Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Anacostia River Park Unveiled Today


The District's $8 million Diamond Teague Park project officially opened today after breaking ground a little over a year ago. At 10:45 am today (11:15ish Fenty Standard Time), the Mayor and his entourage of Fenty for re-election volunteers gathered together with Earth Conservation Corps volunteers and Florence and Ivory Teague - parents of the slain teenager for whom the park is named - for a grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Located at First and Potomac SE on the Anacostia River, Diamond Teague Park's first steps toward fruition began when Mayor Anthony Williams facilitated jurisdictional control of the land and the defunct Capitol Pumphouse from the Federal government and into the hands of the District in 2006.

Before his murder in October 2003, 19-year old Diamond Teague served as a member of the Earth Conservation Corps, a non-profit organization committed to engaging youth in "activities that restore and clean the Anacostia River and surrounding communities." As part of its agreements with the District, Coastal Properties, a commercial dock operator, has agreed to hire students from the Corps to help maintain the park.

The park's two piers include a 250-foot commercial pier for the water taxi service that became available last summer and a 200-foot pier for docking kayaks and canoes. If funding comes through without a hitch, a concrete and steel, pyramid-shaped memorial designed by Byron Peck of City Arts could be showing up at the site by late October of this year. The Landscape Architecture Bureau designed the project.

Although the park is largely funded by the District, Maryland-based developer Florida Rock shelled out $800,000 toward the project as part of the community benefits agreed to in the PUD for it's neighboring RiverFront on the Anacostia development.

Washington, DC Real Estate Development News

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great design.
What firm is responsible for this?

da poo! said...

freudian slip? "anTHONGy" :o)

Shaun on Apr 27, 2010, 5:04:00 PM said...

Oop! Sorry, poo, we fixed it!

John on Apr 28, 2010, 8:06:00 AM said...

Are you certain that's the right location? (referring to the map linked to this story). The last time I went by that area (~several weeks ago) the heavy industrial area between the ballpark and the river seemed to still be in full operation. I thought this park extended upstream from the ECC building?

Shaun on Apr 29, 2010, 11:47:00 AM said...

Please note, we have added the name of the design team, the Landscape Architecture Bureau, and cleaned up the map so it's clearer. Thanks for the comments, keep 'em coming!

Jonathan on Apr 29, 2010, 1:15:00 PM said...

Thanks for including the name of the landscape architecture firm (Landscape Architecture Bureau/LAB) that designed Diamond Teague Park. Although I say so myself (I'm the Principal-in-Charge of the project for LAB) it is a terrific park--we're very proud of it.

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