Photo via Dupont Underground
Could be the biggest thing after the proposed 11th Street Bridge elevated park.
From a press release:
The nonprofit Arts Coalition for the Dupont Underground (ACDU) announced today that it has signed a 66-month lease with the District of Columbia’s Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) for an abandoned 75,000-s.f. former trolley station below the streets of Dupont Circle, in the District’s Northwest quadrant.
The ACDU also announced today the launch of a crowdfunding campaign for the project on the Fundable platform: fundable.com/dupont-
Founded by architect Julian Hunt, co-principal of Hunt Laudi Studio, a D.C.-based architecture and urban design firm, the ACDU has been negotiating with DMPED for the lease since the group won a 2010 RFP from the city to redevelop the space. Hunt, who moved to the District in the mid-1990s and has been working to reopen the platforms and tunnels for more than a decade, was inspired by the years he spent living and working in Barcelona, where architects and artists have played a crucial role in shaping that city’s physical and cultural growth.
“I didn’t find the same kind of energy and conversation going on here,” said Hunt. “My first effort was to launch a critical journal, but when I discovered the old trolley station, I realized that I had stumbled onto a compelling, vital place to make something happen right below one of the District’s iconic public spaces.” (more…)
