District officials reopened a Foggy Bottom dog park and playground late last month after a seven-monthlong series of renovations.
Contractors installed all-new playground equipment, improved drainage in the dog park area and added a ramp to access the park and a line of evergreen trees positioned between the playground and K Street, reopening the park on 26th and I streets after seven months. D.C. in 2016 repaired the park’s collapsing fence — which District officials determined presented a safety hazard — but neighbors said the work was incomplete as dilapidated equipment and an inadequate drainage system remained and that the park required additional renovations.
The D.C. Council approved funding to renovate the 26th and I streets park in 2017, but the project didn’t receive funds from the District until 2022 and didn’t begin construction until early 2025. A series of complications, including changing contractors, caused officials to scale back the project, ditching an original plan to move the playground further from K Street.
The Foggy Bottom Association, a neighborhood organization promoting the civic, cultural, social and economic welfare of Foggy Bottom and West End, created a committee in February and ran an electronic survey in March to select a name for the park, FBA President John George said.
FBA President John George said the outcome of the survey, which allowed community members to suggest names, was “Greens Court Park.” The name refers to a historic alley in the block west of the park occupied now by the Potomac River Freeway.
“We are doing it more as a reflection on our history so that people can recognize that over time, things changed, but we don’t forget,” George said.
George said the current park renovations are a continuation of efforts community members have engaged in since the 1980s to create a space for children to play outdoors in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, especially for young families and mothers.
“They got together, and they petitioned the city in order to buy a fence and some limited playground equipment,” George said of the neighbors in the 1980s. “So that corner, where the current children’s park is, was a very grassroots effort.”
George said he observed a desire among neighbors for dog park improvements in a survey of the neighborhood in 2020 but said COVID-19 and permitting issues with both the D.C. departments of general services and parks and recreation delayed the work.
“On this particular project, I think because resources were diverted elsewhere, there just wasn’t the attention that this particular project needed,” George said.
DGS initially in 2024 planned to move the dog park altogether to a location further from K Street, a change George said would alleviate concerns about traffic noise and crossing a large road. He said District agencies recognized the annoyance and danger of K Street, so they put up the trees to improve its environment.
The Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission endorsed DGS’s initial plan to swap the playground and dog park in April 2024, but nature-preservation concerns — particularly about protected “heritage trees” along the site’s perimeter — pushed officials to reconsider the design. DGS scrapped the swap and scaled the project back to renovations, delaying the timeline further as officials drafted a revised plan until November.
2A04 Commissioner Ed Comer said in July 2024 the move stemmed from a contractor’s determination that large trees nearby prohibited construction required to swap locations. The ANC unanimously approved the simplified renovation plan in November, and construction began in February after the Public Space Committee issued permits in December.
“DDOT has since planted a pretty substantial set of trees to act as a buffer,” George said.
George said he is unsure when phase two of the renovations, which will involve installing a water system to bring the park into compliance with D.C. regulations, will begin. Officials haven’t shared which parts of the park will close again during the second phase of construction.
The D.C. Council must approve the name before it appears on official maps and documents. The park is currently listed in D.C. data sources as “26th & I Street Playground.”
