were more bleak. The Republican takeover of the House will make passing a progressive transportation reauthorization bill much more difficult. Ohio and Wisconsin elected new anti-rail governors likely to squash the nascent intercity rail programs in those states. And perhaps the biggest loss: Minnesota Congressman Jim Oberstar – one of the two leading voices for progressive transportation in Congress – lost his seat.
Overall, transportation fared well enough considering the tide of the election as a whole. Oberstar is a monumental loss, but the reauthorization bill probably wasn’t going to live up to our expectations anyway, and if Ohio and Wisconsin cut their rail projects the federal money allocated to them will be redistributed to other rail projects elsewhere; it’s conceivable some of it could land in the Northeast or DC-Richmond corridors, to our local benefit.
The election was unfortunate, but it could have been a lot worse.
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In my mind, rallies in Washington fall in to one of four categories when it comes to how they affect life in the city: 1) Rallies nobody notices; 2) rallies which draw enough people to notice, but not to dramatically affect the city; 3) rallies which cause the city to be noticeably more crowded than usual; 4) the Obama inauguration.
Jon Stewart’s rally on Saturday was a clear 3. Regardless of your personal politics it affected life in the city considerably, much more so than the recent One Nation or Glenn Beck rallies, which I would characterize as levels 1 and 2, respectively.
Getting around town Saturday was an adventure. Metrorail broke its all time Saturday ridership record, which had stood for 19 years. Half of downtown streets were closed. Bikes were generally a good way to move, although I didn’t bother trying bikeshare. Buses were surprisingly reasonable as well, provided you could find your bus amidst all the closed streets. Restaurant lines were long. I’m sure the museums were crowded.
It was no inauguration, but it was certainly an experience.
