The Third Century Mall organization is working on the expansion of the mall right now. I believe I have mentioned that once on my blog a long time ago. But I cannot find the permalink for that entry I mentioned. Maybe I did not. I don’t remember. It does not matter. I am mentioning it now. 
Do you think DC should expand the Mall?
My answer is YES!
The City is growing. More tourists come to visit every year. We need the Mall to be “visitor-friendly.” Right now, it is not exactly ‘visitor-friendly.” The mall also needs more space for future memorials and monuments. You know it was not the first time that DC has made changes on the Mall. For last two centuries, they had expanded the Mall. The first Mall was designed by Pierre L’Enfant in 1791, including Washington Monument. The Second Mall expansion was in 1901 by Senator James McMillan. Now you see why it is called Third Century Mall now. You can read more about both plans by two men here. There is another good link on two plans here, too.
I will have W. Kent Cooper take the place telling you in his words why it is not “visitor-friendly,” but first let me tell who W. Kent Cooper is. He is an architect and corridnator of the future Mall Plan. Now he tells you three reasons why the expansion is needed:
1. Public use is discouraged by security fences,
construction and National Park Service policies that treat the Mall as
a “theme park, to be experienced by tour bus.” Cooper called for
“policies that enhance public use rather than restrict it.”
2. The Mall is not “visitor-friendly.” There are
too many barriers and fences, too few places to sit, too few places to
eat and it is too hard to get from place to place. “The Mall needs more
visitor amenities and things to do in the public open space,” Cooper
said.
3. It’s full. Despite Congress’ declaring the Mall
“substantially completed,” dozens of memorial projects are waiting for
sites on the Mall. “The Mall should expand to meet this need, as it did
a century ago,” Cooper said.
I found the earliest idea of the mall expansion in 2005 by two suggestions by three different people (one of them is W. Kent Cooper):
But it keeps changing… I believe it has not confirmed the plan for the future mall… However, I found one that has been suggested recently (you will need to enlarge it by clicking the image):
The image above may be difficult to read, but if you want a larger image, you can open the link into Adobe Reader. It is a PDF link. If you don’t have Adobe Reader, you will need to download here. You can read more about the Third Century Mall here.
There is another thing I want to mention too. It is not related to the mall. We know by now that we will have a new baseball stadium! Once the baseball stadium, it will attract more PEOPLE. It should be completed in 2008. Right now, it is in construction. That is the reason why I think there should be the expansion of the Mall for residents/visitors. Like I said earlier that the city is growing, the city needs renovation and improvment. It will make the city look good. The Mall expansion, baseball stadium, and SW Waterfront renovation. That makes great connection.
Southwest Waterfront will over the 1960′s, Washington Post said. I think it is a good thing to move on and start renew with new changes in 2008 and beyond. PN Hoffman ands others are selected as developers for the future SW Waterfront. You can read what they plan to do in SW Waterfront. There is a short article in Washington Post mentioning PN Hoffman and their plan.
I have found a few artistic images of the stadium and the sorrounding area, ie: Federal Center, what it will possibly look like… it looks very nice. Maybe it is a bit crowd? I don’t know.
The Stadium area:
This was once shown on the newspaper not long ago…
Close up of above image:
This is Federal Center below:
This is Waterfront Mall below:
Wow! DC is really GROWING. I have been here for more than ten years… and it was slowing growing, but all sudden with new changes and new building over 5 years now. It is fast. I am looking forward to the new City next year. I will able to go to Southwest/Southeast. Fo the last ten years, I only went there to party at the Tracks then Velvet Nations. In daytime, it was basically nothing. It was busier in the night. However, I am very sad to see that those nightlife clubs had been swept away. But it is the best for the future. We still will always have the nightlife clubs somewhere else. With new changes in SE/SW, I wonder if we will have gay business or bars in that area. We already have gay bar(s) in Logan Circle, Dupont Circle, and one in NW (9th Street). I hope it will grow, and more options to go for a change.
Oh, I forgot to mention about the parking lots for the stadium, they found 9,000 parking spaces in the area… you can see the image here. But Washington Post just wrote about it, saying that the stadium garages prosopal is rejected. With a new stadium, we need more parking spaces… otherwise it will be crowded! The parking garage is a big key for our future stadium and the city. We don’t want to be stressed and stuck with no parking avaiable like Dupont Circle. In Dupont Circle, to find parking can take you up to two hours. It is no FUN! Oftentimes when I am in someone’s car and looking for parking, I am already sickened in my stomach by driving in the circles trying find a good parking! It got me really dizzy! I hope they will resolve the situation!
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