Formerly known as Chocolate City because of its high concentration of black residents, Washington, D.C., demographics have drastically changed in the last decade. In 2011 its African-American population dropped below 50 percent for the first time in almost 60 years while becoming one of the five most expensive cities to live in the United States.

The DC Quadrants (DCQ) Project documents Washington D.C.’s most evident and yet overseen contrasts. The boundaries that separate the north from the south, and the east from the west are the same ones that separate the white from the black and the rich from the poor.

In a city racially and socioeconomically divided by its urban planning and political organization, where investment has taken place steadily in the northwest and disinvestment has been consistent on the south and east sides, it´s particularly important to bring attention on what happens to impoverished communities once the city turns its eyes to them and finally starts investing in those areas.

The most common effects are gentrification and involuntary displacement of low income families regardless of the broken communities left behind.

Through a series of interviews, the DCQ Project aims to give the viewer a deeper look on the socioeconomic biases in Washington D.C.


There is a common understanding on how Washington D.C. urban grid is structured. 

Since 1791, when Pierre Charles L´Enfant designed the current layout, the city has been organized in four quadrants following the natural geographic locations of each one (Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Northwest). The center of the quadrants is the Capitol Building. North and South Capitol Streets determine the North-South axis of the city, while the East-West axis is determined by the National Mall and East Capitol Street.All North-South streets are numbered. All East-West streets are alphabetical.

All addresses in the city must include the quadrant, because many of its addresses and intersections exist in more than one quadrant.

There are 13 identical addresses that can be found in every quadrant in Washington DC:


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