Francis Scott Key Park
M Street at 34th, MW

Wahington DC
1993

Francis Scott Key Park is a small urban oasis, “a place formed from a non place...a splendid addition to what ahd been the somewhat rag tag west end of commercial Georgetown” (Benjamin Forgey, The Washington Post, 9/11/1993). Its centerpiece is a circular terrace with pergola, set off from M Street traffic by mounded plantings. The pergola’s limestone columns frame a bronze bust of Francis Scott Key (with 15 star flag flying - not by accident - in the background), and angling southward, a magnificent overview of the City along the Potomac. Brownstone stairs lead down from the pergola to a Gerogetown canal overlook. A bikeway wraps around the hillside to the same destination. DDA’s Principal, Nancy Watkins Denig, ASLA, was project landscape architect in charge of site planning and design development for this park.