Monroe Street Market Groundbreaking Ceremony

Last Wednesday, November 10, OvS designers Marisa Scalera and Sara Fiore attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Monroe Street Market in Brookland, Washington DC.

The project, developed by Bozzuto Group, Abdo Development and Pritzker Realty Group, is a $200 million mixed use, multiphase development adjacent to the Brookland-CUA Metrorail station. Monroe Street Market project will transform the Catholic University of America’s South Campus by creating a college-town-style Main Street. It will include 720 multifamily residential units and 45 townhomes, 80,000 square feet of street-level retail, 15,000 square feet of artist studio space, and a 3,000-square-foot community arts center. There will also be an 8,500 square-foot public square, a 15,000 square-foot Arts Plaza, and a17,000 square-foot residential courtyard with pool.

OvS is the landscape architect for the project. Approved plans include design of the plazas, courtyard, streetscape and hardscape improvements, which will improve walkability, creating a lively, pedestrian-friendly atmosphere and significantly improving traffic patterns and pedestrian crossings along Michigan Avenue and Monroe Street.

Participating in the groundbreaking ceremony were Catholic University President John Garvey, Bozzuto Group Chairman and CEO Tom Bozzuto, Abdo Development President and CEO Jim Abdo, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, D.C. Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr., and other D.C. government officials. Mayor Gray said the planning and cooperation that went into creating the development should serve as a “prototype” for “how to craft constructive relationships between universities and the communities within which they live and the communities that they serve.”