An Alternate 17th Street
14 04 2009File this one in the “it could have been” file. We found this old rendering by STUDIOS Architecture for the development at 801 17th Street. However if you have spent any time recently in the area only two blocks from the White House you know that the building currently going up on the site, looks nothing like this rendering.
Apparently the developer Louis Dreyfus Group dropped this design in favor of the current one by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, that we have dubbed the “tetris” building. The old building on the site was occupied by the FDIC until they relocated to their new campus in Arlington. Now the building is now being called Lafayette Tower, and is still securing tenants before it opens as one of the areas first Platinum LEED rated office buildings. That block is turning into a quite an example of sustainable architecture with the new PNC building also going in right across the street.
We do like the new design a lot, but the old one pictured above isn’t that bad either, it’s to bad they can’t just take the design and build it somewhere else. Which one do you like better?[Rendering: STUDIOS]
The first design was more elegant and interesting.
The one that was built is so impressive from the street. It looks so great and I have never seen anything like it, that old design I have seen a million times.