Exploring the PEPCO Site

How can a boulevard conversion can catalyze development - and not just any development, but equitable development? While this project is mainly about the highway conversion itself, it is useful to imagine how a lot of these ideas would ideally play out at a smaller scale through the example of one specific site.

To do this, we explored the PEPCO site located in the northern portion of our boulevard where Benning Road and DC-295 intersect. Within this small area plan, we wanted to achieve certain outcomes that align with the connectivity, ecology, and development frameworks we presented on earlier. These include: planning for a multi-modal future of mobility, creating new river connections and increasing accessibility to amenities, and increasing the corridor’s housing supply through a mixed-income neighborhood model.

This is by no means a final plan, rather, a suggestive imagination of equitable development that would be subject to change and evolution if taken through a rigorous process of community engagement and feedback. Our deep dives include materials for community members to run their own planning workshop at this site, similar to how we conducted ours.

Why this site?

Interaction with boulevard

The site interfaces directly with the proposed boulevard, and provides an opportunity to explore how the boulevard could affect future development.

Environmental reparations

Hosting non-renewable energy production and a trash-processing facility without proper controls of limiting pollution, the site has a history of environmental injustice and is a brownfield, providing the opportunity to explore ways to transform a polluted site into a community asset.

Access to Anacostia river

Sitting along the waterfront, PEPCO is a good location to explore how highway removal and equitable development can improve access to the river and river trail.

Over 3 million sq-ft of land

The site represents nearly 3.5 million square feet of development potential, which is an unprecedented amount of land and gives a lot of room for imagining possibilities.

Rethink industrial uses

The existence of crucial energy infrastructure on the site provided an interesting and timely development constraint. Energy providers, including

PEPCO, are already undergoing significant changes in their operations, and this site provides the opportunity to explore those changes in the short term.

Adjacent residential and commercial land use

The site is adjacent to varying residential and commercial typologies, meaning the site gives us the opportunity to think through what it would look like to develop with existing neighborhood characters in mind.