Can D.C's Homeless Live in Discarded Subway Cars?

[elleng]

Visionary architect Arthur Cotton Moore’s latest idea: an affordable housing project built out of old Metro cars.

'Last month, The Washington Post floated a pretty wild idea: transforming decommissioned Metro cars into housing for the homeless. The man behind the notion is architect Arthur Cotton Moore, who happens to be a neighbor of ours here at the Watergate complex. So we walked over to his top-floor apartment to learn more.

A lifelong Washingtonian, Moore, 81, has been an avid urban recycler for decades. He’s restored historic spaces such as the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, the Cairo Hotel, and the Old Post Office Pavilion and designed new ones like the Phillips Collection. The offices from which he and his wife, Patricia, operate their architectural design firm overlook one such project—the Washington Harbour complex on the Potomac River.

Moore’s 1972 book The Powers of Preservation: New Life for Urban Historic Places highlights examples of his work in Washington, as well as New York, Charleston, Nashville, Winston-Salem, and Baltimore. One of his most celebrated adaptive reuse successes: The combination of Canal Square and The Foundry along Georgetown’s C&O Canal, which Moore repurposed into a commercial square, office spaces, and a concert venue in the 1970s.'>>>

https://www.citylab.com/housing/2017/03/can-dcs-homeless-live-in-discarded-subway-cars/518904/?utm_source=SFFB

[Docreed2003]

1. Very cool Ellen

The article mentions Moore had done some historical preservation work in Nashville, any idea what that might be??? I checked google but came up empty.

[elleng]

2. Dunno. Have seen him and his work around DC a lot.

P.S, Veteran architect leaves Trump team on Old Post Office project.

'Arthur Cotton Moore, the local architect, author and painter picked by Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka to design a redevelopment of the Old Post Office Pavilion, has dropped out of the project to take a medical leave of absence, according to his wife and business partner, Patricia Moore.

In an interview, Patricia Moore declined to detail her husband’s health problems, but said he was still working on two books despite having to cut back on his architecture work. “It should be a temporary thing, as far as his pulling back,” she said.

Moore, a sixth-generation Washingtonian who attended St. Albans School, provided the Trump Organization with a local and trusted architectural voice in winning a competition to be named developer of the project by the General Services Administration. Moore’s past projects include the renovation of the Library of Congress, the Washington Harbour complex on the Georgetown waterfront and Canal Square in Georgetown.'>>>

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/veteran-architect-leaves-trump-team-on-old-post-office-project/2012/09/28/bd1279a6-081f-11e2-a10c-fa5a255a9258_story.html?utm_term=.5afd285ed2f2

[Warpy]

3. They'd need an extensive amount of work to be habitable.

Uninsulated, mostly metal subway cars perched above ground are going to be damned cold in winter and damned hot in summer. They'll keep the rain and snow off, but that's about it.

I was working in DC when the Metro was being built. Odd to think it's now old enough to have decommissioned cars.

[elleng]

4. I agree it's odd to think it's old enough but

have lived in the area since '78, cars were NEW then, and I've watched them (and the system) age over the years. Saddens me, but that's life.

[Warpy]

5. Well, I was used to Boston at the time

when they had to keep light rail cars, mostly from the late 40s, going forever with cannibalized parts. Eventually they found an outfit in Sweden (I think) that would build new cars to fit old trolley tracks. Some of the subway cars on one line still had wooden seats.

The old wooden escalators were a laugh and a half, too, especially for women who wore spike heels. They did.not.work.

[elleng]

6. Oh BOSTON's system is OLD!