George Washington University, Foggy Bottom Campus Master Plan

Washington, DC

The George Washington University is one of the most important educational institutions in the Nation’s Capitol. Yet the campus was soon facing a cap on the amount it could grow according to its most recent campus plan. Seeking a way to “grow up not out,” the university asked EE&K to assist in visioning a new campus plan, one that could provide for the necessary space for growth for the university while providing for unique new benefits for the community. The new plan takes a campus context that is surrounded by institutional neighbors to the East; Pennsylvania Avenue and the CBD to the North; institutional/governmental and residential neighbors to the South; and the metro station, historic Foggy Bottom district, and Georgetown to the West, and provides a new vision for a mixed-use “town center” with new retail opportunities, locations for mixed-use development, campus residential facilities and academic buildings.

The plan provides for the university the necessary growth over the next twenty years — to accommodate both its student housing and academic programming needs — on the Foggy Bottom campus, as well as significant, tangible benefits to the campus and neighborhood community. Historic places are enhanced and preserved, highly valued open spaces are stabilized and neighborhood and community assets and growth for the university is provided for in a predictable manner which supports the vision for the next generation of campus students and faculty.