Community VISION

Reclaiming DC's Unique History

...and FUTURE

Through preservation, conservation, and innovation, to reclaim the McMillan Sand Filtration site and create a vibrant community and economic asset -– transforming a sustainable past into a sustainable future.

• Creating over 14 ACRES of much needed, publicly accessible parkland for Wards 5, 1 & 4

• Utilizing the underground filter cells for retail & economic development

• Preserving & showcasing McMillan’s unique architecture & technology as a turn-of-the-century Public Health Landmark

• Including public services such as library, senior center, recreation center

• Uncovering the stream under the site (the Tiber River) for community recreation and effective stormwater & aquifer management

• Factoring in the impact of other development in this area of DC

• Proposing necessary improvements to the currently inadequate transportation network surrounding McMillan

Through…

COMMUNITY PROCESS

Engaging all stakeholders through an open, democratic, and participatory process

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

Creatively transforming the site's unique above- and below-ground features using future-friendly building methods and materials

MUNICIPAL, FEDERAL & PRIVATE COLLABORATION

Forming public-private partnerships to develop and maintain the new McMillan. Possible partners include the DC Department of Parks & Recreation, US Departments of Energy and Agriculture, the Smithsonian, the National Arboretum, the National Park Service, NASA, and other partners potentially interested in using the site

ECONOMIC VIABILITY

Creating a DESTINATION offering unique, site-realted amenities, retail, dining, entertainment

Generating jobs for LOCAL residents

Incorporating a new National Center for Sustainable Technology to inspire scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs

Community CONCERNS

Density, Traffic and Quality-of-Life

The 25-acre McMillan site is located at the center of numerous planned development projects. How will the combined structural density and increased congestion impact our neighborhoods?

To date:

• No comprehensive or credible traffic or transportation study has been completed &/or made public.

• No environmental impact or stormwater & aquifer management studies have been completed &/or made public.

• No historic preservation study has been submitted for review. Although the study has apparently been completed, EYA has refused to release the results.

• No land value assessment of this prime 25-acre parcel has been made available.

• No definitive total of what this will cost DC taxpayers (most recent estimates were $60-80 million dollars for initial site preparation)

• No answers as to if & how EYA will secure financing for a project of this magnitude.

• No response regarding the profit that EYA stands to make from the private development of this PUBLIC land.

• Despite numerous requests, EYA has yet to provide ANY documentation regarding the above issues.

• Repeated community requests for needed public services have gone unheeded in "new" plan iterations.

• Plans proposed by EYA offer less than 2 acres of public park

• EYA proposes to destroy all historic underground filter cells

NEARBY PLANNED DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY
LOCATION	ACRES	OWNER
McMillan Sand Filtration Site	25	District
Soldiers Home - East Campus	49	Federal
Soldiers Home - West Campus	65	Federal
Rhode Island Ave / Brentwood Metro	27	WMATA
Marriott Hotel & Conference Center	6	District
Catholic University	9	private
Georgia Avenue / HU Town Center	2	multiple
Brookland / CUA Metro	7	WMATA
New York Avenue Metro	n/a	multiple
North Capitol Street Retail	n/a	multiple
Fort Totten Metro	n/a	WMATA
… and others

McMillan's Story

McMillan’s Story

Meeting the Needs of a Growing Capital

To handle population growth and municipal sanitation needs, Congress authorized a formidable engineering project: the construction of Washington's first water treatment facility, a monumental slow sand filtration system. Water would be channeled from the Georgetown Reservoir through the Washington City Tunnel to a tract of land north of the city for purification.

Completed in 1905, the reservoir and filtration plant were named in honor of Senator James McMillan of Michigan, who chaired the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia and supported development of the new water supply facilities. McMillan Park is an integral part of the McMillan Commission’s “Emerald Necklace“ open greenspace strategy for the Nation’s Capital.

The original McMillan Park gardens were designed by the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. & Sr. Olmsted Sr. is known as the “father of American landscape architecture, having designed such landmarks as New York’s Central Park. McMillan’s neighbors enjoyed access to much of the park until World War II.

A public health milestone, McMillan’s innovative system of water purification, which relied on sand rather than chemicals, led to the elimination of typhoid epidemics and the reduction of many other communicable diseases in the city.

Subsequent improvements to the city water system were initiated in the 1920s, with the regular use of chlorine as a disinfectant implemented in 1923 at the McMillan filtration plant, and an additional treatment plant completed adjacent to the Dalecarlia Reservoir in 1928. The Dalecarlia facility was further expanded in the 1950s.

In 1985, the slow sand filtration plant at McMillan was replaced with a new rapid sand filter plant. The Department of Interior via the National Park Service offered the site to the District government for free, if it would maintain a substantial portion of the site as park space.

The McMillan Park Committee (a citizen-based group of the surrounding neighborhoods) along with The National Trust for Historic Preservation, filed a federal lawsuit and received a federal injunction blocking development on the site in 1990. Subsequently, the McMillan Park Committee nominated the site as a D.C. and National landmark.

McMillan has been recommended for designation as National Historic Site by the D.C. Historic Preservation Board and supported by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Sadly, this national treasure is now listed on the DC Preservation League's "Most Endangered" list.

What's At Stake

An Endangered Treasure

From 2000 to 2002, at the City's request, the local community, led by a team of noted architects and planners, engaged in an extensive charrette process, resulting in a comprehensive study of area needs and prospective design solutions.

The McMillan complex is a wonderful example of sustainable civic infrastructure built in the past. How can it become part of our shared sustainable future? The site has been dormant and inaccessible since 1985. It offers a challenge: how to recover it as a community asset and to re-inhabit it by creatively transforming its unique features.

In the 2002 study, the community and city agreed that the following goals would inform any future development plans for McMillan --

♣ Provide Open Space

♣ Preserve and Adaptively Reuse the Site Features

♣ Be Creative

♣ Mitigate Neighborhood Impacts

♣ Make It Feasible

♣ Be Responsive to Community Needs & Concerns

In 2007, a new "community process" was instituted: the McMillan Advisory Group (MAG) – a committee comprised of (1) neighborhood and civic representatives, (2) Clint Jackson of the Executive Office of the Mayor, (3) various local elected officials and (4) Aakash Thakkar of EYA Development and EYA’s prospective development partners.

The selection of a Master Developer for the McMillan site was never open to a competitive bidding process. A competitive process of selecting a Master Developer and vision for the site would present creative alternatives for the site and creative financing alternatives for the City that may not require public money.

Currently, EYA and its partners are lobbying hard to obtain a Land Use Agreement in order to build over this 25-acre parcel. Their private development plans include massive construction covering over about 90% of this PUBLIC land. Their building bonanza proposes a shopping strip, supermarket, hotel, nursing home, numerous medical office buildings of the scale of Children’s’ Hospital, and over 1200 housing units....

This area of the city has no public parkland, recreation facilities, senior services, or library. Neighbors are asking for community-enhancing public facilities to be included in proposed development plans. EYA’s proposals offer NONE of these quality-of-life community features.

Nonetheless, EYA and partners are currently seeking taxpayer funding, estimated at $60 million or more, to cover their initial “site preparation” costs – which will destroy most of the historic structures on the site.

Site Tour: COURTYARDS

Beautiful Boulevards

The above-ground structures on McMillan, the Sand Silos and Regulator Houses, are situated along two Courtyards, running east to west along the upper and lower portions of the site.

The dome and spire of Catholic University rise above McMillan's sand silos to the northeast.

From this vantage point, you can see the rowhouses along North Capitol Street. The northern courtyard is about 4 feet below grade on the eastern, North Capital, side. Further below street-level on the First Street side to the west. The southern courtyard is rises about 10 feet above street level.

Due north lies the Washington Hospital Center.

The towers and cottage-like red brick houses create a natural avenue.

Looking northwest, Children's Hospital is visible beyond the northern courtyard.

Notice the graceful undulations of the landscape. Under the hillock is one of the entryways to the vaulted chambers below ground.

The original landscaping included ivies and lush greenery to enhance the above-ground structures.

The leaves turn to brilliant golds and crimson in the autumn.

Site Tour: UNDERGROUND CHAMBERS

Buried Treasure!

The Vaulted Caverns

Much of McMillan's magic hides buried beneath its surface.

Under the surface of the park are twenty underground "filter cells," each about an acre in size.

Graceful archways form a colonnade as you descend the ramp into this underground marvel.

Water flowed into the chambers, slowly percolating through about eight feet of sand and several layers of gravel. It was then extracted, providing purified drinking water for our growing Capital.

Prior to McMillan, water was carted in from the Washington aqueduct untreated!

Notice the stratification on the surface. Years of water flowing in and out of the cells has caused much of the concrete to harden, much like petrified wood, strengthening its structural integrity.

McMillan's cutting-edge technology was a public health breakthrough in municipal water purification.

Site Tour: REGULATOR HOUSES

A Marriage of

Technology and Architecture

There are four regulator houses, two on each of McMillan's courtyards.

These red brick buildings housed

the mechanics of our Capital city's water filtration technology.

Notice the lovely detail in

the brickwork

and the red clay tile rooftop.

Now let's take a look inside...

These are the wheels and guages that the technicians used to control the sand filttration machinery.

The tour pictured below is being led by Clint Jackson, at that time an employee of NCRC,

the development company previously considered for McMillan.

Mr. Jackson now works for the Mayor's office overseeing the McMillan project.

Site Tour: SAND SILOS

A Towering Achievement

The most recognized structures on the McMillan Sand Filtration Site are the sand silos.

Encircled in ivy they

stand sentry over the silent park.

In order to ensure the delivery of pure water, the

sand in the filtration system required routine cleaning. The sand silos facilitated this process.

These concrete vats were also part of the sand-washing process.

Now lush with greenery, they appear to be large planters.

At sunset, the towers are bathed in a golden light. From a distance,

they have been imagined to be giant old-fashioned bread ovens and the homes of druids....

McMillan FACTS

Historic McMillan: FACTSHEET

LOCATION

• BOUNDARIES: North: Michigan Avenue; East: North Capitol Street; South: Channing Street; West: First Street.
• WARDS: Situated entirely in Ward 5, immediately abutting Wards 1 & 4.
• NEIGHBORHOODS: Bloomingdale, Brookland, Edgewood, LeDroit Park, Park Place, Pleasant Plains, Stronghold

SIZE & STRUCTURES

Approximately 25 acres in total. Comprised of 20 vaulted underground cells of non-reinforced concrete (about 1 acre each) and two above-ground courts of sand silos & regulator houses

FUNCTION

Chemical-free purification technology provided clean and safe drinking water until replaced by chlorine treatment in 1986.

DESIGN

• Integral part of the McMillan Commission’s “Emerald Necklace“ open greenspace strategy for the Nation’s Capital.
• Original McMillan Park gardens were designed by renowned landscape architecture firm of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. & Sr., designers of New York’s Central Park

HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE

• Listed on District’s Inventory of Historic Sites since 1991
• Listed on the DC Preservation League's "Most Endangered" list
• Recommended for designation as a National Historic Site by the D.C. Historic Preservation Board and supported by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

COMMUNITY SIGNIFICANCE

• Once offered stunning publicly accessible parkland
• Located amidst neighborhoods with no recreation facilities.
• NO nearby public parks, NO senior center, NO library.
• Nearest community recreation center over a mile away.

POTENTIAL

• In its day, a world-class architectural and technological marvel.
• Today, a Landmark with huge potential to provide both economic development and community services.