Balancing Inspired Design with Function

When Virginia Tech architecture student Kate Rutledge first saw the corner of Mt. Vernon and E. Oxford Avenues two years ago, she didn't see anything special. It was nothing more memorable than empty tables, a bus stop and a parking lot. 

"It certainly didn't invite people to gather," she recalled in an email. "When we returned on a farmers market day, the scene was much different. It was lively and welcoming. Families were crowded around the edges with dogs and strollers. Neighbors were greeting one another, which created a small-town atmosphere that one doesn't often find in the busy metro-D.C. area."

A graduate student at the time, Rutledge was one of 10 students from the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Consortium tasked with designing plans to improve the Del Ray spot. The school is an extension of Virginia Tech in Old Town.

The idea for giving a dramatic facelift to the oft-used corner started with Camilo Bearman, a Del Ray resident and architect who graduated from the school. Bearman knew neighborhood events beyond the farmers market often were held at the corner and that people frequently took their custard cones or coffee cups to the picnic benches to sit. The site already operated as a de facto town square; he thought it deserved to look like one too.

"I was walking by the site, thought we could do it better," he said.

After talking to city and local officials, Bearman contacted a former professor at WAAC and eventually agreed to lead an independent study class focused entirely on the farmers market corner. 

The students started by interviewing people at the market—from vendors to visitors—to ask what they envisioned for the site. "People had lots of practical and fantastical ideas and were very willing to share," Rutledge wrote. "It made me realize that architects are often disconnected from the end-users of the building or space they are designing."

They heard from people who wanted more seating at the corner and others who wanted more green space. The challenge was deciding which to incorporate. Before drafting any designs, the students also met with city officials from the several departments: Planning and Zoning, Building and Fire Code and Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities.

Rutledge, who works as an architectural designer in Pennsylvania now, said the prospect of studying architecture in an urban environment was the reason she chose to spend her final year of graduate school at the Old Town campus. The project allowed her to do that but also gave her practical experience working with city officials and tailoring projects to real constraints. 

"Often in architecture school, reality is suspended, and things like budgets, zoning and conflicting interests are taken off the table to focus on the design," she said. "In practice, however, these things can become deal-breakers if not incorporated in the project early and often."

The city was excited about the project, but the students learned immediately that their designs had to retain the parking lot, she said. They also learned the city was passionate about sustainable design and interested in funding, public safety, Metro access and the farmers, Bearman said. 

Last spring, six banners hung in the windows at that introduced several of the students' designs including the one Rutledge worked on. It featured colorful built-in tables and benches, a nod to the eclectic nature of Del Ray and the fact that seating at the farmers market seemed scarce. It also included a painted parking lot with a map of the neighborhood and a 50-foot long stone-clad community chalkboard near the State Farm Insurance Building. 

One design highlighted the neighborhood's history as a railroad town and another questioned the need to maintain the parking lot and instead called for construction of a pavilion. 

The plan that eventually won out includes student-inspired elements and focuses heavily on using resources generated on site from rain water to solar power. It calls for the construction of a covered walkway running parallel to E. Oxford Avenue that also incorporates the Metro bus stop, a long bench, a rain garden and covered bike parking.

This is the third story in a four-part series about the proposed Del Ray Market Square.