Before-and-After Photos Show How Much DC Has Changed in Less Than 10 Years

Plenty of words have been spilled over the dramatic building boom that has consumed much of the District for nearly a decade. And while much of the construction has resulted in rather unimaginatively designed residential towers and office blocks, the sheer volume of new buildings can be so overwhelming, it’s easy to forget what DC looked like before the skyline filled up with cranes.

But the website Rentcafe plumbed Google’s Street View and retrieved images from 2007 of 11 spots around DC, and paired them with images from 2014. Using the slider on each photo, you can see how locations in downtown, Mt. Vernon Triangle, Navy Yard, and the neighborhood we’ve resigned to accept as NoMa have grown. Rentcafe has shared these images excusively with Washingtonian.

Benjamin Freed

Staff Writer

Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.