DC Metrocentric

Everyone has an opinion on architecture, what’s yours?

By Spencer Lepler

I was driving along the Southwest waterfront last night and I was struck by the form of the partially completed arena stage. I know that a few weeks ago we published a rendering by Bing Thom Architects of the proposed completed building, but seeing the skeletal canopy and the un-clad walls I started to wonder how the building would be received if instead of covering over the massive structure it was celebrated.

The building as designed will have a curving glass wall with a large heavy cornice reaching out towards the street. The intention is that the light from the public spaces will fill the street beckoning people to come in. Right now, there is no glass curtain-wall and the heavy metal paneled cornice is a light truss frame evocative of the old space frame metro canopies such as the one at the Ballston Metro entrance. The sculptural aspect of this structural element seems to me to be akin to the Lady Liberty’s crown, if left exposed the ends of this frame would continue to reach out towards the river like fingers drawing people in to the performances.

In addition, from the renderings available, the large solid walls of the building appear destined to be covered over with a linear cladding element. This is a shame. The exterior concrete walls have a simple yet elegant rhythm of rebar holes and casting lines which help enforce the linear nature of the building in a more truthful and honest method than any cladding will ever do. In addition, from the images I’ve seen, the smooth reflective nature of the concrete is just begging to be exposed.

Overall, the new completed building will look like a hybrid between a musical instrument and a ship moving over the land. The curvilinear forms while representative of the ephemeral nature of music and the arts seem to echo the geomorphic architectural styling of the Native American Museum. While the interplay of solid void relationships and spatial dynamics provide references to the glass and panel structures of the Opera Bastille, in Paris and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. The interplay between these two design partis will no doubt create a dynamic space, but I have to wonder if the public spaces of the building were left as a rough shell while the performance spaces were treated in a more polished esthetic, how much greater could this interplay of differences been carried out.

In the end, DC will end up with another glass and panel structure which seems to be the new de-facto for monumental buildings (like the proposed CityCenterDC) and all of the recent speculative commercial work. This is an unfortunate move because the architecture will not communicate the cultural nature of this building, but instead will be lost amongst the new development of Waterfront Station. While there is certain stripped down elegance to this style, I fear that much like the concrete towers of the 1970’s or polished stone and glass towers of the 1980’s, this will all seem very dated in a few years. When that time comes, DC will once again need to be architecturally updated. This could be avoided if less energy was spent pursuing architectural fads and more care was spent on developing a long term identity for the city.

[Photo: Arena Stage]

Spencer Lepler is an architectural designer nearing the end of the architecture licensing process. He has lived in the DC metro area since 2005. He posts on a semi-regular basis to his blog – selophane.com. In addition to blogging he is currently engaged in pursuing freelance design work.