TO JULY 16

The quick comparison of neotraditional vs. suburban-sprawl development offered by Miami architects Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk (pictured) is crystal clear, but there are elements in this motley show that are impressively opaque. An almost random collection of conceptual art, conceptual architecture, and plain old paintings and stuff, this show only sporadically lives up to its title. Straightforward items like Antone Nelesson & Associates’ slide show of preferred and nonpreferred suburban styles and the Florida Office of Greenway Management’s presentation of a cross-state eco-corridor jostle such oblique ones as Frank Fantauzzi’s “Editing Detroit.” At least Fantauzzi gets off a good line, “Detroit is a city dedicated to total mobility in which everything has stopped”; Resolution: 4 Architecture’s “Proposal for a Riverside World Park, Perth Australia” only proves that architectural jargon can rival the art-school variety. At the District of Columbia Arts Center, 2438 18th St. NW. (202) 462-7833. (Mark Jenkins)