THE ARC

The Town Hall Education Arts & Recreation Campus (THE ARC) is a $27 million cultural arts, recreation education and health facility located in Anacostia, the most impoverished, underserved sector of the nation's capital city. Completed in 2005, THE ARC consists of 110,000 breathtaking square feet in two buildings in Oxon Run, scenic but long-neglected federal parkland in the District's Ward 8. The facility contains a 369-seat state-of-the-art performing arts theater (the only theater east of the Anacostia River), two ballet studios, a computer lab, a middle school, a full gymnasium and facilities for league sports, art and music studios, a teen center, senior programs, health facilities, job training, GED and adult continuing education classes, summer camp and after school programs, and many other amenities. It serves both symbolically and in practical terms as a town hall by providing ample meeting space, conference rooms and multi-purpose rooms for use by the Advisory Neighborhood Commission, Police PSA, tenant associations and other community organizations. The theater and gymnasium at The ARC were designed to host large meetings and community events, student performances, graduations, lectures and concerts. Winner of 2007 Urban Land Institute's National Award of Excellence The ARC represents a resourceful new use of an underused and dangerous site, transforming it into an extraordinary civic jewel for Washington's most underserved and poorest Ward.

Client William C. Smith Companies Location Anacostia, Ward 8, Washington, DC Size 16 Acres

Services Landscape architecture Programming Permitting