BBAR News

Improving Access for Small Businesses East of the River

A small business kiosk is providing added visibility to Black-owned startups from east of the Anacostia River across Washington, D.C., as it hits the road for the very first time this summer.
Known as The Bridge Spot, this distinctive two-tone green mobile kiosk aims to provide visibility and improve marketing and sales for businesses in Wards 7 and 8, with an eye toward helping entrepreneurs build generational wealth. For Angela Chester-Johnson, Founder of the tea, spice and sauce shop Plum Good, The Bridge Spot also offers an opportunity to promote health and well-being across the District and beyond. – Capital One

11th Street Bridge Park set to break ground in late 2023, video nominated for an Emmy Award

The $92 million project, scheduled for completion by early 2026, will be the first elevated park in the nation’s capital – literally a park that is also a bridge. Stretching the length of about three football fields across the Anacostia River, the 11th Street Bridge Park will connect the city’s Navy Yard with the Anacostia neighborhoods in Southeast D.C., particularly the historically disenfranchised neighborhoods of Anacostia, Fairlawn and Barry Farm east of the river. – The Kresge Foundation

First, save what you have, community housing panel tells Northwest Arkansas group

The bridge park — an elevated park built on the piers of a bridge — grew out of a decade-old effort led by residents of that community to preserve their neighborhood. Other panelists were: Scott Kratz, senior vice president of the nonprofit company Building Bridges Across the River, and Vaughn Perry, director of the Skyland Workforce Center in the Anacostia community. – Arkansas Democrat Gazette

How New Investment in Repurposed Infrastructure Can Produce Good Jobs for Residents of Disinvested Communities

Infrastructure reuse projects, which entail the “reconstruction of abandoned or underutilized industrial and transportation infrastructure to create new public open space,” have proliferated nationwide in recent years, including well-known projects like the Atlanta Beltline, DC’s 11th Street Bridge Park, and New York City’s High Line. Because of the new infrastructure funding in the Inflation Reduction Act, signed by President Biden last August, infrastructure reuse projects are likely to expand and multiply. – Urban Institute

New Strategies for Preventing Green Gentrification

The 11th Street Bridge Park in Washington, D.C., which landscape architecture firm OLIN is co-designing with Dutch architecture firm OMA, is a “great example of how to get into a community ahead of time.” Building Bridges Across the River, the non-profit organization leading the development of the park, set up home buyer’s clubs, created robust property protections, and increased support for local businesses and artists, so more of the community will benefit from the new park, even before it’s built. – The Dirt

Look at the Final Designs for DC’s 11th Street Bridge Park

“The park aims to be more than a place for recreation and relaxation: The goal is to knit together the two communities on either end of the span without displacing people in the historically disenfranchised neighborhoods on its eastern side. Residents have been heavily involved in planning, says Scott Kratz, senior vice president for Building Bridges Across the River, a Ward 8-based nonprofit that has been one of the main forces behind the park.” – Washingtonian

Can Anacostia Build a Bridge Without Displacing Its People?

“People in Ward 8 wanted this project, as small as it was, to be different. They wanted it to enrich the Black community that was already there, not accelerate an influx of white people. They wanted the value created by the bridge park to be invested in their neighborhoods. They wanted to own their own homes. They wanted well-paid jobs. They wanted art and music — and artists and musicians as neighbors. They wanted fresh food and safe streets.

It was a lot to ask of a bridge. But Mr. Kratz quickly learned that he couldn’t just build a bridge and ignore the needs of the community that contained it.” – The New York Times

Public Art Commissions Selected for 11th Street Bridge Park – Four Local DC-area, all-women artist teams to create art pieces tied to park’s design principles and values

In response to over 200 community meetings where public art was prioritized, a lighted sculpture inspired by plants growing along the Anacostia River; a mural depicting the African American and Native American experiences tied to caring for the land, hammocks created to honor DC culture reflective of the community; and design of a mobile, small business kiosk aimed at supporting East of the River Black entrepreneurs were selected from over 60 entries by the park’s curatorial committee comprised of local residents, experts, and artists. – PoPville

11th Street Bridge Park Project Commissions Four More Artworks From Local Artists

The team behind the 11th Street Bridge Park project has selected four installations by local creatives to enliven the seven acres of new park space set to open in Southeast D.C. in 2025. All four of the pieces have been designed by women, which is becoming a bit of a theme for the park’s larger art collection. Last year, the nonprofit that is raising money to build the park announced it had commissioned a large sculpture by mother-daughter-duo Jackson Jarvis Studio. -DCist

11th Street Bridge Park Announces Selection of Major Commissioned Artwork by Martha Jackson Jarvis and Njena Surae Jarvis

On February 16, 2022, ​ the 11th Street Bridge Park​—a partnership between the local non-profit Building Bridges Across the River (BBAR) and the District government—announced the selection of Anacostia’s Sunrise/Sunset Portals by DC-based artists Martha Jackson Jarvis and Njena Surae Jarvis of Jackson Jarvis Studio as the park’s first and largest commissioned artwork. – East City Art

Opinion: A bridge-turned-park in Southeast can be a national example of how to reconnect communities

Largely overlooked in President Biden’s economic recovery and infrastructure plan is sweeping effort to reconnect communities divided by urban highways. The $20 billion in aid Biden proposed in his American Jobs Plan would be a historic effort to correct the racism in how we built our highway system and lay the groundwork for reinvigorating neighborhoods… – The Washington Post

How a Washington, DC coalition is using place-based cash relief to advance an equitable COVID-19 recovery

Today’s public health and economic crises have brought long-overdue attention to our nation’s deeply engrained challenges of income inequity, structural racism, and a tattered safety net. Moreover, they reveal how these challenges unfold spatially to concentrate in neighborhoods that have continuously wrestled with economic exclusion, disinvestment, and discrimination – creating an urgent need for place-based solutions that provide relief to the most impacted people in the hardest-hit neighborhoods – The Brookings Institution

Washington, D.C.’s 11th Street Bridge Park gets blessing from National Capital Planning Commission

The 11th Street Bridge Park, a vaguely High Line-y elevated park that’s eternally been in the works for Washington, D.C.’s Anacostia river-severed southeastern quadrant, has passed a major milestone by receiving the green light from the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC). The good news was shared by the New York office of OMA, one of two firms—the other being Philadelphia-based landscape design studio OLIN—behind the design of the programming-packed, 1.45-mile-long recreational park will span the Anacostia River along the revitalized bones of an old 1960s-era vehicular bridge. – The Architect’s Newspaper

CAUSES: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT; THE 11TH STREET BRIDGE PARK

The University of the District of Columbia is the only exclusively urban land-grant university in the United States. The College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences is charged with leading the university’s land-grant mission. We accomplish this through research based academic and community outreach programs that improve the quality of life and economic opportunities for Washington DC residents and organizations – YouTube

UPDATE ON THE UPBEAT – THE 11TH STREET BRIDGE PARK

By now, nearly everyone has heard of the plan to build a broad pedestrian park and entertainment center on the piers of the old 11th Street bridge that were left after the freeway and local roads were rebuilt in the last few years. The idea is to construct a broad band the length of three football fields across the river, connecting Capitol Hill with historic Anacostia through a series of spaces providing recreation, art, and environmental education. – Hill Rag

BTM RADIO SHOW W/ SCOTT KRATZ DIRECTOR OF 11TH STREET BRIDGE PARK

For the last four years, Scott has been working with the Washington D.C. Office of Planning and the Ward 8 nonprofit Building Bridges Across the River at THEARC to transform an old freeway bridge into a park above the Anacostia River. The old 11th Street Bridges that connect Capitol Hill with communities east of the river have reached the end of their lifespan, Scott is working with the community to use the base of one of the bridges to create a one of a kind civic space supporting active recreation, environmental education, and the arts. Scott is a resident of Barrack’s Row and has lived in Washington D.C. for the last 10 years. He has worked in the education field for twenty years and began his career teaching at Kidspace. – BTM Radio Show

THE 11TH STREET BRIDGE PARK

The 11th Street Bridge Park re-imagines a defunct bridge span as a new citizen destination for recreation and entertainment. The resulting park will be an economic anchor for the surrounding neighborhoods, and provide economic opportunities for residents, during construction and beyond. Spearheaded by Ward 8’s Building Bridges Across the River at THEARC, the park is one of the most collaborative projects to start up in D.C. in recent years. – Prime Settlement

PRE-CONSTRUCTION ON 11TH STREET BRIDGE PARK COULD BEGIN IN SEPTEMBER

While it may not seem as though much has happened since the design for the 11th Street Bridge Park was unveiled two years ago, UrbanTurf has learned that pre-construction for the highly-anticipated park could begin next month, putting it on a schedule to be complete in three years. – UrbanTurf

learned that pre-construction for the highly-anticipated park could begin next month, putting it on a schedule to be complete in three years. -Urban Turf

EQUITABLE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING AND URBAN PARK SPACE: EARLY INSIGHTS FROM DC’S 11TH STREET BRIDGE PARK PROJECT

“The vision for DC’s 11th Street Bridge Park, a new $45 million elevated park that will span the Anacostia River, is ambitious: create recreational and environmental value for the city, and connect distressed neighborhoods on the east side of the river to the more affluent neighborhoods on the west side. But to realize this vision, planners must honestly answer, who is this for?” – Mary Bogle, Urban Institute – Urban Institute

BRIDGING THE CITY: BRIDGE PARK MURAL RECEPTION AT THEARC

It’ll be great to have a shiny new 11th Street bridge complex, connecting Wards 6 and 8 and deftly rearranging traffic on 295 and 695. But there is much work to be done to properly bridge the city: there are emotional and cultural scars that divide us more than unite us. Last night’s Bridge Park Mural reception at THEARC, 1901 Mississippi Avenue SE, proved that art is what brings us together and speaks to us most directly. – The Hill is Home

2015 ArtPlace America National Grants Program Grantees

Today marks an exciting day as we announce and welcome the latest round of National Grants Program grantees to the ArtPlace family! We’re thrilled to share with you the work of the 38 unique projects in this year’s National Grants Program pool and hope you take the time learn more about them here. 50% of this year’s grantees are first-time ArtPlace applicants, 97% of them are first-time ArtPlace grantees, and 29% work in rural communities. – ArtPlace America

2015 National Grants Program Finalists

ArtPlace is proud to announce the 90 projects that have been selected as finalists for consideration for its 2015 National Grants Program. Each of these finalists have proposed opportunities for the arts to play an explicit and intentional role in a community development project that seeks to strengthen the social, physical, and economic fabric of a community. 11th Street Bridge Park submitted a proposal in partnership with Washington Performing Arts; we are proud to be selected as finalists in this grant program. – ArtPlace America

Community to Help Design New Park on Old Freeway Bridge over Washington, D.C. River

As the old 11th Street river bridges that connect Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill and historic Anacostia neighborhoods are being replaced, the District government and a local nonprofit organization, Building Bridges Across the River at THEARC, will transform part of this aged infrastructure into the city’s first elevated park: a new venue for healthy recreation, environmental education and the arts. – Greater Greater Washington