The long-awaited 14th and U redevelopment, sometimes called the “Utopia project, ” is finally moving forward. A press release earlier this week from developer JBG Companies provides the details:

• New 9 story building consisting of 267 apartments and 20, 000 square feet of retail fronting on 14th Street.
• Renovation of existing historic buildings along U Street, to include 10, 000 square feet of retail and 10, 000 square feet of office.
• Construction to begin in 2011, with delivery in late 2013.
• Most of the U Street retail tenants will probably remain, while most of the 14th Street tenants will not. Exceptions are McDonald’s (which will remain unchanged) and ChiDogO’s (which will occupy a space in the new building).

14th Street facade.

This graphic illustrates my understanding of how the development will work. The red line indicates project boundaries, the yellow overlay indicates buildings that will be demolished to make way for the new addition, and the teal overlay indicates historic structures that will remain.

Additional details from Washington Business Journal.

Images by Gazette newspapers (top) and flickr user Pinoy Photographer (bottom).

The Bethesda Circulator is a free bus shuttle serving downtown Bethesda. For years the service has operated using a fleet of old-timey fake trolleys, but as of this week the kitsch is out. The Circulator has officially taken the trolleys off the street and replaced them with new buses that look more like a modern tram, and bear a strong resemblance to DC Ciculator buses.

The idea behind the old fake trolleys was that more people would use the route if its vehicles were visibly different from a normal bus. That’s generally true. Unfortunately, fake trolleys have a number of negative effects. Their wood panel seats are uncomfortable, their special parts are difficult and expensive to maintain, and worst of all, they send the message that transit is a theme park ride rather than real modern transportation.

The new buses, on the other hand, accomplish the goal of looking special without any of those negative side effects. They’re comfortable, easy to use, and they look like they belong on the street rather than in Disney World. They’re an improvement in every way.

Now if we could just get Alexandria to ditch theirs too.

Placed by some jokester on the London Underground.

It’s Friday and it’s too hot to think. So here’s a neat picture of the Spanish Steps looking ethereal amidst the glow of streetlights.

If you don’t know, the steps are at 22nd and S, NW on a block too steep for a regular street. They’re among the city’s most beautiful and under-appreciated spots.

DDOT and Amtrak have spent the last year trying to work out an agreement to let the H Street streetcar run under the Union Station railyards. The negotiations are in large part responsible for the latest delay in the streetcar project, which pushed its anticipated opening from 2012 to 2013.

And now, it appears, Amtrak’s final answer is a “no”. DDOT cannot go under the Hopscotch Bridge, cannot put a railyard near Union Station, and cannot connect directly to the future north Metro entrance.

And so, on to Plan B. DDOT’s new plan will locate the streetcar railyard on the east end of the line somewhere near the Anacostia River, and will send the streetcar over the Hopscotch Bridge to a loop on the upper deck of the Union Station parking garage.

The new Union Station stop will be less attractive to riders transferring to or from Metro, but will make transfers to Circulator buses and Amtrak, MARC, and VRE easier. It’s a good enough solution, given the context.

One question I have is how this new layout will work when (if) DDOT eventually extends the streetcar towards K Street and downtown. Is the loop just a temporary solution?

Plan B. Image from DDOT.

Walkscore has released its annual ranking of America’s most walkable cities. As expected, Washington ranks near the top. But is it a valid measure?

Walkscore’s methodology is essentially to ignore urban design and rank neighborhoods and cities based purely upon the proximity of amenities such as shops and restaurants. If a given address is within walking distance to lots of amenities then it scores well, regardless of how easy or difficult it may be for an actual pedestrian to walk between them.

For the largest cities in the country, this methodology seems to produce results that make sense. The half-dozen or so cities that enjoy the best urbanist reputations around the US are all near the top of walkscore’s list. But at different levels of detail the results break down. Take at look at the walkscore ranking for Virginia cities. Bailey’s Crossroads #1? Tysons Corner #3? Fair Oaks more walkable than Richmond or Norfolk? I don’t think so. Maryland’s rankings make a little bit more sense, but still there are glaring irregularities that don’t pass the sniff test. North Bethesda more walkable than Bethesda? Parkville more walkable than Frederick? Sorry, no.

Walkscore can be a useful measure if you’re interested in the proximity or distribution of amenities, but it really isn’t about walkability.

I’ve been reading The Silmarillion, the epic back story of the peoples and places made famous by the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Since I was outed as a first class nerd on Twitter yesterday, I may as well run with it.

The famous movie trilogy from a few years ago only showed a small portion of the many cities that are described in detail in Tolkein’s various works. Enjoy these fun images of some of them, collected from around the web:

Minas Tirith. Image from ‘Return of the King’.	Pelargir. Image from LOTR wikia.
Gondolin. Image by Ted Nasmith.	Tirion. Image by Ted Nasmith.
Alqualondë. Image by Ted Nasmith.	Vinyamar. Image by Ted Nasmith.

The National Park Service doesn’t understand cities, or how parks in cities function. They operate parks in DC the same way they operate Yellowstone, with a focus on rural-style limited access and conservancy rather than urban-style openness.

This is a big problem for DC, since NPS owns the National Mall, Rock Creek Park, most of the circles and squares, and a ton of other properties in the city, almost all of which are mismanaged given their urban context. Corner plazas that should be open all the time close at dusk. Statues that were built for people to sit on are fenced off. The Arboretum thinks too many people visit. Rock Creek Park is under programmed compared to other large city parks like Central Park or Golden Gate Park. The only mode of transportation access allowed on the National Mall is expensive tourist trams. Park Police stomp out any expressions of freedom at the monument for the country’s most libertarian president. And, most recently, we’re told that NPS thinks bikes would “destroy the nature” of the National Mall.

Since the NPS (and in the case of the Arboretum, the Dept. of Agriculture) is a federal agency, neither the city nor its residents can do much of anything to argue in favor of the position that city parks should be available for use by city people. But there is one person who might be in a position to make a difference: DC’s non-voting Congressional representative Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Would it be possible for Eleanor to pressure NPS to treat its urban properties more appropriately? Would legislation be appropriate? Would a Congress that can’t agree on DC voting rights be amenable to loosening inappropriate regulations applied to DC parks?

As a District resident I want Ms. Norton to continue working on full representation for DC as much as anyone, but in the mean time I also wonder if this is the sort of shorter-term problem that we should be asking for her help to solve.

Earlier this week I posted an example of traditional ornament on a new building to dispel the myth that such a thing can’t be done. Another myth about ornament is that it must be stylistically traditional and is inherently incompatible with modern design. That’s also a myth, so let’s go ahead and dispel it as well.

Pictured below is the recently renovated building at 1348 H Street, NE. Technically speaking it isn’t new construction, but it’s been more or less completely rebuilt. Take a look at the new aesthetic details on the bay windows.

Those blue and purple bars serve no purpose except to add detail and interest to the facade. They are undeniably contemporary, but they are also undeniably ornamental. And they’re wonderful! They add visual interest and make the building appear to be of much higher quality than it would if the facade were bare.

It is just not true that ornament and contemporary architecture are mutually exclusive.

Closing a short segment of the Metrorail system over the weekend in order to perform maintenance is a really good idea. It allows WMATA to focus and get necessary work done as quickly as possible, without weeks-long single-tracking headaches or major effects on other rail lines. It can be inconvenient for riders hoping to travel through a closed segment, who are forced to use a bus shuttle, but it is overall the least disruptive way for Metro to perform major maintenance.

But one major problem with the practice has always been that WMATA has never published a schedule for such closures more than a few weeks in advance. Anyone planning an event months in advance, such as a convention or wedding, has simply had to hope that Metro wouldn’t close a key segment on their weekend. The approach made sense from a railroad operations standpoint but ignored the needs of customers.

It’s great news then that WMATA is now releasing its full year-long schedule for planned closures. Thank you, Metro, for this tangible improvement to customer service.

The schedule is republished below.