After a year-long, community-based planning process coordinated with the D.C. Office of Planning, the University has submitted a new campus plan to the D.C. Zoning Commission. The “Foggy Bottom Campus Plan: 2006 – 2025” outlines a framework for campus development over the next 20 years that will result in shared and lasting benefits for the University, the community, and the District of Columbia.

The Plan reflects GW’s “Grow Up, Not Out” development strategy. It accommodates the University’s forecasted academic and student housing needs – including state-of-the-art classroom and lab facilities and modernized residence halls – within the existing campus plan boundaries. By doing so, Square 54 (the old hospital site) can be developed as a mixed-use “town center” to provide the campus and community with a unique neighborhood gathering place while generating revenue necessary to support GW’s academic mission.

By concentrating development density on targeted locations at the campus core, the plan maintains the campus’ unique and diverse character, allowing the retention of numerous buildings of architectural and historic significance as well as important open spaces such as the University Yard and Kogan Plaza.

The new plan also seeks to develop retail space serving campus and the community at the ground floor of all new development along I Street, creating a dynamic “I Street Retail Corridor” extending from the Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro to the Shops at 2000 Penn.

Additional information regarding the University’s development plans, information and materials regarding the community-based planning process, copies of all community meeting presentations, and the campus plan document are available online at www.neighborhood.gwu.edu.

Also, Boston Properties and KSI Services, Inc. (GW’s Square 54 developer team partners) have recently launched www.square54.com. This website is dedicated to the planning of the mixed-use town center contemplated for the old hospital site.

Alumni interested in supporting this plan during the Zoning Commission hearings can either submit letters of support or testify at the hearings, which are scheduled for September 14, 21, 25, and 28. Those interested in supporting GW in this effort should contact Scott Mory at smory@gwu.edu.