A Stroll Along Connecticut Avenue

Chevy Chase

 

Most of us like walking down Connecticut Avenue below Chevy Chase Circle. The buildings are on a human scale, mostly 2-4 stories. You see the Avalon Theater, a flower shop, and a Subway. Magruder’s offers free parking in the rear, as do CVS and a number of the other low-rise stores.

 

Looking down the street as you walk, you see full sky and a low, tree-filled horizon.

Across the street are the 2-story library and community center, with a playground and parking in back.

Two-story buildings line Connecticut Avenue:  a diner, a toy store, restaurants--all are an easy, unhurried walk.

If you happen not to walk, there’s parking for a quick trip to 1-story Safeway.

Then you’ll see another block of low-rise 1- and 2-story buildings, including a frame shop, Riggs Bank, a restaurant, and Starbucks.

From Starbucks south on Connecticut, a 6-story apartment building begins a few blocks of mid-level apartments and low-rise townhouses and offices, most between 3 to 6 stories, an occasional one rising to 7 or 8.

You pass the 3-story Methodist Home, several mid-rise churches, and many low clusters of offices, townhouses and duplexes, shaded by old, tall trees and spacious lawns.

 

Nebraska and Connecticut

Jenifer and Connecticut

 

What we think of or remember as tall apartments are often really only 5-7 stories. Very few apartments along Connecticut Avenue are more than 6 stories tall.

5-6 stories

4 stories

3-4 stories

Cleveland Park

 

Cleveland Park is another popular neighborhood. The Metro entrance on the east side of Connecticut leads out to a small, low-rise, 1-story shopping center with ample parking in front for short stops at the bank, coffee shop, and grocery store.

 

Directly across the street at the Metro entrance are 3- and 4-story apartments. There’s also 2-3 story retail, including restaurants and stores and the Uptown Theater, with more parking for the low-rise guitar store, real estate company, and consignment shop.

Looking down to Connecticut and Macomb, the heart of Cleveland Park, we see 1- and 2-story retail and a series of  5-story apartment buildings going south. Note the parking lane in front of the stores on the east side of Connecticut.

With some exceptions at Van Ness, most of the residential buildings on Connecticut are mid-rise, most from 4-6 stories. Below is the block before Connecticut Avenue and Porter Street, just above the Woodley Park Metro stop, with no building taller than 6 stories, set back from the street with lawns.

Here are some other apartments, condos, and townhouses along Connecticut Avenue between Chevy Chase and Woodley Park, many of them quite beautiful, and most no more than 6 stories.

 

6 stories

4 stories

5 stories

Woodley Park

 

Woodley Park is another neighborhood people love, for its great restaurants and lively feel. As you come up at the Metro entrance, you are surrounded by human-scaled buildings.

 

Glancing up the street, you see that the restaurants are in 3-4 story low- to mid-rise buildings. A 6-story apartment building farther up Connecticut looks tall by comparison.

 

Looking south from the main intersection of Woodley Park, Connecticut and Calvert, you have an uncluttered vista of green space, trees, and the long bridge over Rock Creek Park. Again, no close high-rises spoil the view. The highest building at the corner is 4 stories, and the other corners are at 1 story, no stories, and 3 stories.

Many neighborhoods that people enjoy visiting, like ones on Connecticut Avenue, have a lot in common—open space, low-rise buildings, very few over 7 stories, most at 2-4—and a human scale and connection to the sky and green space that make it possible for us to enjoy city living at its best.

 

Thus we see that city living thrives among low-rise and mid-rise buildings every bit as much as it does among high-rises. Being near a subway stop doesn't dictate being engulfed in high-rises, near either the Cleveland or Woodley Park Metro stations, the Metro stations in most of low- and mid-rise Paris—or the stations on Wisconsin Avenue. Good urban planning isn't one-size-fits-all. It bends to respect and preserve the vitality and uniqueness of the neighborhoods through which its public transportation runs.