Is it time to seriously — again — explore underground parking on the National Mall?
The National Mall Coalition, which has advocated for an underground parking option for many years, thinks so, and it is asking the D.C. Council for help.
Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and Councilmen Jack Evans, D-Ward 2, and Charles Allen, D-Ward 6, have co-sponsored a bill to gauge council support of a feasibility study for underground parking. The nonprofit coalition would pay the estimated $100,000 cost of the study, which would be conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“From my personal point of view, an underground facility would solve a lot of problems,” Evans told me. “You could have parking at all those museums, parking for tour buses. So I would really like to take a look at it. We need to know what is under there. Are there water pipes? Can you even build under there?”
The coalition, whose members include veteran D.C. architect Arthur Cotton Moore and developer Albert Small, conducted…
