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[Back to index of July/August articles] Cathedral to build new parking garage By Jim Naughton Beginning on August 1, a construction fence will enclose the north lawn of Washington National Cathedral, and North Road will be closed to traffic as excavation begins for two underground parking garages. The garages are scheduled to open by December 2006, said Jim Branham, director of facilities for the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation. One garage has room for 18 buses, while the other will accommodate 414 cars. The 18-month project will cost an estimated $34 million, Branham said. The garages will increase parking for cars on the close by 300 spaces, and allow the Cathedral to manage all bus traffic underground. The project was conceived to relieve congestion on the close, Branham said, and to respond to the concerns of the Cathedral’s neighbors who have long sought to reduce the number of visitors parking along their streets and the number of buses idling beside Wisconsin Avenue. The populations most heavily effected by construction will include the Cathedral’s neighbors, as well as the 1,600 students and 1,000 faculty and staff members who will have to find their way around a reconfigured close. South Road will remain open throughout construction, but will become a one way thoroughfare with entry on Wisconsin Avenue, said Kate Cullen, executive director of community relations for the foundation. The Pilgrim Road entrance to the close off Massachusetts Avenue will also remain open, as will the access road to Beauvoir School. During construction, the foundation will permit diagonal parking on South Road, but will step up parking enforcement, Branham said. “If you are in the wrong place, we will bring in the metropolitan police to ticket you,” he added. The foundation plans to convert the tennis court between the College of Preachers and the National Cathedral School’s Athletic Center into a temporary parking lot, Cullen said. However, organizations sponsoring large events at the Cathedral should expect to arrange satellite parking or to shuttle participants from Metro stations, she added. “We don’t want to inflict all the excess parking on surrounding neighborhoods.” Construction activity is scheduled to intensify in December when excavation begins on the bus lane in front of the Cathedral, Branham said. A construction fence, stretching along Wisconsin Avenue from Woodley Road to South Road, will make the sidewalk impassable and leave room for only two or three tour buses to make quick pick-ups and drop-offs. Work on the underground structures is scheduled to begin in February. At that point no tour buses will be allowed at the Cathedral until around Labor Day, 2006, Branham said. When construction is completed, the wooden gatehouse that now stands in front of the Cathedral will be gone. The main entrance to the parking garage—at Wisconsin Avenue and North Road—will be framed by two tall stone pillars and include a crosswalk and traffic signal. The topography of the north lawn of the Cathedral will be virtually unchanged, Branham said, but the view of the Cathedral will be enhanced because no buses will be visible, and parking will be restricted on North Road. Cullen said the Cathedral’s neighbors have asked many questions about the project, but have generally been supportive. “That’s not to say it has been easy,” she added. “But in hindsight, I’d say they have been very supportive. “Now we have to work with them to make construction as unobtrusive as possible.” Contact Jim Naughton at jnaughton@edow.org [Back to index of July/August articles]
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