DC Metrocentric

As we mentioned, this past weekend the DCMetrocentric team got to visit a bunch of Embassies and throughout the week we will be highlighting a few, the first of which is the Italian Embassy.

Located at the corner of Massachusetts Ave and Whitehaven St NW, the Italian embassy was built in 2000 by architecture firm of Leo A Daly and Italian firm Piero Sartogo Architects. During the open house weekend, the embassy easily had some of the longest lines (you had to show photo id) and some pretty darn good food choices, including pizza and gelato, but it was the building that we were most impressed with.

The Embassy’s external facade is covered with approximately 42,000 blocks of rose Asiago marble that were custom cut to size at Italy’s Marina di Carrara. The roof, notable for the elongated lines of its eaves, is covered completely with patina copper, resembling the natural oxidation of copper roofing on some of the surrounding buildings.

In keeping with Washington’s historical beginnings, the Embassy’s basic footprint – a large square – was designed by the architects to imitates George Washington’s original ten by ten mile square parcel allotted for the creation for the District of Columbia. While the symbolism’s all well and good, it’s the sky dome that really got us going…

The most interesting design element of the building is the main atrium “sky dome” that is the center of the embassy. It is a really large space that was clearly designed for large evening galas, but it doesn’t disappoint during the day either. Overall the Italian Embassy is very impressive, the diplomats were very nice to open up to the public and it was great to get a peek inside, maybe they will invite us next time they have a grand gala! We want to see the sky dome at night!