Page 26 - Winter_2018

ArchDC Winter 2018.qxp_Winter 2018 11/27/18 9:33 AM Page 24

The proposed bridge crossing the railroad tracks,
George Washington Parkway, and airport access road.

Urban Divine
Urban Divine

Large-Scale Planning Projects

Promise Big Impacts by Steven K. Dickens, AIA, LEED AP

All images © SOM | ATCHAIN
Merit Award in Urban Design
& Master Planning
CC2DCA—Crystal City to
Ronald Reagan Washington
National Airport Pedestrian
Connection Feasibility Study
Arlington, VA

Skidmore, Owings
& Merrill LLP
Co-Architects: KGP Design Studio
Lead Consultant: Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc.
Tunnel Consultant: COWI

Note: The article was written before Amazon’s announcement
that it had chosen Crystal City as one of two sites for its
new secondary headquarters.
Visitors to Washington arriving at National Airport
(DCA) are greeted, as their jet lands, by the dramatic
backdrop of Crystal City, a 17-story wall of buildings
rising above the green vale of the George Washington
Parkway. It may not be the especially alluring—it looks A plaza within Crystal City.

24 URBAN DIVINE