Some of the District’s “pocket parks” are getting the kind of attention that’s often reserved for their larger cousins.
The DowntownDC Business Improvement District and the DowntownDC Foundation are requesting proposals from landscape architecture and design firms to make those spaces more active and welcoming.
Pocket parks are small patches of green in D.C.’s traffic triangles, or small corner lots that don’t have much of anything going on.
The downtown initiative is an effort to reimagine seven small, and often underused, parks along New York Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest.
Firms are being asked to come up with concepts that would bring active recreation, new amenities and other uses to the mini parks — giving residents and visitors more reasons to spend time in these spaces.
The request splits the group of federally owned parks into four groups: The two parks near the Herald Square Building, where New York Avenue meets H Street Northwest; the triangle at New York Avenue and I Street Northwest; a pair of parks near the Carnegie Library dubbed “The Carnegie Twins;” and “The Bowties” — mirrored pocket park triangles at Massachusetts Avenue and I Street Northwest.
The largest pocket parks cover roughly 13,000 square feet. The smallest park is one tenth their size.
Organizers plan to select four firms, one for each park group, to design and develop the concepts. To be eligible, firms must be experienced landscape architectural design firms with comparable urban park experience in D.C. or a comparable city. They must also be licensed to do business in the District.
Submissions are due Oct. 23, and the four firms selected will be awarded the projects by Nov. 12. The DowntownDC BID and Foundation expect the public to have some say in the designs in March, and the final design concepts are due in April.
The initiative builds on the momentum of the Franklin Park renovation. The park at 13th and I Streets Northwest reopened in 2021 after nearly a decade of work, and with a $21 million price tag.
New offerings such as interactive water jets, a children’s garden and enhanced seating have turned it into a destination that now sees hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
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