5 Blog Posts Canal Park-ing Jul 11, 2007 9:08 PM In advance of Thursday's National Capital Planning Commission meeting that will review the surface parking lots zoning amendment, the Voice of the Hill has posted a piece about the controversial inclusion of the Canal Park blocks within the parcels approved for parking. Much of the piece covers territory I've written about over the past few days, but has some new nuggets. Money quote: "Joel Lawson, the Office of Planning's acting deputy director for neighborhood and long-range planning, said the portions of squares containing Canal Park were never intended to be used for parking and should not have been included. 'I can understand why people are concerned about this,' he said. But, he added, 'We knew the parking wasn't going to go there.' He said the planning office will amend its request to make explicit this provision." Another quote, from the spokesman for Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development Neil Albert: "We have no intention to use this three-block site for stadium parking, and we fully expect to move forward in building this important public amenity on schedule." This would appear to make the NCPC meeting less of a critical juncture, but I'll still be there to check it out. Besides, they're also having a big presentation on the first-phase plans for The Yards. More posts: Canal Park, parking, The Yards, zoning Public Meeting on MPD Move Jul 11, 2007 4:34 PM On July 18, the Metropolitan Police Department is holding a Community Meeting on the Relocation of MPD to the old Post Plant site at 225 Virginia Ave.; Tommy Wells will be in attendance as well. Word is already going around about the meeting to residents of Southwest, who are not happy that these proposed relocation plans include the move of the First District police station from Southwest over to Southeast. I imagine parking questions will also be part of the discussion. The meeting is at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 3rd and A Streets, SE, at 6:30 pm on the 18th. More posts: 225 Virginia/Old Post Plant/200 I Topping Out. Jul 11, 2007 2:05 PM As soon as I dry off (which might take until 2008), I'll post pictures from today's rain out of a Topping Out celebration. Keep checking back. UPDATE: Here are my photos from the Topping Out. No prize-winners in the bunch, but I'm lucky at this point that my camera didn't fill up with water. If you're really wanting to see what the interior of the stadium looks like on a sunny day, here are some shots of it from 10 days ago. Enjoy. UPDATE II: And now the media pieces begin to flow on the ceremony. Here's WTOP's, to start. And yes, it's on time and on budget. UPDATE III: MLB.com. UPDATE IV: Washington Post. Channel 4. Channel 7. Channel 9. Associated Press. And, to go backwards a bit, Channel 5's piece on the topping out from before the ceremony. And, last ones, the WashTimes and the Examiner. More posts: Nationals Park Douglass Bridge Demolition on the Webcam Jul 11, 2007 11:02 AM The demolition of the beams from the old Douglass Bridge viaduct along South Capitol Street north of Potomac continues apace today, and you can really "watch" it over the next few hours on Camera #2 of the Stadium Construction Webcam, which updates every 20 minutes or so. Just keep hitting the "View Most Recent Image" box under the calendar (and zoom in for a better view). I'm betting they'll be finished with the beams by the end of the day or tomorrow, and will have only the earth fill approach ramp north of P left. Then there'll be the cleanup and the work to create the new roadway over the next few weeks, but that won't be anywhere near as much fun to check out on the webcam as the demolition is..... (Plenty of other work will be happening out of the webcam's view, of course, such as the lowering of the portion of the bridge just north of the Anacostia shoreline and the building of the new ramp down to Potomac Ave.) And note that the concrete pillars you see in the ground in front of the bridge demolition are for the "knife-edge" Nationals office building that will be attached to the stadium. You can see the concrete already starting to be poured for the south point of the building. And the line of steel beams in front of the admin building construction are for the sloped promenade that will come from Potomac Avenue up to the stadium. We do need to offer them a hankie to clean the lens, though! UPDATE. 5:15 pm: The girders are now all gone--all that's left of the viaduct is the brick-lined ramp between O and P, and it won't last much longer, either. As fun as it is to sneak peeks of it on the webcam, I had hoped to have new photos of my own today--but the deluge during the stadium topping out dampened my enthusiasm for further picture taking. More pics soon, I promise. More posts: South Capitol St., Douglass Bridge, Traffic Issues 3D Stadium Seating Chart Jul 11, 2007 8:45 AM If you want to know what the views of the field will be from any section in the new Nationals ballpark, you can use this pretty cool interactive seating chart -- click on a section, and a window will pop up that displays renderings of the stadium from that vantage point. (The overhead view of the stadium's bowl is pretty nice, so I've added it to my stadium renderings page, too.) Nats ticketholders and fans have already been playing with this for a while, but even if you're not in either of those categories, it's a neat little app to check out. The ballpark "Topping Out" party is today; I should have some photos from it posted later this afternoon. More posts: Nationals Park

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