Urban Institute Celebrates New Headquarters
Sourced from Urban Institute
03/11/2019
Created in 1968 to bring unbiased evidence to bear in solving America’s social and economic ills, the Urban Institute has always known a single home in Washington, DC.
That changes March 11, when the Institute’s staff of more than 525 researchers, analysts, and experts take up residence at brand-new headquarters: 500 L’Enfant Plaza in the District’s Southwest quadrant.
Urban will occupy eight floors of a new, LEED-certified, JBG Smith building. It features a state-of-the art conference center, a rooftop terrace, and proximity to Metro, the surrounding federal office complex, and the Wharf.
“Urban has accomplished so much in its first fifty years at 2100 M Street. Over decades, we have greatly grown our staff, expertise, and capacity for both developing world-class research and sharing it with the world,” said Urban Institute president Sarah Rosen Wartell. “As we begin our next fifty years, we move to a new headquarters that empowers us to build on that legacy and embrace the future, with powerful new technology, welcoming spaces in which to collaborate and host public events, and a location in a rapidly evolving neighborhood.”
Wartell continued, “Urban has always been proud to call DC home. I am excited about the new role we will play in Southwest DC. Surrounded by federal offices, high-end redevelopment, and families that have long lived in affordable housing, Urban can work with these seemingly disparate communities toward a vision of inclusive growth and shared prosperity, drawing from our work to make greater DC an area of opportunity.”
Through its Greater DC initiative, Urban is bringing data and analysis to strengthen the performance of DC public schools, help the region absorb the impact of Amazon HQ2 on housing, ensure community residents benefit from development of the 11th Street Bridge Park, and close wealth gaps among communities. Urban even sheds light on what bike shares can tell us about the inequity among DC neighborhoods.
Inspired by its milestone anniversary, Urban has launched a Next50 initiative, exploring what it would take to advance equity and upward mobility in the decades ahead.