Page 22 - ArchDC_Fall 2020

The Architecture
The Architecture

of Infrastructure
of Infrastructure

Buildings in DC and South Florida

Support Modern Rail Systems

by G. Martin Moeller, Jr., Assoc. AIA

District Department of Transportation,
Car Barn Training Center.
Photo © Halkin Mason Photography
Chapter Design Award in Architecture political wrangling and technical obstacles, the District
Department of Transportation (DDOT) inaugurated a new,
District Department of modern streetcar line along the H Street, NE, corridor.
The built legacy of DC’s old streetcar system includes
Transportation, Car Barn several historic car barns—facilities where the streetcars were
Training Center stored, cleaned, and repaired—that still dot the city. These
Washington, DC burly masonry structures, including prominent buildings in
Georgetown, Capitol Hill, and the Navy Yard area, have since
ZGF Architects LLP been adapted to new uses. To design a state-of-the-art car barn

Interior Designers/Landscape Architects: ZGF Architects LLP and training center for its new streetcar line, DDOT hired ZGF
Structural Engineers: A+F Engineers Architects LLP.
MEP/FP Engineers: SETTY The site of the new facility, on Benning Road, NE, presented
Civil Engineers: Wiles Mensch Corporation; JMT a surprising array of design challenges. It lies at the southern
Industrial Engineers: LTK Engineering edge of the Young, Browne, Phelps, and Spingarn Educational
Project Managers: HDR Campus Historic District, a federally designated enclave of mid-
Construction Managers: Amec Foster Wheeler 20th-century schools built for African American students during
General Contractors: M.C. Dean; Lane Construction; the era of segregation. The new car barn’s design was subject to
McCullough Construction review by multiple local and federal agencies, including DC’s
Historic Preservation Review Board and the U.S. Commission of
When DC’s century-old streetcar system shut down for good in Fine Arts. The building also serves as a demonstration project
January 1962, most Washingtonians assumed that the once- for the Sustainable DC Plan, which sets high standards for
popular but then-antiquated mode of transit would never health- and environment-conscious design.
return. The resurgence of American cities over the past few Drawing inspiration from the neoclassical and Colonial
decades, however, led transportation planners to reconsider Revival architecture of the adjacent school buildings, ZGF clad
the viability of streetcars. In February 2016, having overcome the new car barn in red brick, accented by light-colored columns
20 THE ARCHITECTURE OF INFRASTRUCTURE