View across Lawn toward Potomac Place 1960s

The Capitol Park residential community was the first and largest development built as part of the 1950s and 60s urban renewal efforts in Southwest Washington, one of the nation's largest redevelopment efforts. James H. Scheuer, Capitol Park's developer, recalls that "Because of its importance as a statement of the possibilities inherent in urban renewal, we chose two distinguished design professionals to guide its development. It was an integrated project of apartment towers and townhouses set in a park in a location with a view of the Capitol. Thus its name."

The 30-acre Capitol Park residential development won several design awards. Writing in The New Republic, Washington Post critic Wolf von Eckardt raved: "Seldom outside of Scandinavia has a landlord enhanced rental housing with as many handsome sculptures, fountains, pools, lamps, benches, pavements and such…. It all adds up to a delightful environment." President Dwight D. Eisenhower brought Soviet Premier Nikita S. Krushchev to Capitol Park in 1959 to show him that the slums that once lay in the shadows of the U.S. Capitol had been replaced with a new community.

Two Views of the Pavilion and Courtyard 2002

Capitol Park was designed by Washington's Cloethiel Woodard Smith, a specialist in large-scale residential development called "one of the best architects, planners, and thinkers about cities now working anywhere." At Capitol Park, Smith adapted Le Corbusier's revolutionary model for highrise apartment buildings without units on the ground floor. In order to build a vibrant community, she surrounded her taller buildings with townhouses and landscaped public spaces that residents would use and enjoy. Smith later designed other apartment and townhouse complexes in Southwest, three office buildings at the intersection of Connecticut Avenue and L Streets, NW, and the E Street Expressway.

Pavilion and Lionni Mural 2002

Daniel U. Kiley, the dean of American landscape architects, designed the park that links the 9-story Potomac Place residential tower at 800 4th Street, SW, formerly the Capitol Park Apartments, to the townhouses to the east. Von Eckardt thought Kiley's landscaping "miraculously manages to look as if it had always been there." Kiley's other local work includes Banneker Park and the grounds of Dulles International Airport.

At the east side of the park lies a reflecting pool, with fountains spraying mist into the air. A pavilion rises beside the pool, sheltering a colorful tile mosaic mural by Leo Lionni, a major graphic designer and artist of the post World War II era. Lionni was the art director for Fortune magazine, and author of several world-renowned children's books, including "Little Blue and Little Yellow" and "Swimmy."

Lionni Mural 2002

To Capitol Park residents, the park is also a meeting place, hosting Fourth of July and other celebrations for decades. This oasis now faces imminent replacement with two six-story apartment buildings and parking structures. A developer proposes taking the park out of Capitol Park, destroying an essential part of what makes this a special place to live. In response, in January 2003, residents of Capitol Park filed an application to designate Potomac Place and its grounds as a landmark on the DC Inventory of Historic Sites. Based on land clearance permits obtained before the landmark application was filed, the developer proceeded to fell 20 mature trees, tore up the lawns, and began pouring foundations for new buildings. Construction crews were unable to demolish the pavilion and adjacent structures because a raze permit for that work was required and could not be issued while the landmark application was pending.

The District of Columbia Historic Preservation Review Board granted landmark status to Potomac Place and its adjacent park on April 24, 2003, the first time in decades that a structure less than 50 years old had been so designated. The next day, construction crews continued their demolition of remaining structures in the park until they were stopped by police and preservation authorities. The developer is appealing the landmark designation, and the case is expected to be in the courts for years. But in the end, the restoration of the original landscape will hopefully be achieved.

--Alexander M. Padro, RPPN DC Representative

View from Pavilion toward Potomac Place 1960s

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