However, since I don’t have an actual citation for that specific number, I’ve changed it to “a small percentage.” Lastly, there seems to be a level of disagreement about how much the federal government via the General Services Administration (GSA) offered the land to the city for and their requirements. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account.

[6][7], In 1941, citing security concerns, the entire site was permanently closed and fenced off due to fear of sabotage. Which historic preservationists “worship” McMillian Reservoir Park? I’m noting them here for reasons of transparency. Their current plan includes apartments, a grocery store, and other retail. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. In 1850, Congress determined that the Potomac River should be the city's principal source of water. The three VMP partners, Trammel Crow, EYA, and Jair Lynch, have proposed construction of rather massive office and residential buildings, many targeted for the Washington Hospital Center, and demolition of 19 of the 20 underground water purification cells, leaving a rather small park. In the summer, the cells would be the perfect place for farmers’ stalls and even perhaps stores. The McMillan Fountain is a public artwork by American artist Herbert Adams located on the Reservoir grounds. The plan has been sharply criticized by the surrounding community for leaving too little park space (a recent community survey revealed that 85% of nearby residents want any development to include at least 50% of the land as open, contiguous park space), destroying panoramic views, and demolishing too many of the underground caverns rather than creatively re-using them. Informed RVers have rated 8 campgrounds near Boulder, Utah. A Congressionally funded engineering study was conducted to determine the most available mode of supplying water to the city. The US Army Corps of Engineers operated the facility from 1905 until 1986 when the Corps built a new water filtration system on the McMillan Reservoir grounds and sold the Sand Filtration Site to the District Government. In fact, McMillian Reservoir Park was a key element in the McMillian Plan, the design that led to the National Mall and is practically worshiped by historic preservationists. The park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. as a public park and memorial to the late Senator James McMillan whose McMillan Park Plan of 1901-1902 was instrumental in the establishment of the park at McMillan Reservoir. History and Significance The Corps then offered the old Sand Filtration Site for sale to the District, for one dollar if the District chose to keep the land as a park or for market value ($9.3 million) if the District chose to develop the land. Designed during the height of the City Beautiful movement, the architects intended the space to be multi-functional and open to the public. ( Log Out /  Development of the site will achieve a balance for the neighborhood providing services homes and jobs. The city originally planned to develop it into mixed commercial development but a variety of factors have kept them from doing so for the last 20 years. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Light filtered in from the cracks between the manhole covers and the surface. $70 million for 25 acres!

All the District's water needs were thought to have been quenched by the water aqueduct system, but by 1902 it became apparent that it was no longer adequate. From the high ground, we walked down some overgrown stairs, down a ramp, and into the cells below. The Sand Filtration Site is part of the larger historic McMillan Park Reservoir, a significant contributing element in the McMillan Plan for Washington, DC. Perhaps many people can’t picture alternatives because they have never encountered something beyond the average. The DC Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) has recently cited many examples of how the proposed VMP plan is unnecessarily destructive of many historical and landscape elements of this extraordinary site. Lovely piece. Like a natural cave, the cells are about 65 degrees all year round, providing their own temperature control.
Lush vegetation once covered almost the entire area above the cells, giving a passersby the impression of an ordinary park with some interesting architecture.

Unfortunately, it now just looks like an untidy, abandoned field that’s sporadically mowed. Bloomingdale Civic Association Picnic in McMillan Park – August 1988. We walked on top of sand that had once been used to filter water, now mostly packed down. [13], The D.C. Court of Appeals cleared the $720 million project to commence in July 2019. We spent most of the tour above ground, on top of the cells, on what the guide described as “the world’s largest green roof.” While various warehouses and corporations have tried to claim that title, this site probably has the right to it, as a “green roof” just means an area growing plants on top of a human-built structure. Continue to visit this website for updated information, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and get involved!

The park grounds, which originally surrounded the reservoir on both sides of First Street, NW, were named after Senator McMillan as a memorial to his crucial work on the McMillan Plan by President Taft after McMillan’s untimely death in 1902. In addition to playing ball, having picnics, and going for strolls, people would even come sleep in the park during the summer! If you have a citation that has a specific percentage of continuous green space, I would love to see it. The current plan does not “completely” destroy the towers and cells. In the early years of operation the water was routed through the system's two earlier-built reservoirs, Dalecarlia and Georgetown, which were designed to settle sediment out of the water.
Regular water service from the Potomac River source through t… In 2006, the District Government awarded Vision McMillan Partners (VMP) a contract to propose a plan to develop the site while the District remained the developer. The site is concrete now. Others want to expose the end of the underground stream to daylight and install an urban beach, which I think would be really cool. [9], The 25 acre (100,000 m²) McMillan Reservoir, located between Michigan Avenue, North Capitol Street, and First Street in Northwest Washington, D.C., was designated a DC Historic Landmark in 1991. The current plan claims to have 50 percent green space, but much of it is in tree boxes and teeny squares. Awesome post! The McMillan Park Reservoir Sand Filtration Site is a 25-acre Olmsted park bounded by North Capitol Street, NW; Michigan Avenue, NW; First Street, NW and Channing Street, NW. What we can do is have a streetcar that will travel right in front of the site that will connect Metro. Now that’s what I would call a solution, but you failed to even explore that in your article. As the park is the highest point in the area, it was the coolest place around in those pre-air conditioned times.

It is bound on the north by Michigan Avenue, on the east by North Capitol Street, on the south by Channing Street and on the west by McMillan Drive; which runs along the edge of the reservoir, to which it was formerly attached. I Am a “Communal Enthusiast,” Thank You Very Much, McMillan Reservoir Park – An Unpolished Jewel, still used in some places around the world, the case quoted on the Advisory Council for Historic Preservation’s website, National Parks Service actually has a pretty comprehensive history, Ride Report: Along the River and Through the Woods « Will Bike for Change (or Pie! Well again your tour guide was complete wrong! It’s is not absorbing water now, so building on it will not create more storm water at all. In 2007, Vision McMillan Partners, composed of Trammell Crow Company, Jair Lynch Development Partners, and EYA, was selected as the winning bid.

I’d known about McMillan Park for several years now, heard the stories from D.C. residents. Friends of McMillan Park and Save McMillan Action Coalition, community organizations, generated local opposition and activism, leading to court action, delaying and preventing the project from beginning. As the case quoted on the Advisory Council for Historic Preservation’s website is vague, I just took the phrase “at the demand of the federal government” out. [2]:101–105 The growth of the city population led to further expansions at the Dalecarlia site in the 1950s. I’ve noted your disagreement and revised the post accordingly. Currently, the land is still marked for development and surprisingly close to having it happen. © Friends of McMillan Park 2012 • 16 Franklin Street NE, Washington, DC, 20002 •, Send a Letter to City Council: Protect McMillan Park, D.C. Preservation League list of most endangered historic places, McMillan Park Historic Preservation Report by EHT Traceries, 28 July 2010, McMillan Park Nomination for DCPL 2012 Most Endangered Places – 16 Aug 2012. The project will create a large public park, community center with water recreation features, neighborhood-serving retail, housing for all income levels, and state-of-the-art healthcare facilities. Lydecker predicted the tunnel would cost about $53,000 to build.[4]. A tour is led about once a year, but I had always been too busy to go. The Army Corps of Engineers used the facility until 1986 when it completed a new water filtration facility beside the reservoir grounds. Afraid of the Axis powers poisoning the water supply of the Nation’s capital, the federal government closed off the park during WWII and then never bothered to reopen it. Ways, Harry C. (1996), "The Washington Aqueduct: 1852-1992," Baltimore, MD: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District.

[10][11] In 2000, and again in 2005, it was placed on the "List of Most Endangered Properties.". (Initially the system provided water to the city from the Little Falls Branch in Maryland, until the aqueduct construction was completed.) While the area was in desperate need of development twenty years ago, there are now a huge number of nearby multi-use developments in the process of being constructed. McMillan Park realized that ideal by combining the new below-ground sand filtration system with the above-ground park and landscape created by Olmsted. Thanks!

And it was completely silent except our voices. You want the most expensive Farm land in the World at this site.

But very few of them are in the middle of a busy city and yet closed to the public. There are places in the world that are unlike anywhere else – some of them are national parks, others historical monuments. I’d suggest the you list the space as green, public and contiguous park space to actually represent the truth! City designers of the time believed fresh air and spending time outside was not only physically healthy, but would inspire civic virtue and moral righteousness.

Washington D.C.’s McMillan Reservoir Park is one of these rare places. I’m sure the community certainly minded having this huge green space no longer open, but they didn’t exactly have neighborhood input panels back then. The Commission included not only Senators and Congressman, but also included many prominent people who had become associated with the City Beautiful Movement, including planner/architect Daniel Burnham, architect Charles McKim, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., and sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens.


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