Page 90 - Fall 2019

Rendering of possible improvements to one of the city’s alleys.

Urban Amenities
Urban Amenities

Diverse Projects Recognized

for Catalytic Potential by Deane Madsen, Assoc. AIA

This year’s Chapter Awards jury recognized four projects for their Chapter Design Award
contributions to the broader cityscape. One, the Channing E. Phillips in Urban Design/Master Planning
Homes, is covered in the article on multi-family projects. The other
three, covered below, offer community solutions at distinct scales, Washington Alley Project
from the infrastructural framework that runs through the whole Washington, DC
District of Columbia, to a small town’s main thoroughfare, to a single
building within an existing neighborhood. In DC’s Northwest EL Studio
quadrant, the Cleveland Park Library serves as a central meeting
place within a historic district. The town of Front Royal, Virginia,
EL Studio’s Washington Alley Project is a rare, self-initiated research
sees new potential in its once-downtrodden downtown thanks to
project. Headquartered within an alley building itself, the firm has
the revitalization of two buildings along its Main Street corridor.
embarked upon a mission to investigate and improve this network
And throughout the District, the alleyways that form an informal
of sub-street infrastructure. What began as a series of studios at
network carved within the overarching L’Enfant Plan are the
the Catholic University of America, where principals Elizabeth
subject of some creative interventions that envision life beyond
Emerson, AIA, and Mark Lawrence, AIA, teach, has evolved into
trash collection.
88 URBAN AMENITIES