At Walter Reed site, officials push for a town center

It has been more than a year since patients walked down the ramp from the massive concrete hospital, wheelchairs rolled along the paved paths that crisscross the lawns and nurses headed to work stepped off the No. 70 bus at the corner of Georgia Avenue NW and Butternut Street NW.

Walter Reed Army Medical Center closed a year ago, and District planners, Army officials and residents from surrounding neighborhoods have been thinking about how every inch of the campus may be used in the future, from the stately hospital building where President Dwight D. Eisenhower died to the 1,000-space underground parking garage built in the 1970s.

The base’s closure has been painful for businesses along Georgia Avenue NW that fed and supplied those frequenting Walter Reed, but the city has proposed a town center development in the hospital’s stead, and a number of affordable-housing builders and schools have already claimed portions of the site. By early next year, District officials hope to begin a search for a private development partner.

Walter Reed is surrounded by neighborhoods — Shepherd Park, Brightwood and Takoma — whose residents typically have to leave the city to shop.

Read the full story from The Washington Post here.