Dick Wolf Memorial Lecture: Personal connection to place is key to future of cities like DC
What do you love about your city? What do you hope it becomes? Personal connections are the key to successful urban planning in cities like DC, said James Darius Ball, director of the National Building Museum’s Future Cities initiative.
Ball delivered the Capitol Hill Restoration Society’s annual Dick Wolf Memorial Lecture on February 11 at the Hill Center.
The goal of Future Cities is to make urban design and development about people’s ties to place, Ball said: “We want to increase a sense of belonging in the process, so that we can increase the sense of belonging in the outcome.”
Ball mentioned DC’s Comprehensive Plan, the city’s 20-year vision of future land use, growth and development. The District’s Office of Planning embarked on a full rewrite of the plan in 2025.
“When I approach you and I say, `Hey, do you want to talk about the Comprehensive Plan?’ It’s like, `No, I don’t,’” Ball said.
“But if we can approach them with, `What do you hope the future of your community becomes? What do you hope that your places that you care about have?’ That’s a starting point to a conversation,” he said.
Rather than deciding in advance what cities should become, Ball said the initiative decided to pursue five “plotlines” or themes to help people find common ground: Affordable living, thriving communities, resilient infrastructure, health and innovative systems.
The hope is to bring people together on issues that often divide them along political and cultural lines.
Ball showed the audience a mapping tool called “I Hope This Becomes.” Users respond, in person or online, by pinning locations on the map and adding written reflections. The platform has generated more than 2,000 entries, Ball said.
The online platform is part of Coming Together, an exhibition that opened in September about how US cities are responding to post-pandemic shifts in downtown areas, housing and culture.
“This idea of community is so essential, arguably something we’ve lost post-pandemic,” Ball said.
Programming extends beyond the exhibit. Last fall, the museum launched an online series, Future Fridays, that highlights personal narratives and community perspectives from across the country.
The initiative will build toward larger efforts through 2027, including more exhibits and a fall event that will combine arts and culture with opportunities to engage in DC planning.
The Dick Wolf Memorial Lecture is named for former CHRS president Dick Wolf, a city planner and activist who championed historic preservation. The lecture series features themes of historic preservation and urban planning in Washington.