MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE
Mt Vernon Square to Union Station
3rd Street to New Jersey Avenue NW

Sanborn, 1904	Today	Cross Section

Edward Bennett Williams Library of Georgetown University Law School	Looking South onto I-395

This area has evolved from a dense collection of residential structures to entire-block major projects. In the 1892 Boist map, a consistent rowhouse development form characterizes the streetfront. The area maintained its residential character until the early 1970s, when the single event of removing an entire block of housing to introduce a freeway drastically altered the form and character of this area. Today the Interstate 395 underpass serves as a visual disruption and virtual barrier because it crea tes a large open space that fails to contribute to the area’s identity. To the east of the underpass, the presence of the Union Labor Life Building and the Edward Bennett Williams Library of Georgetown University Law School (which was built in 1989 by Hartman-Cox Architects to replace a 1971 structure) generates a busier street and conveys a sense of safety. However, despite the buildings’ ability to break the monotony of the corridor, they offer no real amenity to the public realm. To the west, the street contains a preponderance of boarded-up, neglected buildings and parking lots and is largely devoid of pedestrian traffic. The swath of land that bridges over the freeway contains a barren park that is frequented by vagrants and strewn w ith trash. Future development must be sensitive to the street’s context and focus its physical and symbolic orientation toward the street frontage.