Urbanism in the D.C. area...

Okay, so on Tuesday afternoon, John Acken and I walked and "subwayed" an estimated 75+ miles throughout the D.C. area (the walking portion composed about 8 to 10 of the miles).

We were "In Search Of..." some of the most interesting urbanism that the D.C. area had to offer. Below is a photo essay. All photos were taken by me with a Nikon digital camera. You know, that real itty-bitty kind that you can put in your pocket. What a great camera!

Anyhow, as we get started, remember--as always--this blog is Car-Free on the way to CNU Philly...

Shall we begin...

Let's start at the Willard Hotel in the district...

Here's the outside seating for this wonderful urban-friendly hotel...

Then on to the Woodley Park area (near the National Zoo). Here you'll find some excellent (and often overlooked) urbanism. For example, this well-designed street...

...is serviced by this equally well-designed alley (hoops anyone?)

Wonderful townhomes (many of which were 24 ft. wide)

More great townhomes on the same street...

One of the best tree-canopied streets in all of the D.C. area. You'll find this one near the embassies between Woodley Park and DuPont Circle...

For the Woodley Park area, here's one of my favorite buildings...

The neighborhood cinema between Cleveland Park and Woodley Park in the District...

Here's the new arena in the District near 7th street. The interesting thing is that it has retail on the street level (a spa, I think). Proof that even an NBA/NHL arena can fit decently in the surrounding urbanism...

Great urbanism in the 7th street area of the District...

What was old is quickly becoming new again...a common sight throughout this part of the District...

Heading out of the District, we took the Metro to Clarendon. Here's the Clarendon parking garage with a street level Orvis. Quite cool.

In Clarendon, the bad surburbanism is being slowly retrofitted to better urbanism. Here's an example of one of the demarcation lines...

Then, on to Crystal City. This building is safe from just about anything the North Koreans could fire its way...

The interesting thing is that--just on the other city of this crystal building in crystal city--good urbanism is taking hold at the street level...

A live work in Old Town Alexandria from the 1920s next to one from the 1800s...very cool juxtapositioning...

And, finally, here's another little live work building from Old Town Alexandria. Note the two entrances...one for the commercial (1800 King Street) and one for the residential (1800 and 1/2 King Street).

Okay, that should do it for now. I'm blogging from here. Later today, I'll return to catalogue the Car-Free to CNU Philly leg from D.C. to the City of Brotherly Love...