Before the Bulldozers

Before the Bulldozers is an audio and augmented reality journey exploring the history of the redevelopment of the Southwest neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Using GPS, this Walking Cinema app guides you from site to site through D.C.’s Southwest Neighborhood, telling the story of the country’s first large-scale urban renewal project—a project that uprooted 23,000 people and knocked down nearly 5,000 buildings to create an entirely new neighborhood. This short walk presents two worlds co-existing in the 1950s Southwest. A close-knit African American neighborhood on its way out and a highly modern, mostly white neighborhood on its way in. Each of these neighborhoods is being captured, shaped, and fought for by two massive creative minds: the old neighborhood by the amateur photographer Joseph Owen Curtis and the new neighborhood by architect Chloethiel Woodard Smith. As you walk, you alternate viewpoints and see how vastly different concepts of social benefit are still reflected in the visual landscape. The story is best heard walking in Southwest, D.C., where you will find clues and hidden artifacts as you walk the streets of Southwest. If you can’t make the trip, the app can be listened to as a highly-engaging podcast that comes to life in your living room via Augmented Reality.