New Town in the City
all resulted from the nation’s first urban renewal proj- ect. On the northwest corner of Sixth and M streets is Arena Stage,a leader in the resident com- pany theater movement.Arena Stage was founded as an innovative theater-in-the-round in an old downtown movie theater in .It moved to its Harry Weese-designed building in . At the cor- ner of Sixth and I streets is the Modernist high-rise residential complex of Waterside Towers designed by ChloethielWoodard Smith.Stretching south from M to N Street is Ti ber Island, a pri ze-winning developm ent by Keyes, Lethbridge & Con don. These designs make So ut hwest a showcase of m i d - th-century architecture and planning. St. Augustine Episcopal Church,completed in , was one of s even chu rches built after urban renewal demolished of houses of worship. In the s congressional and city officials nation- wide were stru ggling with the problem of a ged, deteriorating cities. Could they be fixed and beautified, or should they be torn down and built anew? Would better buildings improve the lives of residents if their communities were lost?Could governments re-make cities alone,or did they need help from private devel opers? And would the displaced ever be able to come home again? Southwest offered Congress a test lab.Most South- westers were low-income people who valued their neighborhood but lacked political clout.Nearly half of the housing lacked plumbing.Disease rates were high. Criminal activity inclu ded gambling and prostitution. So beginning in , despite thou- sands of protests, the Redevelopment Land Agency moved , people and cleared the land so that private developers could build a “new town in the city.”Neither urban or suburban, innovative clus- ters of townhouses and high-rise apartments with green spaces and parking made up the new town.
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