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Old Posted Mar 13, 2011, 5:01 AM
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New Tenley development

My girlfriend and I took these photos on the way back from the gym today. Although being very affluent and located on the red line, Tenley has missed out on much of the development occurring elsewhere in the region because of militant NIMBY opposition to any development. This is starting to change with the election of more favorable ANC commissioners and neighborhood groups such as Ward 3 Vision advocating transit-oriented development.

In the Tenley-Friendship Hts section of DC on Wisconsin Avenue, the Harrison (http://www.theharrisondc.com/) is almost completed. There are rumors that Douglas Development may seek to build a mixed residential/retail development on the closed Babe's Billiards property. American University wants to relocate its law school from the more suburban Spring Valley location to Tenley Circle, directly next to Wisconsin Avenue. Across the street from the previously mentioned Babe's Billiards, a four-story mixed use building is under construction. Two parcels to the south, a formerly closed building is being renovated and will open soon as a bar/restaurant. Additionally, a Panera Bread is opening in the recently-constructed vacant retail space, right next to the Tenley metro station. Across Wisconsin Avenue, immediately to the south, the new Tenley library opened earlier this winter. Although the architecture has been criticized as being cold and it would have been great to see the proposed public-private partnership with the library and 6-7 floors of condos built above it, the new library is still a great improvement over the vacant lot that had been there for years.

Elsewhere in DC, all of this would be pretty unremarkable but Tenley has long been a laggard in development. This area was known as a the mattress-district of DC, with the abundance of mattress stores, fast food restaurants, low-quality retail stores, and vacant, tumbleweed-strewn lots. This, however is changing.


New Tenley bar/restaurant



New Tenley residential (with Western Union tower and radio towers visible in the background)


New Tenley residential (another view)


Tenley library
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