Rejuvenation
Moynihan left public service (temporarily) in 1965, and Harry McPherson, counsel to President Johnson, kept the Pennsylvania Avenue redevelopment plan alive and shepherded it through additional revisions. Nonetheless, rejuvenation of Pennsylvania Avenue and the area north of the street began occurring as early as 1965, even though no permanent redevelopment authority had yet been established. The first building to be developed under the 1964 master plan was 451 12th Street NW (at the site of the old Raleigh Hotel). The Brutalist style structure was designed by Edmund W. Dreyfuss & Associates, which worked closely with John Woodbridge (a staff architect for the President's Council on Pennsylvania Avenue and a member of the firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill).
On March 25, 1965, President Johnson issued Executive Order No. 11210, which established the Temporary Commission on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Temporary Commission was charged with analyzing the engineering, financial, planning, and other relevant considerations essential to ensuring the adoption and implementation of the 1964 master plan, as well as recommending appropriate legislation to the President and Congress. The Temporary Commission was also instructed to coordinate its efforts with the National Capital Planning Commission's master plan for the city. The Temporary Commission was an interim measure designed to ensure that no buildings incompatible with the plan were built until legislation regarding the master plan was passed. Although certain aspects of the master plan were controversial among some groups, the District of Columbia enacted zoning changes to permit mixed-used development and buildings which conformed to the Owings plan in April 1965. Construction of the first private building under the master plan, 451 12th Street NW, began in August 1965. Legislation to make the Temporary Commission permanent and give it extensive powers was introduced in October 1965, but strong opposition to the proposed National Plaza emerged and hindered passage of the bill. The size of the plaza remained intact into late 1967, and a large new arts and office building (to be built between 11th and 13th Streets NW on E Street NW) was proposed.
After two years, Congress had still not acted to establish a permanent Pennsylvania Avenue Commission, so President Johnson issued Executive Order 11347 to extend the life of the Temporary Commission on Pennsylvania Avenue by another two years. The lack of redevelopment began to have repercussions for existing businesses on the avenue. Faced with repeated threats to its existence and lower occupancy due to competition and anti-Vietnam War protests on Pennsylvania Avenue, the Willard Hotel closed suddenly on July 15, 1968. The Temporary Commission struggled to obtain any redevelopment along Pennsylvania Avenue. Local landowners refused to made investments so long as their property remained subject to condemnation. The Temporary Commission subsequently scaled the size of National Plaza down to half its original size, and began seeking private development dollars to build the square and associated buildings. In October 1969, still stymied by the lack of movement on any redevelopment, the Temporary Commission agreed (at the urging of member Elwood R. Quesada, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the L'Enfant Plaza Corporation) to seek $200 million in private financing to build several luxury apartment buildings on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue. The Temporary Commission ceased to function on November 15, 1969, due to lack of funds.
Moynihan, however, was now Counselor to the President for Urban Affairs in the Nixon administration in 1969, where he continued to provide leadership on the rejuvenation of Pennsylvania Avenue. Moynihan now proposed a major shift in the redevelopment plan: Rather than funding redevelopment solely with federal funds, he suggested creating a government-owned corporation with a $200 million revolving fund to spur redevelopment along Pennsylvania Avenue. Interested in seeing some redevelopment occur before the Bicentennial celebrations in 1976, Congress took up Moynihan's plan in August 1970. But extensive controversy still raged over many aspects of the plan, as well as Nathaniel Owings' role in redevelopment plans. President Nixon made a daytime walking tour of Pennsylvania Avenue on September 8, 1970, and expressed his support for the Moynihan plan. But the bill, opposed by local housing advocates and businessmen as well as budget-conscious legislators, stalled in Congress for two years. In early 1972, Nixon once more signaled his strong support for the bill as a Bicentennial measure. In April, Democratic Representative Wayne N. Aspinall, chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, and Republican Rep. John P. Saylor, the committee's ranking minority member, co-sponsored a bill which provided for a 15-member commission advised by a committee of landlords and tenants from the affected area. The master plan created by the new commission would have to be reviewed by Secretary of the Interior and relevant D.C. government agencies before being submitted to Congress, which would have 60 days to disapprove the plan by a majority vote of either house. The legislation authorized the new corporation to spend up to $1 million preparing a master plan, and authorized it to borrow up to $50 million from the Treasury or private sources to fund redevelopment. Congress approved the revised bill in October 1972, President Nixon signed the bill into law on October 30, 1972.
The Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation (PADC) was created on April 17, 1973. President Nixon named Elwood Quesada the PADC's first chairman, and the corporation's board of directors had its first meeting in June. The revised Owings plan for redevelopment was immediately called into question by John Woodbridge, the PADC's new staff director and an architect in Owings' firm. Upset with the way the massive, Brutalist-style J. Edgar Hoover Building disrupted foot traffic and retail trade along Pennsylvania Avenue, the PADC instead proposed a much stronger emphasis on retail and housing in the new master plan. Among the earliest projects it approved was Market Square, a mixed-use development on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 7th and 9th Streets NW that contained housing as well as retail areas and included space for a new memorial. The PADC laid out its preliminary plan for redevelopment by March 1974, and approved its final plan in October 1974. The Willard Hotel, Old Post Office Pavilion, and other historic buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue were retained and the underground expressway removed from the plan.
The PADC asked Congress to appropriate $111 million for land acquisition, landscaping, and other needs. The plan saw yet further revisions during this period, reducing the size of the buildings along the north side of the avenue, reducing the size of the proposed western plaza, and allowing for greater variety of buildings and usage. In March 1977, Congress provided the first $29 million in funding and borrowing authority for the PADC to begin its work. Landscaping and widening of the sidewalks began in the fall of 1977, and rerouting of traffic began as construction on the new western plaza, Freedom Plaza, was undertaken. The following year, staff began working on two development prospectuses: one for the Willard and adjacent properties, and the other for the properties surrounding the National Press Club Building.
Over the next two decades, the PADC persuaded private corporations to invest more than $1.5 billion in executing the master plan. The PADC also funded the improvement of public spaces, redesigning the appearance of Pennsylvania Avenue and building seven new plazas. Among the changes made were alterations in lighting and benches, which may now be removed to accommodate inaugural parades and other large events and marches.
The Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation was dissolved in 1996.
Read more about this topic: Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site, Historic Designation and Rejuvenation