DCist: Rain, the First Art Installation at the NoMa Underpass, Is (Finally) Being Unveiled

The NoMa Parks Foundation is ready to officially turn on the 4,000 light rods hung in the M Street NE underpass on Thursday evening. Rain, designed by Thurlow Small Architecture + NIO architects, includes LED light rods hung from the ceiling of the underpass in a series of vaults. The lights will stay on around the clock and will respond to activity in the underpass. Read more.

You’ve supported the efforts to bring parks to NoMa — now it’s time to name two of the forthcoming parks!

The NoMa Parks Foundation is seeking community input to name the 2.5-acre green space north of New York Avenue (known as “NoMa Green”), and a smaller park at the corner of 3rd and L streets NE (known as 3rd and L Park). Neighbors and community members are encouraged to propose names at ImagineNoMaParks.org through August 25. At the website, you’ll find helpful documents for each park, including images of the designs, neighborhood history, and some questions to consider as you brainstorm names.

• Suggest a name for Third & L park
• Suggest a name for “NoMa Green”

Suggested names will be narrowed to four or five options, then released again for a community vote. The final selections will be recommended to the D.C. Council and Mayor Muriel Bowser, who will make the ultimate decision on the name for these new public parks that will serve all District residents and visitors.

Get your creative juices flowing and help identify a welcoming name that will stand the test of time!

A stretch of the Metropolitan Branch Trail in NoMa reopened yesterday after a fire damaged an entrance to the path. Read more.

The District Department of Transportation Saturday presented preliminary design plans for parts of the Metropolitan Branch Trail that will link existing off-road segments in Northeast DC with the Maryland border. Read more.

NEW YORK – Julian Hunt went to see the High Line Park in New York City’s West Side before it was even open.

Hunt, a D.C. architect, made the trip as part of a painstaking labor of love. For the better part of a decade, he has been attempting to convert a series of abandoned concrete tunnels beneath Dupont Circle, where streetcars once rumbled, into a menagerie of art galleries, performance space, cafes and exhibitions.

Read more…