During the Civil War, the U.S. government built 68 forts around Washington to protect the capital from Confederate invasion. Although little-known today, remains from these forts can be found throughout the city. Here’s a short history of the “fort circle,” from the National Park Service: When the Civil War began, only one fortification existed for […]
Seeing More
If you’re like me, you’ve probably seen images like the one above before and chalked it up to a neat photoshop effect. However, a lot more than that separates Trey Ratcliff’s take on the Capitol Columns at the National Arboretum from my attempts. The image was produced through a process called High Dynamic Range Imaging. […]
‘Leapfrog’ Sprawl In West Virginia
Not many Washington, D.C. area residents are familiar with Berkeley County, West Virginia. Over a 100 mile drive from downtown Washington, the county isn’t even served by a highway that reaches the city — residents must take I-81 north to I-70, or south to I-66, to get to the District. However, they may be surprised […]
The British ‘ePlanning’ Invasion
There were a few items that came out of the American Planning Association Conference in Philadelphia I attended I wanted to note here. Not the least of which was the art of Isaiah Zagar I stumbled across in an alley, and the recently saved Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens. I couldn’t helped but be reminded of Detroit’s […]
Dreaming the Capital City
Should Washington reconsider its building height limit? Brookings scholar Christopher Leinberger sparked some heated debate after he suggested the city should raise the limit in February at an event at the Building Museum, and readers will remember I offered a few thoughts then. In general, I think the limit should be raised, albeit in a […]
Shaw Loves Blogs
The neighborhood blog directory outside.in has announced Shaw has the second most active neighborhood blog community in the country. Although DCist had a short item I thought it was worth noting the news. They claim their rankings are based on “total number of posts, total number of local bloggers, number of comments and Technorati ranking […]
Fixing Mount Vernon Square
This post is adapted from a class project I completed recently In the film Enemy of the State, two characters decide to rendezvous in Washington, D.C.’s Mount Vernon Square. However, instead of using Washington’s square, the filmmakers opted to shoot the scene in a square of the same name located in Baltimore. While I don’t […]