The Dupont Underground: how we turned an abandoned streetcar
station into a cultural institution and drew the plaza now rising above it
The Dupont Underground, founded by Julian Hunt and Lucrecia Laudi, is now a thriving cultural anchor for Dupont Circle and the District with 25,000 annual visitors.
When the city issued a request for proposals to resurrect the dormant space in 2010, only one group answered the call: Hunt Laudi Studio, a design studio helmed by architects Julian Hunt and Lucrecia Laudi (Maryland Today/UMD, April 03, 2023).
Our 2011 rendering for a “Cap Park” was inspired by the Santa Caterina Market in Barcelona and was instrumental
in convincing the city to initiate the feasibility studies and the eventual funding of the Dupont “Deckover.”
In 2011, as part of the Dupont Underground masterplan, Hunt Laudi Studio proposed capping the Connecticut Avenue underpass to create a public plaza hosting the farmers market. Today, DDOT's $37.8M Connecticut Avenue Streetscape and Deckover, under construction since 2025, is expected to open sometime in 2027, programmed to include a farmers market. Same firm, same block, below and above grade: Dupont Underground (built) and the Dupont “Deckover” (being built).
