Ummmm, not to be rude, but at this point I think
boom needs to be added to the thread title.
I'll try to put something together soon for the thread of everything going on, but in the meantime, more news! There's another huge project next to the Nats Stadium about to get underway, and they're beginning demolition of a building on-site soon. That entire area around the stadium has been one of the most dramatic urban transformations in the United States (seriously; there was literally
nothing there five years ago). Everything slowed temporarily, but with the huge news out recently about several projects the region is just seeing some crazy activity right now.
http://dcmetrocentric.com/2011/04/04...-clearing-out/
I think the best thing to happen to DC was growth... formerly more like Ottawa or some other forlorn capital, DC has become amazingly more cosmopolitan, and rather more like Paris. Obviously Paris is much larger, but at the rate DC is growing/the increasing amount of urban infill, it wouldn't surprise me if the general scheme (very dense suburbs, large city core) of large European cities predominated in DC's growth patterns. Something that surprised me was Fairfax's #s for the Census, which (I thought) were much higher than expected (besides the huge gains in Loudon and PW especially... geez). The numbers out of Fairfax and Arlington especially show that you can do transit-oriented development very successfully, especially in Arlington's case so far.
My main point is that there are two areas that will be most transformed in the near future, and those are the corridor from Rosslyn to Reston and then the District in general; Montgomery's cities are seeing infill, but I don't think the scale of developments there (in general) will transform areas. Downtown DC just continues to grow and grow, and now we have the added (apparently massive) residential demand, which has increased dramatically for SW DC. Blocks and blocks of DC are just turning into European style 12ish story buildings, one after the other. Rosslyn-Reston continues to become much more dense, with the obvious implications of the Silver Line for Tysons-Reston. Rosslyn is going to be dramatically different rather soon with three new tallest buildings, although I don't think such large-scale development will occur in Clarendon or Courthouse etc. Basically, the region as a whole is becoming hugely more urban and much more livable, especially as growth allows more to move into walkable neighborhoods.