Law Enforcement Goes Underground in Judiciary Square

Judiciary Square will soon become a tourist mecca - once the new National Law Enforcement Museum is built on (or, rather, under) the 400 block of E Street, NW. Okay, it may not be the new go-to spot for tourists, but construction is expected to get underway nonetheless in the first quarter of 2009.

If all goes according to plan - in this case, the National Capital Framework Plan - the 90,000 square foot underground museum would extend under E Street and be accessible by two above-grade entry pavilions separated by a 100-foot wide shared plaza. Currently the site of a parking lot between District of Columbia Court Building C and United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Services, the plaza would make Judiciary Square a new draw for tourists - and give deadbeats something to do while waiting for their turn in the docket - and serve as a “natural extension” of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, already located in the square.

The placement of the museum next to the memorial that inspired it is no coincidence. The genesis of the project came in 2000, when Congress and President Bill Clinton enacted a measure calling for the establishment of such a museum. Fundraising endeavors were then passed off to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) in their roles as de facto developer, which got to work clearing the project with the seemingly endless list of local and federal authorities with overlapping jurisdictional interests.

Eight years and a million feet of red tape later, the museum will finally begin construction in 2009. Utilizing designs by Davis Buckley Architects and Planners, the museum will sport exhibition rooms, a gift shop, a theater and an underground atrium with skylights that peek into the plaza above. The mission of the museum will be to be lead visitors on a journey from “the first days of the night watch in the 1600’s” up to today’s high-tech era of CSI-styled detective work. Using exhibits designed by Christopher Chadbourne and Associates, the museum will highlight “historical artifacts, manuscripts, books, oral histories and other information that chronicle the development of America's civil society.” Or it might be like the aborted City Museum, a multi-dollar downtown museum that resulted in too few tourists too make it financially viable.

Then again, maybe not. Marcello Muzzatti, an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and President of the Fraternal Order of Police of Washington, DC (DC-FOP), testified before the City Council this week regarding the project and has no doubts about its potential. "[Ward 2 Councilman] Jack Evans is really in favor of it because he knows it's a whole marketing strategy for downtown," said Muzzatti. "You've got the Spy Museum, the [Koshland] Science Museum, the Newseum - all that area, in the past 10 years, has just exploded. It is going to bring more visitors into Washington, DC and our museum, you have to understand, is completely unique."


The project has finally been approved by all the agencies with a finger in the development pie (District of Columbia Office of Planning, National Parks Service, US Commission of Fine Arts, etc.). All that now remains is to begin spending the $80 or so million that has been donated by prominent benefactors such as Panasonic, DuPont and Motorola (in exchange for product placement within the museum, of course), and police organizations such as the DC-FOP and the MPD (who recently organized a 5K run that raised $10,000 for the project). Fundraising is still very much underway and the NCPC is currently working with the adjacent courts to develop a perimeter security plan that is satisfactory to all. Clark Construction will serve as the general contractor once the project goes to ground.

For those who care, the oldest of the Judiciary Square buildings is the Old Courthouse, designed by architect George Hadfield, and originally intended to be the District's city hall. The courthouse was built in stages from 1820 and 1849. Maybe when it’s complete, they can slap the museum on tour including the Navy Memorial, the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Building Museum and explore the unmined history of the rest of the Village People. Okay, maybe not, but think about it.

Florida Rock Gives a Little, Gets a Lot on the SE Waterfront

One of the proposed touchstones of the Southeast Waterfront redevelopment, Diamond Teague Park, took a step towards reality yesterday as Mayor Fenty accepted an $800,000 construction contribution from developer Florida Rock Properties - the group behind the Riverfront on the Anacostia development next door to the park’s proposed location. The $16 million, 39,000 square foot park was described by Fenty as a "green destination" that will route foot traffic to and from Nationals Stadium and become a tourist draw in and of itself.

"We are leveraging this investment to create great public spaces that open up the river to the entire community," said Fenty in a statement distributed at the event. In remarks made at the foot of Nationals Stadium overlooking the Anacostia, the mayor went on to express his hope that the river will one day be among "the cleanest in the country" (good luck).

This marks the second such contribution made towards the park. In April 2007, the JBG Companies made a $1.5 million donation to the Landscape Architecture Bureau-designed project. Construction is expected to begin next month.

Meanwhile, Florida Rock is confident that its project will meet its 2011 start date. In May, they received zoning approval for the former concrete plant site on Potomac Avenue SE - pending a donation to Diamond Teague Park. Their Riverfront on the Anacostia development will host 560,000 square feet of residential and hotel space, 29,000 of which will go towards affordable housing. Office and retail space are also planned for the venture, to the tune of 545,000 and 80,000 square feet, respectively. A large waterfront promenade will link the development to the neighboring park. The Riverfront project is being designed by Davis Buckley Architects and Planners.

Florida Rock Gets Zoning OK

Riverfront on the Anacostia received a long-awaited approval from the Zoning Commission yesterday for its proposed action for the 'Floria Rock' concrete plant lot, a major step forward for the lot that borders both the new National's Stadium and the Anacostia waterfront. The site is currently home to an active concrete production plant, which some planners apparently believe is not the optimal use of riverfront space so close to the ballpark. Florida Rock Properties has to wait until May 22nd before final action can be taken for the second stage of their P.U.D., construction could begin as early as 2009.

The Florida Rock lot, spanning 5.8 acres along the Anacostia River, has been under Zoning review since 1998, when the initial application was filed to revitalize the site and convert it to a mixed-use project. The final product looks far different from when it orginally started a decade ago, and now encompasses four buildings totalling 1.1 million s.f., which will together sit on a single, underground parking platform holding more than 1,000 spaces. There will be a total of 460,000 s.f. of office space, 80,000 s.f. of retail space, and 323,000 s.f. of residential space, apparently enough for over 300 units, with 25 units set aside for affordable housing. The 4th building will be a 325-bed hotel, all to sit behind a 719 ft. waterfront esplanade and riverwalk. FRP promises that the entire complex will be LEED Certified at some level.

According to Michael Stevens, Executive Director of Capitol Riverfront BID, one of FRP's requirements per the PUD is to build the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, a 20 mile series of boardwalk spanning both sides of the river, and running from the Arboretum to the southwest waterfront on the north side. Only the portion fronting the Navy yard has been completed, but even that is not yet open to the public. Stevens predicts that the first leg could be open as soon as this year. But don't get out your rollerblades yet, the Florida Rock section is at least a few years away, as is Forest City's crucial link, though their site should see construction begin this year.

A brief history of the development: The first plan for the site was preliminarily approved in 1998 for FRP to build a commercial project, and received final approval in 1999 for two buildings with a 55 ft. wide waterfront esplanade, but - perhaps fortuitously - the project never got off the ground. After a series of delays, the case was set to go before Zoning in September, 2004, but before the firm could have their day, the District announced the Nationals' Stadium which would be built right across the street. The Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, the governing body overseeing development over the new stadium-area, requested FRP delay their P.U.D. re-submission so the two entities could coordinate. Finally in August of 2006, a modified P.U.D. was submitted, with a hearing following in September.

The new project reviewed at the September meeting has essentially stayed the same. The modified P.U.D., appropriately dubbed 'Stage 2', was a rethinking of the now extremely valuable waterfront property. It included four buildings: two offices, a hotel and a residential component. But Zoning outlined some problems with the plan. For starters, one Commissioner stated that the project "lacked the right civic character and [a] greater presence of residential uses, preferably apartment units, would be more appropriate." The rest of the commission agreedthat the project lacked a 'sense of place'. Along with these comments came recommendations for some minor tweaks, including complaints about the East Office building inadequately 'recognizing the location and nature of the grand stair of the stadium'.

FRP went back to the drawing board, and came back in July of 2007 with some modifications; by September some project changes and the new name had been agreed upon, which developers described as a "holistic rethinking of the P.U.D. proposal previously considered, especially regarding the civic spaces." Three public spaces were added to the project, all having retail borders: the Pitch to the east, an enclosed galleria called Potomac Quay, and an outdoor water-animated plaza called Cascade Plaza. Along with this new civic character, FRP engaged in a 'physical tightening of the buildings', increasing the residential uses by more than 100,000 s.f., and shifting the footprints of the East Office building to link the site to the stadium and Anacostia river. Zoning's comments were less biting after September's hearing.

Since September's meeting, FRP and architect Davis Buckley Architects and Planners, made minor changes to the P.U.D. for their February 28th re-submission, and which Zoning approved yesterday. The changes included significant details regarding the outdoor public spaces. The old 'Pitch' will now be called Anacostia Place, and adorned with a Raymond Kaskey sculpture called "Anacostia," it will now be considered the central focus of the east end of the project. Zoning Commissioners want it to be a "high energy and visually-active space." Cascade Plaza will, alternatively be the central focus of the west end, serving as a front door and circular driveway for the residential, West Office and hotel buildings.