You Must Remember…the Developers Who Built Today’s Washington

“It’s Been an Amazing Change”

Perhaps the biggest change in Washington since 1965 has been its landscape. What once was a region where people lived and worked in or close to the District has spread out, while the city itself has been transformed in ways few could have imagined five decades ago. While many real-estate developers had a hand in making Washington what it is to-day, here are a few, including Giuseppe Cecchi, Robert E. Simon Jr., Oliver T. Carr Jr., Theodore Lerner, Milton Peterson, and Joseph Gildenhorn.

Cecchi: “I don’t think I had the vision of what was happening. I don’t think anyone did. I came in the 1960s, when Washington was a sleepy city. It started developing into an international metropolis. It’s been a great experience to live through. In 50 years, it’s been an amazing change. It won’t happen like that, I don’t think, in the next 50.”

Sherri Dalphonse

Executive Editor

Sherri Dalphonse joined Washingtonian in 1986 as an editorial intern, and worked her way to the top of the masthead when she was named editor-in-chief in 2022. She oversees the magazine’s editorial staff, and guides the magazine’s stories and direction. She lives in DC.