With the stadium proposed by Washington commanders at RFK slated for concept review at the Feb. 5 meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission, the project enters its first federal advisory phase, one that will shape the scope, schedule and cost of engineering well in advance of construction.
Materials presented for the next meeting reviewed by ENR show that parts of the stadium district encroach on the FEMA Zone AE floodplain along the Anacostia River, prompting hydraulic analysis and coordination with district regulators.
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Project engineer Kimley-Horn submitted a no-rise floodplain analysis to the DC Department of Energy and Environment in November 2025, showing no rise in base flood elevations, and received conditional approval later that month. Final approval is expected to accompany subsequent site plan submissions.
Design within the floodplain drives elevation, foundation, utility, and stormwater decisions earlier in design, with early substructure choices often becoming schedule drivers if they change later, impacting public infrastructure procurement and coordination.
This engineering context sharpens the importance of the conceptual representations published on January 15, which marked the first public articulation of the massification of the stadium. In a prepared statement, team president Mark Clouse called the footage a developmental milestone toward a year-round site tied to the district.
A site map from the National Capital Planning Commission’s presentation materials shows the RFK campus and surrounding parks along the Anacostia River, illustrating the stadium district’s location within a larger, federally regulated landscape subject to flood plains and planning review.
Map courtesy of the National Capital Planning Commission.
Under the rules governing the RFK campus, the stadium design is also subject to advisory review by the US Commission of Fine Arts, along with NCPC’s planning review, and its advisory feedback can still drive design revisions affecting infrastructure, sequencing, and scope.
Federal advisory review has given material shape to major projects along the Anacostia Corridor before. The 11th Street Bridge Replacement, completed in 2016, underwent several rounds of review by federal planning and design bodies, with agencies considering profile, circulation, river crossings and visual impact near adjacent federal land.
Although not a stadium project, the bridge provides an analog of how large-scale construction near RFK’s campus has evolved during federal review, with design refinements influencing scope and engineering sequencing without altering the project’s underlying intent.
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HKS, the project’s lead architect, has emphasized the importance of the RFK site in shaping the design approach. In a statement released with the filings, HKS Director of Global Premises Mark A. Williams noted the site’s local and national history, underscoring the scrutiny that typically accompanies large-scale construction on federally sensitive land.
“Every design decision is guided by the significance of the site, shaped by its local, regional and national history and the generations of memories rooted in RFK Stadium,” Williams said.
DC has tied the stadium proposal to broader redevelopment goals for the RFK site, even as the project moves forward in the final year of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration. Bowser announced last November that he would not seek re-election in 2026, setting the stage for potential political scrutiny as the stadium undergoes an election-year overhaul.
“These performances give D.C. so much to look forward to: a beautiful, unique waterfront stadium and the return of our commanders,” the mayor said after the footage was released. “Year-round events that are within walking distance of an entertainment district and public transportation; and of course, jobs for DC residents and new opportunities for DC businesses.”
Even with the momentum created by the upcoming NCPC review, the project remains a long way from shovel-ready. NCPC materials indicate that demolition of the current RFK Stadium is expected to continue through mid-2026. Vertical construction is optimistically targeted to begin in 2027, with completion projected around 2030, putting several years of design development, permitting and procurement between site clearance and stadium construction.
A cost of $3.7 billion has been quoted for the overall redevelopment of the RFK campus, but not at a construction-ready level of detail. NCPC materials clarify that the commanders’ scope of construction is limited to the stadium itself, while the district is responsible for surrounding infrastructure and a broader, phased, mixed-use redevelopment of the 180-acre RFK campus. No construction contract value or cost breakdown has been released at the commercial level.
At the moment, the performances serve more as a stress test than a start date. With the design just ahead of federal reviewers, the coming months will determine how the architectural ambition translates into a buildable realm shaped by floodplain constraints, infrastructure coordination and regulatory oversight.
