• By Stephen Staudigl
• March 22, 2022

Pennsylvania Avenue Vision Public Comment Period Begins

A new vision for Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the U.S. Capitol was released for public review and input. The vision, and three potential concepts to help achieve it, imagine the avenue transformed into America’s stage and a street that prioritizes people over cars with inviting and inclusive public spaces. Expanding the Avenue’s role as a nationally significant venue and a better place for people will attract people downtown, generate tourism, and help contribute to the local economy and the District’s recovery from the impacts of the pandemic.

People can provide their opinions online at https://www.ncpc.gov/initiatives/pennave/vision/. The comment period runs through July 13, 2022.

The vision proposes to capitalize 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. It could offer a new home for events previously hosted on the National Mall, increasing its profile as a location for events, as a stage for democracy, and a site for celebrations.

Reimagined as a sustainable public space corridor, there are multiple opportunities to improve parks, plazas, and gathering spaces to be more welcoming to residents, workers, and visitors. Three concepts (Urban Capital, Linear Green, Civic Stage) 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 prioritize people, bicyclists, and transit, rather than a corridor that primarily serves cars.

These three concepts explore opportunities and tradeoffs in achieving this vision by offering options for the corridor and three primary public spaces along the Avenue to improve the use and flexibility of these spaces for events and enhanced daily use. The intent is to explore ideas that resonate across the various concepts, as they are not stand-alone options and can be mixed and matched.

Federal and District of Columbia agencies that are stewards of Pennsylvania Avenue collaborated on these proposals. Their efforts started with the recognition that the Avenue is in transition, affected by changing conditions and larger trends that are reshaping and transforming public space, office space, retail, and transportation. The pandemic accelerated these changes, and downtown Washington faces challenges. The Avenue also presents new opportunities, highlighted by a group of experts, to focus on its use as a venue. This is a critical moment in time, and the work on the Avenue can and should be a key element in how Washington, DC recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The plan that guides the Avenue today was transformative in its time, but it is almost 50 years old. Public comments will be used to update the plan with a new vision and provide the roadmap to guide the Avenue’s use and development. It will also inform short-term actions to initiate pilot projects to test ideas and in the mid-term improve the Avenue’s infrastructure.

More information about the Pennsylvania Avenue Initiative is available at https://www.ncpc.gov/initiatives/pennave/.