Curbed DC: In NoMa, Another Train Underpass Lights Up as Public Art

On Tuesday, a new visual experience opens in NoMa’s L Street NE underpass, one of several passageways beneath elevated rail tracks that run through the neighborhood. “Lightweave,” a responsive lighting display designed by San Francisco-based design studio Futureforms, is the NoMa Parks Foundation’s latest installation in the neighborhood and part of a $50 million grant. The display consists of six formations of cloud-like, lattice LED tubes suspended below the ceiling of the underpass between First and Second streets NE. With three formations on either side of the underpass, the tubes react to ambient noise, such as trains passing on the tracks above or cars driving along L Street NE. Read more.

NoMa is preparing to break ground on the new Tanner Park in January, potentially bringing the first large green space to the near northeast neighborhood by next fall. The NoMa Business Improvement District and its contractor Forrester Construction have nearly all the necessary permits in hand to begin work on the 2.5-acre space next to the Metropolitan Branch Trail north of New York Avenue, representatives said at an Eckington Civic Association meeting Monday. Construction is expected to take 10-12 months. Read more.

The 8,000 square-foot lot at 3rd and L streets NE was very nearly home to yet another gleaming new condo building in NoMa. Instead it will be the neighborhood’s first public park when it opens on Saturday. Swampoodle Park will feature the neighborhood’s first official dog park, benches, and a Wallholla—a vertical children’s playground. Local leaders will celebrate the grand opening on Saturday with an inaugural climb on the structure, followed by a dog procession. The opening is part of a flurry of new public parks and spaces in NoMa, long in the making, that have been shepherded by the non-profit NoMa Parks Foundation. Read more.

D.C.’s booming NoMa neighborhood will open its inaugural park on Nov. 17. Located on an 8,000-square-foot plot at the corner of 3rd and L streets NE, Swampoodle Park will feature amenities for people and pups of all sorts, including a vertical climbing structure for children, dedicated space for dogs, and curved benches. The park has been years in the making and is the result of a public-private partnership between the District and the NoMa Parks Foundation, an affiliate of the NoMa Business Improvement District (BID). Read more.

For Immediate Release
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NoMa Parks Foundation to Open Swampoodle Park on November 17

8,000-Square-Foot Space at 3rd and L Streets NE, the Neighborhood’s First New Park, Combines a Dedicated Dog Area, a Play Structure for Children, and Public Seating

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Calling all kids and their canine friends! The NoMa Parks Foundation will celebrate the completion of Swampoodle Park with an inaugural Wallholla climb and dog procession on the morning of Saturday, November 17, at 11:00 a.m. Located at the intersection of 3rd and L streets NE, the 8,000-plus-square-foot park — previously a vacant lot for which condominiums were once planned — offers a play structure for children, a dedicated space for dogs, and public seating, as well as trees and other plantings. Swampoodle Park was designed by District landscape architecture firm Lee and Associates, with substantial input from the NoMa community provided through multiple public meetings and surveys. (more…)