A New Vision for Pennsylvania Avenue

Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the U.S. Capitol is an iconic location in America’s capital. The proposed vision reimagines it transformed into America's stage and a street that prioritizes people over cars with inviting and inclusive public spaces. This vision capitalizes on the Avenue’s one-of-a-kind location, setting, scale, and character to make it a signature outdoor venue that could attract and support major national and international events, contributing to the local economy.
The vision, and three potential concepts for how to achieve it, are available for your review below. The comment period closed on July 29, 2022..

Three Concepts

Urban Capital
Linear Green
Civic Stage

The three proposed concepts explore different ways to “right-size” and realign the roadway to increase the amount of usable and flexible public space and provide multiple transportation options to devote more space for people, bicyclists, and transit, and less space for cars. Each concept also accommodates car travel differently.

  • Urban Capital is a complete street with spacious sidewalks, central travel and dedicated transit lanes, and a two-way cycle track on the south side of the street.
  • Linear Green is a curbless car-free urban linear park with a dedicated central transit way flanked by dedicated cycle tracks.
  • Civic Stage is a gracious central pedestrian promenade flanked by a dedicated cycle track and shared travel lanes for cars and transit.

Urban Rooms for Venues

The three concepts envision the Avenue’s “urban rooms” and corridor as a sequence of high quality public spaces designed and programmed to encourage a range of plaza and park-related activities with retail services and amenities. Each of the three room locations (Western End, Market Square, Eastern End) offers exciting opportunities to serve as a temporary venue for spectacular events. The corridor connecting the urban rooms can transform the entire Avenue into a mile-long event space! Each of the three concepts includes proposals for improving these urban rooms and using them as venues.

Overview of Concepts

For a deeper dive into the three concepts, review a Story Map that provides a visual narrative and details. You can also view a video of a presentation made at the February 16, 2022 Special Commission Meeting.

Vision and Concepts Public Presentations

NCPC staff presented the vision and concepts at three public meetings. Presentations and content were the same at all three. The meetings took place on April 13, April 26, and May 21. Click on the Watch Video button below to view a recording of the April 13 meeting.

Public Comment Summary Presentation

Staff updated the Commission on the public comments received and next steps at the November 3, 2022 meeting. The completed planning studies and stakeholder input and feedback received during the public comment period will inform our future work.

Share Your Thoughts

Thank you for your feedback and comments. The official public comment period ended on July 29, 2022. However, NCPC will continue to accept general comments and questions via email at info@ncpc.gov.

What's Next

Work to prepare a utility survey will start shortly and will inform concept and design development moving forward. NCPC is also working to advance toward next steps, including procurement for an interdisciplinary consultant team to prepare a new Plan for Pennsylvania Avenue.

Stay Engaged

We encourage you to follow future phases of work and continue to stay engaged. Click the Subscribe button below to sign up for updates.



To ask a question about the Pennsylvania Avenue Vision send an email to info@ncpc.gov.