RSS FeedDude, Where’s My Architecture?
We’ve wanted to touch on architecture and what better day than a Sunday, when open houses abound and WaPo’s real estate section is a prominent part of the Sunday Post. Just as Adolph Cluss had an architectural influence on Washington in his day (the late 1800s), it looks like Esocoff Architects will have its influence beginning in the early 2000s. Look around and count the downtown residential buildings that received the nod from Esocoff: The Jefferson (The Clara Barton and The Lafayette glued together in the same edifice), 400 Mass Ave., The Whitman (top left), 1010 Mass Ave. (middle right), Quincy Park, Quincy Court, Post Mass Ave., 1700 Kalorama Lofts (in Adams Morgan, not downtown) and 2401 Penn Ave. Guess who designed The Dumont, now under construction, in the 400 block of Mass Ave? Esocoff.
Their buildings can be categorized as contemporary squared or wavy, many featuring glass frame bump outs that account for bigger rooms and floor to ceiling windows. There is a certain similarity to the brown, yellow or red hued brick on the facade with measured amounts of exposed glass and framing. WaPo noted that a lack of aesthetic balance and urban planning review will turn Mass Ave. into a mile long wind tunnel of 130 foot tall apartment buildings.
Will these buildings stand the test of time? Will Esocoffs have the same cachet as Wardman houses or Clusses? Or is cut and paste architecture a valid trade for the sake of speedy development? Call me in 20 years and I’ll let you know.
Note: Photo and rendering courtesy of their respective web sites.
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Comments
I’m excited about The Whitman and it’s profound effect on Blagden Alley and the boutique enclave of upscale shops like Cady’s Alley in Georgetown that John Wilson envisioned.
And I hope that now Mr. Jamal has been acquitted the same sort of visioning will occur on the eastside of the Washington Convention Center and in Mt. Vernon East Historic District in particular.
Is New York Avenue going to be the next canyon boulevard? Yale Laundry on NY Avenue got all its plans approved(110 ft tall)as a hotel in an historic district. Now it will be condo’s on the approved hotel plans. Where’s the parking going to be? Historic Preservation Review Board seriously needs its head examined.
Anon: Still trying to figure out what you’re trying to say. The garage parking underneath the Yale Steam Laundry building is for Yale Steam Laundry residents – they cost 37K per spot.
I drove by the Whitman the other day and was pleasantly surprised. Overall though, I agree with Octavio. DC has been an architectual backwater for so long. A perfect example was the hub-bub over the design of the canopy at the Protrait Gallery. I mean what the hell were those people thinking. It’s fabulous! We seem to be getting more visionary buildings and not a moment too soon. It will be interesting to see what the ATF HQ will end up looking like. So far, it looks like a fortress. Not particularly attractrive for a bldg which is supposed to act as a gateway. I was driving around the World Bank area which is increasingly looking like a few blocks worthy of a World Capital. The new House of Sweden is quite nice too. Slowly but surely, Washington is starting to be more receptive to inspiring architecture but not fast enough for me.
I think the point that Anon is trying to make is that the amount of parking under the Yale Laundry was scaled for hotel use, not residential use. The available parking will not be sufficient for the number of residents that will live there. The spill over of parking in the residential neighborhood north of the building will have a potentially negative effect.
Thanks tjm! According to the Downtown BID’s latest construction update (pdf), the project will have a total of 250 parking spaces for a total of 359 units (both phase 1 & 2 added together).
I have some issues with Yale Lofts but the number of parking spaces in the development is higher than number required by law/zoning rules.
And, wasn’t this meant to be about architecture???
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What a great idea for a discussion – architecture. I generally like Esocoff’s architecture all around DC, especially 400 Massachusetts Ave and the future DuMont Condos. The problem that I see is that developers, being cheap, often water-down the architect’s original vision in the name of saving money. And, developers, in their efforts to maximize profits right on down to the last penny, are largely ignoring design and using materials that will last the test of time.
Look at the MLK library. It is not a residential building, but the result was not the architect’s original vision. The D.C. Government watered it down to be on the cheap and now we are faced with an unkept, largely unloved, and inefficiently used central library.
There is no creative passion to architecture in DC like there is in other world-class cities (London, Paris, Tokyo). Cities should be a place of architectural creativity, experimentation, and innovation. This creativity has been largely missing over the last 3 or 4 decades in DC. I have lived in Europe and visited over 20 countries around the world. Washington, D.C. has a long way to go. The Meridian at Gallery Place is a perfect example of cut-and-paste architecture. The Sonata on Mass Avenue is about as plain and uninteresting as you can get it. Undoubtedly, as people continue to move back to the core of DC, they, no doubt, will settle to live in these mediocre monstosities. Washington, DC developers can and should do better, architecturally. And the D.C. government should strike a better balance between fast development and measured design review on future projects in this city.
By the way, I am so glad that more New York and international developers are controlling more of the real estate here now insted of the plain Washington crowd like CarrAmerica, etc. Tishman Speyer (building an architecturally distinct building unlike no other in this city at 1099 New York Ave), ING Clarion, Broadway Partners (developing the DuMont condos) and other more international developers will bring more creative architectural designs and innovation with them as they take the reigns in D.C. as it forges its position as a world-class city.