The 2700 Art Space project replaces two buildings acquired by Arlington County, Virginia, at 2700 South Nelson Street and 2701 South Oakland Street with a temporary, flexible outdoor arts and maker space. Seeking an artist-led effort, in 2022 the County hired a team led by Graham Projects featuring collaborators EnviroCollab and Public Mechanics to engage the public for input, design art-driven placemaking, and assist with building the public space.
The County and Graham Projects conducted a design-build process rooted in the history of the site and community desires. Starting in May 2022 we hosted virtual public engagement conversations, in-person pop-ups, and an online feedback form to help build a framework for potential site uses and ideas. Based on the community feedback, the Graham Projects / EnviroCollab / Public Mechanics team designed an accessible, multiuse green space embodying the site’s vibrant DIY music heritage. The resulting design takes inspiration from the nearby Four Mile Run stream, surrounding industrial sites, and the former Inner Ear recording studios to create an array of interlinked outdoor meadows activated for arts and community programming.
2700 Art Space is connected by a 245’ long pedestrian promenade mural of blue, teal, and green rectangles inspired by a waveform, or a visualization of recorded sound. The east end of the public space is anchored by a shipping container to store outdoor programming materials and display a large sign marking “2700 Art Space”. Adjacent to the container stands a modular shade structure incorporating recycled traffic lens and three panels for displaying temporary works of art and media.
Beneath the shade canopies are custom fabricated moveable tables, benches, and stools made with reclaimed trusses and industrial lamps from the site’s former warehouses. These outdoor furnishings were created to serve the multipurpose needs of the site, such as hosting outdoor meals and community maker workshops.
Taking the lead on landscape design, EnviroCollab enlivened the green space with resilient soil, native plants and trees, elliptical lawns, and accessible pathways. Along the way, colorfully painted concrete bin blocks frame points of transition while serving as sittable ledges. At each end of the site hang dynamic arrays of strings light for evening illumination.
At the center of the green space rises a “ministage” for local performers that incorporates a section of original concrete wall that once framed the legendary Inner Ear Studio’s recording room. The concrete stage features faux wood pavement art evoking the unique trapezoidal shape of the original drum riser on which bands like Fugazi and Foo Fighters once performed. Atop the warm grey painted concrete wall is a triangular, teal painted backdrop for displaying local flyers and photos representing the bands that recorded music in this exact location over the past three decades.
In 2025 Graham Projects and Public Mechanics worked with Arlington Arts to release a call for media to commemorate Inner Ear Studio’s music recording legacy. Community members submitted hundreds of scans and photos of flyers, album art, and concerts from the many DC area punk, hardcore and indie bands that recorded at the site over the years, including many from the celebrated Dischord Records. The call for media culminated in a community event on May 16, 2026 where over sixty people wheatpasted black and white reprints of media submissions to the ministage backdrop. The ephemeral wall installation is both a tribute to years of creative expression generated at Inner Ear Studios and an act of placemaking renewal for small-scale DIY performances at 2700 Art Space. To share thanks, Graham Projects artists invited participants to make keepsakes by wheatpasting pieces of the original plywood drum riser with small flyers proclaiming, “I contributed to the Inner Ear Tribute Wall”.
In addition to co-designing the space with EnviroCollab and Public Mechanics, Graham Projects constructed and/or painted all of the open space’s artistic elements, including the picnic tables, pavement murals, shipping container, traffic lens canopy, concrete seating ledges, and ministage. LANNINGSMITH fabricated the custom 2700 sign, tables, stools, and benches. Overall construction was led by general contractor FH Paschen under the supervision of Arlington County.
Project partners: Arlington County, VA, Arlington Arts, Inner Ear Studios, FH Paschen
Lead Designers: Graham Projects, EnviroCollab, Public Mechanics
Installation Team: Graham Coreil-Allen, Melvin Jadulang, Mar Braxton, Liam Arbeiter, Zoe Roane-Hopkins, Lydia Milano, Maurice McCrimmon, Kirsten Pamfilis, Jonathan Zoccoli, Rachel DeTone
