The model offers a visual layout of the 25-year plan to centralize the city around the river. The initiative itself was finalized and presented officially last month. Upon completion, the Anacostia Waterfront area will be a city within a city, with everything from residential to commercial offerings. "The AWI Plan is more than just a vision for the waterfront," DC Mayor Anthony A. Williams explains. "It's is a vision for 21st-century Washington with the Anacostia River at its center."

A quarter-century from now, the AWI framework will have put in place along the waterfront 20 million sf of office space, one million sf of retail space, 20,000 housing units and 100 acres of parklands. To date, three facets of the plan have been ironed out in detail. The Hill East Master Plan calls for extending Massachusetts Avenue to meet the river, where developers will build the Village Square of residential buildings with ground-level retail and a sprawling park to be called the Meadows. The Southwest Waterfront Plan will allow for the redevelopment of a 50-acre parcel into a mixed-use neighborhood with two million sf of construction and 14 acres of parklands. Among the new development will be a 1,200-space Visitor and Transportation Center, a Market Square and new public piers.

And the Near Southeast Urban Design Framework lays out a plan for the addition of nearly 14 million sf of office space, 700,000 sf of retail space, 4,000 residential units and 40 acres of open space. "With the release of the AWI Framework Plan and the introduction of legislation to create a waterfront corporation, the momentum for a revitalized Anacostia is building," says DC Office of Planning director Andrew Altman.