Students from ARCH 402 were treated to a tour, last month, of two project sites in Washington, D.C.’s emerging Southwest waterfront, as they prep designs for a multi-family housing project in the Baltimore neighborhood of Mount Vernon. The two projects, designed by Perkins Eastman, offered a glimpse at new, sustainably-focused development that balances market trends—like the demand for urban, amenity-heavy, swanky enclaves—with the existing neighborhood context. Earlier in the month, students explored Mount Vernon to gain a better understanding of the project goal: a contextual response to both a changing environment and social climate. “The project challenges students to design a sustainable building in a very historic neighborhood,” explains lecturer Brittany Williams. “They must grapple with how the design fits within the context of both the neighborhood’s history and Baltimore’s emerging identity.”