Background and Context
Washington is shaped by visionary plans that express the functions and relationships of the nation's capital and promote a thriving local city. Pierre L'Enfant's 1791 plan overlaid prominent avenues, ceremonial public spaces, and key institutions over a city grid. While the city's early development drifted from L'Enfant's plan, the 1901 McMillan Plan built upon this framework. It established the National Mall as we know it today; designated sites off the Mall for new parks, public buildings, and memorials; and restored sight lines and sweeping vistas.
The Legacy Plan is the third chapter in Washington's planning history. It departs from previous plans that concentrated facilities and investment around the National Mall by shifting the city's perceived center to the U.S. Capitol and directing federal development outward into all city quadrants. Channeling new museums, memorials, and federal office buildings outward along ceremonial corridors and along the waterfront will ease congestion in the monumental core; help revitalize neighborhoods; expand public transit's reach; eliminate obsolete freeways, bridges, and railroad tracks that fragment the city; and reclaim Washington's historic waterfront. It also proposes new parks, plazas, and other amenities.
Key Information
- Prepared by:
National Capital Planning Commission
- Published: 1997
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Current
NCPC uses this vision plan, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2017 (see the blog post in Related Resources below), as a high-level guide for new initiatives and policy development – it influenced Comprehensive Plan updates, and set the stage for the Memorials and Museums Master Plan (2001) and the Monumental Core Framework Plan (2009). Many of Legacy’s goals that relate to new federal facilities, enhanced transportation, reconnecting Washington to its waterfronts, and improving gateways into the city are becoming reality.
Federal offices, including the U.S. Department of Transportation (Southeast) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (NoMa) were constructed outside of the monumental core and serve as neighborhood anchors. The Circulator bus began in 2005, providing convenient and accessible transit around the city, and expanded service in 2015 to include the National Mall. Federal and local plans embrace the Potomac and Anacostia waterfronts as important assets. These include the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, projects to connect the Kennedy Center to the Potomac and create waterfront parks at the Southeast Federal Center, Georgetown, and the new Wharf development in Southwest. New development and transportation improvements enhance gateway corridors, including the Nationals baseball stadium and 11th Street Bridge redevelopment along South Capitol Street, and proposals for the RFK Stadium site along East Capitol Street.