City Beautiful + City Real

This year, the competition involved a redevelopment scheme for 16-blocks encompassing the South Capitol and M Street intersection and the Navy Yard Metrorail station. The area includes a neighborhood of low-density subsidized and market-rate residential units, light industrial facilities, and small commercial buildings, all cut off from each other by the busy South Capitol Street corridor and cut off from surrounding neighborhoods by the elevated Southeast Freeway... The team’s design, entitled 'City Beautiful + City Real,' would extend the neoclassical 'City Beautiful' of Washington’s monumental core into the South Capitol study area, where the core collides with the 'City Real.' This collision is marked by the intersection of South Capitol Street and M Street, which becomes a fulcrum around which a transit-oriented, mixed-use neighborhood would develop. The team's first phase focused on the creation of a vibrant 15-acre core containing loft residential units and live/work spaces; neighborhood-oriented retail, bar and restaurant, and community arts space; a grocery store; and public space along a section off the South Capitol Street corridor."