Planning Washington:
Capital and Community
The National Capital Planning Commission’s First 100 Years
Washington, DC is an extraordinary city. The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) has helped make it so.

NCPC has served as the federal government’s planning agency for 100 years. It was also the city’s local planning agency until 1974. The agency has aspired to preserve and enhance the design of our nation’s capital to reflect democratic ideals of openness and participation while also meeting the needs of people who live, work, and visit here.

Through a range of events and resources, NCPC’s 2024 Centennial presents an opportunity to celebrate the history of planning in Washington and the region, acknowledge unfairness in past planning practices, and consider lessons learned for planning the capital’s future.

About NCPC
“Washington is not just another city. It is a symbol to the whole free world. Our problem is to permit the necessary development, but to keep the character of our city and the surrounding area.”
– Elizabeth "Libby" Rowe, NCPC Chair, 1961-1968
NCPC Milestones
  1. 1924
  2. 1926
  3. 1952
  4. 1973
  5. 2024

  1. 1924

    Congress establishes the National Capital Park Commission to acquire land for public parks, parkways, and playgrounds in Washington and jurisdictions in Maryland and Virginia.

  2. 1926

    Congress grants the agency, renamed the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, broad planning authority for highways, housing, parks, sewers, subdivisions, and more for both the federal government and local residents.

  3. 1952

    Congress renames the agency to the current National Capital Planning Commission. It formalizes NCPC as Washington’s central planning agency, with planning responsibilities for the federal and local city.

  4. 1973

    The District of Columbia Home Rule Act hands local planning to an elected mayor. NCPC continues to this day to plan and review proposals for developing federal properties in Washington and the region, and certain District properties.

  5. 2024

    NCPC celebrates its Centennial and looks toward another century of planning for the National Capital Region.

  6. 2025+

    NCPC will continue to serve as the federal government's planning agency, protecting the historic nature of the city while advancing plans and policies that will have a positive impact of the National Capital Region.

About the Exhibit
Planning Washington: Capital and Community explores how federal planning and its consequences have shaped today’s National Capital Region.

NCPC created this exhibit with technical support from Prologue DC. This digital exhibit is a companion to a physical exhibit on display at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library from June 6 – September 1, 2024, as well as other DC Public Libraries and regional locations throughout 2024. NCPC extends its appreciation to the DC Public Library for its generous assistance and support and thanks the advisors who contributed their expertise.
Washington Began
with a plan
Garnet W. Jex, The Planning of Washington, 1791, 1931, oil on canvas  P.31.1. Luther W. Brady Art Gallery/Collection of GWU
The painting depicts President George Washington on a hill in current day Foggy Bottom. He is joined by William Thornton, the original architect of the Capitol; Pierre Charles L'Enfant, holding his plan for the city; Andrew Ellicott with his surveying tools; and Benjamin Banneker, recording Ellicott's survey.

Introduction
Washington has been a planned city from the start, with longstanding visionary plans and concepts shaping the city’s design well before the establishment of NCPC.

Planning History

  • Pre-1600s

    Before There Was a City

    Long before it becomes Washington, DC, this land is home to Indigenous people known as Nacotchtank or Anacostans. They hunt, fish, quarry stone, and trade at the confluence of the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers for thousands of years. ​In the 1600s, European settlers take their land for farming and bring diseases that kill them. Indigenous people from different nations remain in the region today.

    This 1890 map shows the sites of Indigenous villages in and around Washington, based on the existence of stone tools found by S.V. Proudfit of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Proudfit donated the quartz, quartzite, and argillite artifacts to the Smithsonian Institution.

  • 1790-1792

    The L’Enfant and Ellicott Plans

    President George Washington chooses the land for the nation’s capital in 1790. His wartime assistant, engineer Pierre L’Enfant, draws up a plan for the new city of Washington. L’Enfant’s visionary design, which includes many parks, places key civic buildings on higher ground, connects them with grand avenues, and creates long, sweeping views. L’Enfant designs the city to represent the young country’s democratic ideals. For example, he uses Pennsylvania Avenue to link the White House and the U.S. Capitol, two of the three branches of government.

    Andrew Ellicott’s 1792 rendering of L’Enfant’s plan for the city.

    Benjamin Banneker, a self-taught Black mathematician and astronomer who was born free, worked with chief surveyor Andrew Ellicott to lay out the 100-mile-square site for the District of Columbia.

    • “Washington was created for a definite purpose and has been developed according to a definite plan. Therein lies its unique distinction among American cities, and among all existing capitals in the western world.”
    – Washington: City and ​Capital (1937)
  • 1901-1902

    The McMillan Commission Plan

    As the city grows through the 1800s, development veers from L’Enfant’s plan. The 1901 Senate establishes a commission, led by Senator James McMillan, to restore and give new meaning to L’Enfant’s vision of a beautiful and inspiring capital. The National Mall’s open greenway, the city’s public park and open space system, and the grand neo-classical buildings that characterize Washington’s federal core would result from the McMillan Plan.



    At the turn of the 20th century, the National Mall looks very different from today. Stands of trees and winding paths are in the foreground, while a train station and tracks are located closer to the U.S. Capitol.

    Inspired by the “City Beautiful” movement, the 1902 McMillan Commission Plan establishes a blueprint for what we now know as the National Mall and monumental core.

  • 1910

    The Height of Buildings Act

    The 1910 federal Height of Buildings Act limits building heights across the city. Over time, this restriction shapes development and results in Washington’s distinctive, low skyline.

    The 1894 construction of the Cairo luxury apartment building prompts concerns about design and fire safety, leading to the Height of Buildings Act.


    Heights & Views

    Unlike cities where skyscrapers define the skyline, civic buildings and features such as the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument are most prominent in Washington.

  • 1924

    A New Commission is Born

    Congress establishes NCPC in 1924 to guide the city’s orderly growth while advancing the L'Enfant and McMillan Plans for a beautiful capital. 

    Rowhouses fill Northwest Washington’s Petworth neighborhood in the 1920s as the city expands beyond downtown.

Greening
the city
Library of Congress
At more than 1,700 acres, Rock Creek Park is Washington’s largest, with about two million visitors each year.

Introduction
Today, Washington has more green space per capita than any other U.S. city of its size, including large natural areas, parkland along stream valleys, and open space around federal buildings. These parks and public spaces provide the setting for the capital and are used for local recreation and national events.

After World War I, civic groups worried that development was filling open land, ruining forests, and harming water quality. NCPC was established in 1924 to plan parks, protect natural resources, and fulfill the ambitious McMillan Plan. Under the 1930 Capper-Cramton Act, the agency bought land to extend Anacostia and Rock Creek Parks and for parkways along the Potomac River in Virginia and Maryland.

Capper-Cramton Act Parks and Open Space
“Rock Creek Park was our playground.”
– Phylicia Fauntleroy Bowman, who grew up in Petworth in the 1950s.
The End of Reno City
NCPC began to acquire the ring of 68 former Civil War defenses to create a system of connected parks along the city’s ridgeline. The acquisition of land for parks, especially around these former forts, displaced some Black and racially mixed communities, including Reno City in a growing Whites-only neighborhood in Upper Northwest. The Scott family, who first moved to Reno City in 1898, lost three houses on Chesapeake Street for the creation of Fort Reno Park, despite fighting to save them.

More About Reno City
Washington as a
company town
National Archives
Construction of the Federal Triangle in downtown Washington in the 1930’s.

Introduction
The federal government is the city’s largest employer and drives its ​​​​economy. ​​​​​​Hundreds of thousands of civil servants conduct the nation’s business from offices throughout the region. The monumental buildings signal our country’s strength and form the core of Washington’s downtown. NCPC has guided federal development and helped reinforce Washington’s symbolic role as the nation’s capital.
Federal Buildings and Campuses in the 20th Century
Dozens of federal buildings were built in Washington’s monumental core and metropolitan area in the 20th century. The Great Depression and World War II spurred development as agencies were established to address new challenges. In the 1950s and 1960s, modern government offices were built around downtown while new federal campuses were established throughout the region. Spurred by the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976, the National Mall and surrounding areas saw further improvements and new museums.
“Each weekday morning, 30,000 workers leave their homes, converge on this area, and disappear into the monumental buildings.”
– Washington: City and Capital (1937)
Displacement
Library of Congress

In the 1930s, the Federal Triangle displaces working-class neighborhoods, including Washington’s first Chinatown. This is a view of an industrial section of the old neighborhood.

Library of Congress

In the early 1940s, Pentagon construction destroys a historic Black community known as Queen City (or East Arlington), seen above, whose residents are given only weeks to vacate their homes.

Federal Workers
National Archives

In 1933, many federal employees park in this Federal Triangle lot, now filled by the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

Library of Congress

Federal Bureau of Investigation clerks at work in the Justice Department building in 1956.

Comprehensive Plans
shape the future
NCPC
This map from the 1950 comprehensive plan shows the proposed system of three concentric highways and the spoked network of arterials extending to new suburban government centers.

Introduction
Planners have several tools to shape a city. A comprehensive plan is one of the most important. It sets forth an aspirational vision for a city’s future. Planners build this vision with policies for land use, employment, housing, transportation, parks, and almost every other component of urban life.

With the 1945 District of Columbia Redevelopment Act, Congress directed NCPC to write Washington’s first “comp plan.” The agency hired St. Louis-based Harland Bartholomew for the job. In the 1920s, Bartholomew had created Washington’s first zoning map and a transportation plan that proposed widening and adding roads throughout the city. He also helped plan the nation’s Interstate Highway System.

As many White Washingtonians departed the city for federally subsidized suburbs, NCPC’s 1950 comprehensive plan recommended building highways through and beyond the city. The plan anticipated the continued movement of residents and federal government offices out of Washington, but did not foresee the larger economic impact of “White flight.” Sparked by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Washington’s April 1968 civil unrest was, in part, a response to urban disinvestment.

The big ideas in early comprehensive plans shaped the region’s growth while also creating long-lasting inequitable outcomes that today’s planners must address.
Harland Bartholomew
Reproduced with permission of the DC Public Library, Star Collection © Washington Post Professional planning pioneer Harland Bartholomew (1889–1989) oversaw the completion of comprehensive plans for nearly 570 American cities. He chaired NCPC from 1953 until 1960. Bartholomew was an early proponent of highway construction and “slum clearance” as tools for urban revitalization. During the Great Migration, millions of Black southerners moved to urban centers across the United States. Here, he is seen testifying before Congress in 1955.
NCPC Bartholomew’s city and highway plans contributed to racial segregation and the frequent displacement of Black communities. A map in NCPC’s 1950 comprehensive plan, produced by Bartholomew’s firm, seen here, designated as “problem areas” many neighborhoods close to downtown as well as Georgetown, Barry Farm, Marshall Heights, and Deanwood.
Zoning Shapes Development
Courtesy DC Public Library, The People’s Archive
Zoning codes stipulate how each section of a city may be used and what types of housing are allowable. Washington’s 1936 zoning map, seen here, reserves almost all of the area west of Rock Creek Park for single-family detached houses, designating other areas for more affordable housing types such as rowhouses and apartments. Zoning has contributed to Washington’s racial and economic segregation.

Mapping Segregation DC
Wedges and Corridors
NCPC
Visit Montgomery

Transportation drives development patterns. Later NCPC plans adapted this concept, locating intensive development along highway “corridors” while preserving open space and encouraging less dense development in the “wedges” in between, as seen in this 1961 map. This idea is most fully realized in Montgomery County, Maryland. Other parts of the region have grown in more sprawling patterns.

The Urban Renewal
experiment
Library of Congress
The U.S. Capitol looms over Southwest Washington in this 1937 photo.

Introduction
For years, ​​​​reformers had called for eradicating substandard housing, pointing to its shameful existence in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol.

With the 1945 District of Columbia Redevelopment Act, Congress charged NCPC with devising proposals for rebuilding large swaths of the city. The new Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA) would oversee the work, which was referred to as “urban renewal.” Congressional advocates of urban renewal were eager to test the idea far from their own constituents.

Five years later, NCPC’s first comprehensive plan for Washington advanced Southwest as a pilot urban renewal project. Once realized, urban renewal in Southwest created a wholly new neighborhood as it simultaneously displaced thousands of people.
Development and Displacement in Southwest
Southwest was one of the nation’s earliest and most complete urban renewal projects.

Until the 1950s, Southwest was home to poor and working-class, mostly Black families. NCPC planners debated whether to rehabilitate some of the old buildings or tear everything down and build anew. The Washington Post and other White business leaders pushed for the latter. In a 1954 case based on urban renewal in Southwest, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled as constitutional the government’s taking of people’s property, whether blighted or not, to be privately redeveloped for urban renewal.

In the end, most of the neighborhood was razed, and about 13,500 people and 1,500 businesses were displaced.
“If those who govern the District of Columbia decide that the Nation’s Capital should be beautiful as well as sanitary, there is nothing in the Fifth Amendment that stands in the way.”
– Justice William O. Douglas, in Berman v. Parker, 1954
Housing filled one half of the redeveloped Southwest, and the new Southwest Federal Center was located on the other half. Federal and local leaders applauded the renewal of Southwest for its cutting-edge modern architecture and for attracting middle-class residents.

Almost none of the people who had lost their homes could afford the new housing in their old neighborhood.

A Different Approach in Shaw
Faced with an outraged public, NCPC and RLA began working with affected residents as other renewal projects moved forward. In the Shaw neighborhood, ​Reverend Walter Fauntroy insisted on what he called “renewal with people, by the people, and for the people.” ​NCPC worked closely with  ​Fauntroy’s Model Inner City Community Organization (MICCO) to engage area residents in planning and construction, and to ensure they could remain in the neighborhood post-redevelopment.

In 1969, Rev. Walter Fauntroy, at right, confers with architect Herbert McDonald and young Cedric Carter on plans for a block destroyed during the previous year’s civil unrest that would ultimately become the site of the Lincoln-Westmoreland Apartments. (Reproduced with permission of the DC Public Library, Star Collection © Washington Post)

This 1969 MICCO publication celebrates redevelopment work in Shaw. (All Souls Unitarian Archives)

Prior to serving as an NCPC Commissioner and the agency’s Executive Director, Reginald Griffith worked for MICCO. Check out his Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate thesis exploring MICCO’s work with the community.

Other Communities

Designated Areas

This 1960 map shows areas designated by NCPC for urban renewal. In response to public concern, proposals for some areas were not advanced; however, other areas slated for urban renewal would be redeveloped.


Adams Morgan

In the early 1960s, Adams Morgan residents worked with NCPC and others to look at less disruptive urban renewal approaches. Unable to find an option without major displacement of homes and businesses, including those in this 1977 photo of 18th Street, NW, NCPC dropped its renewal plans.


Sursum Corda

A view of backyards in the new Sursum Corda housing complex in 1969. Sursum Corda replaced old rowhouses in the Northwest One urban renewal area, near First and L Streets, NW.


More about Urban Renewal Plans
New Highways
connect and divide
Reproduced with permission of the DC Public Library, Star Collection © Washington Post
Maryland Governor J. Millard Tawes (center) cuts the ribbon on the Capital Beltway in August 1964.
Introduction
In many ways, today’s Washington is remarkably consistent with the city designed more than 200 years ago by L’Enfant. While much of the city is walkable and easy to navigate, it is also part of a metropolitan area both connected and divided by interstate highways.

By the 1950s, the automobile had radically reshaped American cities, fostering expansion far beyond traditional downtowns. In 1959, NCPC and the National Capital Regional Planning Council prepared a regional transportation plan that recommended more than 300 miles of new roads. 

The Inner Loop
Construction of the Capital Beltway and sections of the Inner Loop in Washington proceeded, starting with the Southwest Freeway, the Whitehurst Freeway, and portions of the “Center Leg.” Drawings prepared for NCPC in 1955 (the map below) show the proposed phasing for construction of the “Inner Loop” about a mile out from the White House. The pink solid lines show constructed sections; broken lines were not.