The High Price of Keeping DC’s Skyline Low

This is Washington, DC, capital of the United States. If you look carefully, this city is unique in lacking something that most other American cities have. Can you tell what it is?

Keep Urbanity rolling:

References:

[PetrichorWeaves]

I'm not sure I agree about the job sprawl being worse than housing sprawl comment. I live in Berlin and office workers are spread quite well around the city. I really like it as it means instead of everyone commuting in one way in the morning and out the other, people are more spread out and just head in any direction. While it's still busier, it avoids the jams and big crowds on public transit/roads/bike lanes. It helps that the transit is also quite decentered and runs all over the city, instead of being a radial design.

[swedneck]

it sounds to me like DC just needs a radial connection, something that has been extremely successful in stockholm and helsinki with their light rail lines that do precisely this.

[denislomakin]

DC resident here - thanks for covering the District.

The Height Act is fairly well liked by us in the region. While it may not produce a skyscraper-filled skyline from afar, it preserves the iconic view of the monuments from many different parts of the city.

Many people also associate it with a less imposing feeling on the street level from the surrounding buildings, although in my opinion this is already not the case downtown where all the buildings are block wide and 13 stories.

Repealing it would potentially open up the construction of more commercial real estate in the downtown core, but a lot of that is already struggling to find tenants. So I’m not sure repealing the Height Act would be nearly as impactful on the health of the city as reducing car access and combating nimbyism. It’s not a priority for me in my advocacy.

Love your channel!

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

The stations of the DC Metro are a sight to behold! The flashing lights, the hexagonal floor tiles, the waffles...chef's kiss design. Many Metro stations were designed by Chicago architect Harry Weese, and they not only have aspects of Brutalist design, but also reflect the influence of Washington's neoclassical architecture in their overarching coffered ceiling vaults! Weese worked with lighting designer Bill Lam from Cambridge, MA on the indirect lighting used throughout the system. Weese and his employees visited European cities like Lisbon, Moscow, Milan, Paris, Rome, and Stockholm, hoping to take the best elements of each and combine them into the perfect system for DC. In Lisbon, they noted the design of the ticket booth and the attendant’s uniform, as well as the minimal interruption of the subway stairs on a typical street. In Moscow, they took note of the palatial glories of the underground stations, from cut-glass lanterns to marble paneling. In Milan, they took note of its Modernist design.

Weese created a proposal with dozens of views for station interiors with a simple semiellipse, with a flat bottom and curved top. For cut-and-cover stations, the vault was proposed to have straight, vertical walls supporting a curved ceiling. In Weese’s first presentations to the US Commission of Fine Arts during the spring and summer of 1967, he attempted to assimilate his European travels into something Washingtonian, stations are shallow when possible, entered through cuts in the sidewalk, as in Lisbon, with minimal interruptions between street and platform. But the CFA wanted it to feel monumental, no exposed rock walls like Stockholm, and something like the inside of a thermos bottle. So he changed his thought. He felt the necessities of each station would produce the variety, that "You don't try to make them different for different's sake. We think it's very appropriate for Washington. After all". To Weese, the sweeping, swooping, floating lines of Metro's plazas, stations and mezzanines are the system's best feature. Once they were chosen, he said, the long, long escalators and the indirect, somewhat dim lighting in stations fell into step as a result.

[ThisisDevaan]

DC is similar to a lot of European cities where the city center isn’t mainly for office zoning, but rather designated districts outside the downtown. I think why DC can’t compare as well is simply the American-style suburbs expected to use transit like a European city.

[ekszentrik]

The low skyline really does give DC a bit of a "stately" feeling, which is more than fitting.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

It's worth mentioning when talking about DC that DC used to be bigger! Alexandria and Arlington were once part of DC. DC's shape is the way it is because it used to be a full diamond ceded by the states of Maryland and Virginia in accordance with the Residence Act adopted in July 1790. However, the Virginian side returned to Virginia in 1847. This is because of several factors. Alexandria went into economic decline because of neglect by Congress as members from other parts of Virginia fought to prohibit funding for Alexandria projects in favor of projects in their home districts. Legislation required that no Federal buildings be built on the formerly Virginia side of the District (part of the compromise that created the Capitol), so it gained nothing in government workers or buildings. But the main factor was legislation was in the works to outlaw slave trading within DC, and slave auctions were some of Alexandria’s biggest businesses.

DC feels European because it was designed by Parisian Pierre Charles L'Enfant, and was based on European models translated to American ideals. The entire city was built around the idea that every citizen was equally important, with a street grid system and wide diagonal avenues named after states radiating from Capitol Hill, then known as Jenkins Hill! These wide boulevards allowed for easy transportation across town and offered views of important buildings and common squares from great distances. The National Mall was designed as open to all corners, which was the complete opposite of the gardens of Versailles in his native France where only royalty and nobility accessed. L'Enfant placed Congress on a high point with a commanding view of the Potomac rather than a leader's palace on a hill like in Europe. A century after L'Enfant conceived an elegant capital, Washington was still far from complete. In 1901, the Senate formed the McMillan Commission, a team of architects and planners who updated the capital based largely on L'Enfant's original framework. They planned an extensive park system, and the Mall was cleared and straightened. Reclaimed land dredged from the river expanded the park to the west and south, making room for the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials. Some of L'Enfant's plans, including a huge waterfall cascading down Capitol Hill, were still never realized.

[jonathanstensberg]

Soft disagree on this one. Fundamentally, polycentrism is good for a major urbanized area.

It can be argued that Washington’s polycentrism is artificial, that Washington’s primary center is too weak, and that Tyson’s a prime example of the wrong way to do polycentrism. However, these are not good arguments against polycentrism itself. While polycentrism presents challenges for some systems, so too does the hyperconcentration of economic activity in a small area. It is precisely the challenges of a hyperconcentrated central business district that naturally induces polycentrism in the first place.

[itspranavk]

Great video! One of the biggest aspects I felt was missing in the video was the political dynamic between DC, MD, and VA. Unlike most major cities, the DC metro area spans MD and VA (two states with representation in Congress -- each with their own tax structures, incentives, etc. for companies) and DC (a "state" with no representation where a congressman from Idaho can meddle with local legislation). For eg, the tech boom in NOVA (Northern Virginia) is primarily driven by low tax rates (compared to DC), subsidies from VA gov, and access to a large talent pool of highly educated workers in the DMV

[dudeonthasopha]

Living in DC I already know raising the height limit would be very unlikely. Upzoning is slowly happening, and it's the reason Noma has transformed into a new population and office center but needs to be greatly increased.

[Victor-khrh]

DC is denser than the surrounding area, despite having a height limit. Rather than building high rises in the district I’d rather have Fairfax and Montgomery county build to DCs density.

[Matty]

crazy how we figured how ho make cities work centuries ago and then america just went 'but what if they were worse?'

[matthewconstantine]

I'm mostly on the same page with you about DC (I live in the area & used to commute to downtown for years. My wife still does). You touched on it near the end, but not only are there large swaths of the city that don't even come close to reaching the height limits, there's a TON of potential for infill development. You don't have to get too far north in the city before you see neighborhoods that look like stereotypical, single family home with a lawn, North American suburbs. Not to say it would never be a good idea to remove the height limits, but there's so, so, so much that could be done before you'd have to. Especially considering that you've got Rosslyn, Crystal City, Silver Spring, etc. right next door. I mean, I think it's faster to get from Metro Center to Rosslyn than it is to get to U Street. It takes me an hour to get from my front door to my old job near Chinatown & I'm 20 miles out of town. I know folks who live within the city limits who have similar length commutes, because they're not served by the Metro & have winding, multi-bus trips. For convenience of travel, I'd rather live in Ballston than up by the Arboretum, for example.
AND, there's tons of empty office & retail in the core of the city, because of terrible policy from a grossly inept mayor & council, federal meddling, and stupidly high rents. I get a chuckle out of folks blaming recent uptick blips in crime and COVID on the Downtown area emptying out, when the process started almost a decade ago. When I worked on F St, my options for lunch used to get smaller about once a month as places reached the end of their lease, couldn't afford to re-up it, and nothing moved in to replace them. There are storefronts within a couple blocks of Metro Center that have been vacant for a decade. Even the place I worked at, which employed a lot of people, left the area about five years ago, when its lease was up. Much of the building it was in remains empty. There is an absolutely mind-blowing amount of unused space in the core of DC.

[travelsofmunch]

This is a weak thesis. Treating Rossyln-Ballston, Silver Spring and Bethesda like they are some far flung suburbs in simply inaccurate. For the day to day DC resident Rossyln IS part of the urban fabric of the DMV same as DC. Skyscrapers can be a Quality of Life issue there is a reason why Europe has dedicated CBD's outside of their downtowns, like DC. I will take a dense, lively european style city center over a tall, dead, non-dense American city center every day of the week.

[davisyewell]

DC’s downtown is extremely strong and is one of the largest in the US by employment. The height limit has promoted uniform density and positive changes to the zoning code in the city. If the downtown were any “stronger” the transit system would be over capacity, during peak commuting days the metro was at standing room only in peak directions even with a train every 3 minutes during rush hour. The polycentrism is positive to the region and even the “suburbs” are extremely dense and not all the sprawling American suburbs people are used to. Lumping in Baltimore too you’ll understand why shoulder stations like new Carrollton are seeing tons of development and transit expansion. DC’s downtown can be thought to extend to places like rosslyn as it’s less than 10 minutes by train from metro center.

[solofemmenoire]

I hope DC never repeals the height act. It’s my most favorite thing about the city that it never became a measuring contest for skyscraper obsessed architects

[louiszhang]

As a DC/nova resident who frequently uses public transit here, I think raising the DC skyline is impossible. People are way too attached to it, and to be honest, I am too. I think 80% of the problems mentioned could just be fixed by making TOD less car-friendly. Aka, not the problem with TOD, but with Tysons. There is a HUGE gap in walkability and transit share between somewhere like Tysons and Ballston. The remaining 20% could be solved by building out ring lines.

[scpatlnow]

Actually, all the development in VA is the main catalyst that's turning VA blue. The population in Northern VA is well educated and leans to the left.
Seriously though, I had a friend with a condo in Arlington and there was a metro stop literally beneath his building. Even if it is one line (there it was 2), that's still well connected. Also, for anyone who doesn't live in DC, it is one of the most confusing places in the US to drive, and it is very easy to get lost making just one wrong turn. Everything is centered on The Capital bldg so a lot of the streets have the same names with "NE", "SW" after them yet they are on opposite sides of the city

[tomgeraci]

I’d have to disagree on some of this. While Tysons is a good example of *bad* job sprawl, Arlington’s job centers are about as close to downtown DC as Cambridge and Boston, or Midtown NYC and Brooklyn or Hoboken are. Arlington has some of the strongest examples of TOD anywhere, and as long as more high rises are constructed there, it’ll absorb up the demand for highway-side business along the Beltway.

[nich]

Completely disagree! The missing middle is more than enough, especially if pursued in areas with very low density like capitol hill. No need for giant skyscrapers as we can attain even higher density than NYC if we model DC after cities like Paris.