L'Enfant Plaza
[6] But with federal agencies (which were the area's largest employers) restricted to the city center, a movement began after the war to redevelop Washington's older, more dilapidated, single-family-dwelling neighborhoods to provide high-density, modern housing for workers.
[17] Parks would border the esplanade east and west, with a goal of providing an unobstructed view of the Smithsonian Institution headquarters and the National Mall.
[16] In November 1952, the NCPC released a report largely supporting the Justement-Smith plan (although emphasizing the construction of low-rise townhouses rather than a "forest" of high-rise apartment buildings).
But in April 1955, the city's highway officials proposed a compromise; they agreed to eventually construct a major new bridge at Roaches Run[25] in exchange for NCPC approval of the existing preliminary plans offered by Zeckendorf.
[30] Southwest Washington, and especially Zeckendorf's proposed "cultural mall," became one of the top sites studied by the Auditorium Commission for its planned multi-use performance center.
[32] But D.C. Auditorium Commission officials now proposed two sites for the cultural center: L'Enfant Plaza and the Foggy Bottom neighborhood (an area of factories, breweries, gas works, and decrepit housing then also undergoing study for redevelopment).
[40] The Auditorium Commission also said it would be acceptable to move the cultural center slightly west in Foggy Bottom, so that it sat on the banks of the Potomac River rather than a few blocks inland.
[51][52] Zeckendorf had assigned I. M. Pei, at the time a staff architect in his firm of Webb & Knapp, to provide the overall design of the plaza, promenade, and park (including building siting).
[56] With Zeckendorf unable to make good on his construction pledges, the Redevelopment Land Agency forced him to withdraw and sell his interest in L'Enfant Plaza in November 1964.
[58] L'Enfant Plaza Corp. was a syndicate led by former United States Air Force Lieutenant General Elwood R. Quesada, and included Chase Manhattan Bank president David Rockefeller, D.C. businessman David A. Garrett, investment banker André Meyer, and the real estate investment firm of Gerry Brothers & Co.[58] Quesada said that if the Redevelopment Land Agency approved the sale, his company would begin immediate construction of the promenade, the parking garage beneath it, and the plaza using the Pei firm's 10-year-old plans.
[77] Pei had initially proposed a large pedestrian bridge lined by retail businesses and restaurants extending from the Promenade across the Overlook and Interstate 395 down to Maine Avenue SW and the waterfront.
"[81] On June 30, 1970, the District of Columbia City Council passed by unanimous vote a resolution petitioning the NPS to rename the Tenth Street Overlook as Banneker Park.
[3] In early 1996, Eastern Realty sold the South Building to VIB Management Fund, a Dutch real estate investment company, for $52 million.
[101] Although this concept garnered little attention at the time, it proved to be the genesis of a major plan that emerged around 2010 to radically change the nature and look of L'Enfant Plaza.
[101] The same year, VIB Management Fund sold the South Building to Heyman Properties (a local D.C. real estate investment company) for $55 million.
[106][109][110][111] The skyway idea, however, captured the interest of city planners and became part of a plan to build a baseball stadium at the southern end of L'Enfant Promenade.
[117] The League stated that the park, "Designed by renowned landscape architect Dan Kiley ... is culturally significant as the first public space in Washington named for an African American and is usually included in Black History tours".
[117] In February 2005, Benjamin Banneker Park was considered as a site for the Smithsonian Institution's new National Museum of African American History and Culture.
[123][124] That same year, the NCPC and District officials held joint hearings to identify needs and solicit ideas for L'Enfant Plaza and Promenade.
[109] But the hearings also gave new life to the Urban Land Institute's 1998 redevelopment ideas, and formally adopted them as a tentative design plan for L'Enfant Promenade.
[76][102] The $40 million effort, designed by the SmithGroup architectural firm, added large windows overlooking the grassy terrace of the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building to the east and moves most of the fast-food operations into the eastern portion of the mall.
[126] The Monumental Core Framework Plan proposed adding a new visitor's center and memorial at Banneker Park, an intermodal transportation hub beneath Banneker Park, demolition of the Forrestal Building and its annex, and construction of apartment and office buildings along L'Enfant Promenade with retail and dining space at the street level to accommodate tourists and residents alike.
[102] In November 2010, JBG released an artist's conception of its proposed plaza building, a two-tower, Gehry-like structure with wavy glass walls.
[129] In May 2012, a session at a national convention of the American Institute of Architects held in Washington examined the history of area's planning and the concepts and design strategies for the Southwest Ecodistrict.
[131] The session noted that the plans for the Ecodistrict were consistent with President Barack Obama's 2009 Executive Order 13514 entitled "Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance".
"[136] In April 2017, the NCPC approved plans for a staircase and ramp that would connect Benjamin Banneker Park with Washington's Southwest Waterfront and that would add lighting and trees to the area.
"[78] He believed it would be Washington, D.C.'s version of Rockefeller Center or the Place Ville-Marie, and predicted people would throng the plaza—which he felt would be the "city's major urban attraction.
"[78] Two years after L'Enfant Plaza opened, Washington Post architecture critic Eugene L. Meyer called it a "ghost town", and said it was "not living up to its advance billing.
[144] In 2010, an article in the Washington City Paper said L'Enfant Plaza "could easily contend for the honor of being modern urban design's grandest mistake.
"[109] It called the complex an "unmitigated urban planning disaster", and strongly criticized the Forrestal Building for isolating the promenade from the rest of the city.
