4th Annual Case Studies in Urban Development (CSUD) a Hit
The last week in March, the Cornell Department of City and Regional Planning hosted the fourth annual Case Studies in Urban Development. This year’s case study under analysis was the NOMA district, an acronym for North of Massachusetts Avenue in Washington DC, and was entitled “Point/Line/Plane: Transit-Oriented Development in the Nation’s Capital.”
The Case Study told the ongoing story of NoMa – a developing mixed-use neighborhood north of the U.S. Capitol and Union Station in Washington, DC. During the early 1990’s the 35-block area was not cohesive enough to warrant the term “district”. Unsafe, wrought with crime, vacant lots and buildings serving as dumping grounds for litter and inhabited by homeless and drug addicts, the neighborhood was a nomad’s land a few miles from the nation’s seat of government. The growth trends eastward in Washington DC and its lucrative office market informed players such as developer James Curtis that this neighborhood would eventually give way to market forces and become a natural expansion zone for the thriving DC downtown markets, but a catalyst was needed. The addition of a new metro station and tireless community organization were the mechanisms that spawned the creation of NoMa. The new metro station (named New York Avenue) along the heavily travelled Red Line, just one position north of Union Station, brought development and residents into the neighborhood that would previously would not have ventured into the district. During the boom years of 2007-2008, private developers invested over $1 billion in the neighborhood covered by the NoMa BID, and investors have plans to develop more than 20 million square feet of office, residential, hotel, and retail space over the next ten years.
The conference was held over two days and could be divided into three segments. Friday’s speakers offered appropriate background information from a Washington DC planner’s point of view (Harriet Tregonning) – contextual, pragmatic, and methodical. Friday evening, the key note address was delivered by Michael Sorkin, Distinguished Professor of Architecture and Director of the Graduate Program in Urban Design at the City College of New York. Mr. Sorkin provided an inspirational view as the urban visionary, informing and inspiring foremost that citizens take control of their environment by imagining change and conceiving the form it will undertake, and then collectively realizing the future. Saturday’s speakers were divided into morning and afternoon sessions which recounted the story of NoMa through the disappointments, obstacles, and frustrations of a 17-year timeline during which admirable urban achievements have been attained partially due to the transformative power of transit. Speakers at the conference include: Elizabeth Price, President of the NoMa Business Improvement District (BID); James Curtis, Managing Partner, Bristol Group; Harriet Tregoning, Director of the D.C. Office of Planning; Rustom Cowasjee (Cornell ’80), Managing Director of Design and Construction for Tishman Speyer’s Washington, D.C. Office; Mark Sexton, Principal, Krueck & Sexton Architects, and artist David Batchelor.
Case Studies in Urban Development (CSUD) is a series of annual conferences that intends to provide students, faculty, and area practitioners with the opportunity to learn from international examples of successful building projects that exemplify interdisciplinary approaches to successful urban development and design. Previous CSUD conferences featured Seattle, London, and San Francisco. The series is funded by Cornell alumnus Matt Witte ‘79.
For more information about the NoMa BID, including an interactive development map, see the BID Web site at http://www.nomabid.org.
Explore the Case Studies in Urban Development Series at http://realestate.cornell.edu/index.php/events/event_detail/2009_case_studies_in_urban_development_conference/