Demolition is set to begin this week at the rusting, 63-year-old RFK Stadium in the Northeast corner of the District. While city officials are pushing to renovate the site, at least one architectural firm has published its apparently unsolicited vision for a glitzy new arena on the campus.
KATO Architects’ design for a new RFK Stadium would be the first of its kind, a major NFL-style stadium constructed with timber instead of steel.
The rendering, offered up by KATO founder Kyle Murphy, shows a glamorous modern coliseum that could host the NFL’s Washington Commanders along with major concerts and other sporting events.
According to Mr. Murphy, the city doesn’t have a premier stadium to host major programs like the Olympics or the World Cup. He said his proposal would fix that.
“We don’t have a dedicated national venue here and that would be the ideal place to do that — when you think about Wembley Stadium in England, Mexico has Estadio Azteca,” Mr. Murphy, a Virginia Tech alumnus, told FOX 5. “We’ve been trying to pitch this as something that could be about national pride beyond just being of value to a specific team or certain city.”
The timber construction would reduce the carbon footprint typically associated with such massive projects, the proposal said.
KATO was not contracted by the Commanders or District officials but shared the proposal with both entities.
The design also includes 2,000 housing units “of diverse affordability” in the surrounding area.
Residents in nearby Kingman Park weren’t sold on the idea, though. Mr. Murphy’s rendering featured a highway over some homes, according to Neighborhood Commissioner Ebony Payne.
“The Fields at RFK are there in the rendering, but our neighborhood is not,” Ms. Payne said. “I know the focus is on the stadium, but there are fears about eminent domain. Seeing a rendering with our neighborhood gone and made into a highway is not helpful.”
The use of the RFK Stadium site has been a point of contention between residents and elected officials. Many homeowners in the area, including Ms. Payne, have expressed concerns about trash, traffic and the environmental impact that would accompany an NFL arena.
They’d rather see affordable housing, parks and businesses in the area.
“The community feels like a lot of our more immediate needs are on the back burner because the stadium is really the only thing that the city leadership is wanting to focus on,” Ms. Payne said, noting that her neighborhood is also seeing a surge in crime.
Their concerns returned to the forefront this month as the District restarted the demolition process at RFK Stadium. City contractors had already stripped the interior of the structure and removed asbestos during an earlier phase of the process.
Crews began mobilizing on Jan. 13 with plans to remove parts of the interior and exterior shell by the end of the month. The city is tearing the stadium apart piece by piece instead of an implosion — the more common way to demolish an arena — due to environmental concerns.
Events DC, the city agency in charge of the demolition, said at its most recent quarterly meeting that there would be air quality control and monitoring throughout the process. But the agency has not informed Kingman Park residents how to access that information to ease their concerns.
“There’s been a bit of anxiety about the demolition overall, but the air quality was really the main thing,” Ms. Payne said. “And it’s, historically, a very polluted parcel of land.”
Despite their concerns, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has been adamant in her desire to bring the Commanders back to the District.
Federal legislators passed a bill last month that granted the city a 99-year lease of the RFK Stadium site, allowing local officials to tear down the old structure and build a new development in its place, including a potential new arena.
“We are ready and optimistic about unlocking the full potential of this space,” Ms. Bowser said in a statement last month. “And with more than 170 acres of land, we can do it all — deliver housing, economic opportunity, green space, recreation, sports, and more.”
Commanders owner Josh Harris has said he hopes to open a new stadium for his franchise before the 2030 season. The team has not committed to a return to the District; instead, it is openly courting offers from Washington, Maryland and Virginia.
Talks of a potential home in Northern Virginia cooled off after state legislators killed a proposal to build a home for the Washington Wizards and Capitals last year. But Maryland, which hosts the Commanders’ current home in suburban Landover, is still a contender.
“We are not afraid of competition and we believe that we can continue to build on decades of partnership with the team here in Maryland,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said last month. “We are confident that Landover is still the best path to a new stadium for the Washington Commanders.”
• Liam Griffin can be reached at lgriffin@washingtontimes.com.