The Historic Modern Mix
11 01 2010In just this one photo there are at least five different styles of architcture represented. Often time we are not big fans of bluntly smashing different styles together, but on this street where every single facade is different (even ones in the same style), it works for us. Can you name all the architctural styles represented?
[Photo: Ryland Penta]
I’ve always been very fond of the Richardson Romanesque National Union Building, built in 1890–the brown building on the right in this view. It has wonderful wide bays facing the alley next to it, which John Wilkes Booth used as his escape route after assassinating President Lincoln. There’s also a lovely Second Empire building on the far corner of this block, but it’s outside this view. –As for the other restored late-19th century storefronts and the modern structure behind them, I’ll wait for the official answers on the proper architectural vocabulary!
Who dosen’t love mixture? That’s what cities are all about. They where saying that in the Victorian period too. Just compare this photo with so much of K street where every building is the glass tower. Modernism in moderation is beautiful.
Left to right:
-Victorian vernacular with an Italianate cornice
-Same as above but with a mansard roof
-Modernist/neo-modernist (which ever you prefer)
-Richardsonian Romanesque/Early Chicago School
-Edwardian/Classical
Is one style federal? I am not sure or an expert but I do like the way these building work together. I think they did a nice job with the Ventana tower, it is elegant and doesn’t distract from the historic structures.
I work on the other side of this block and I really like the mixture. It makes my day a little more pleasant.
A tasty architectural salad!
The stone on the richardsonian and the shadow joint on the modern building are both amazing contributions to the street.
tsarchitect,
Could you explain shadow joint for me?
Two things I like about the modern building
- it’s referencing the MLK library, which IIRC is not too far away
- its a little bit of an illusion of a skinny tall modern skyscraper, which is otherwise tough to do here
I really like romanesque, but like anything, you can have too much of a good thing. This is definitely one of those cases where I think the modern building makes the detail of the historic buildings really “pop”.
The two on the left aren’t Federalist?
This whole part of town is amazing with the different styles, I don’t know many other cities that have such a distinctive yet mixed look.
[…] With each passing, I may have glanced and noticed the contrast of styles. Not truly until now. DC Metrocentric clearly points it out in todays’ post called The Historic Modern Mix. Commenter Thayer-D […]
spook, a shadow joint is a way of modulating between two forms using a play of light or the absence of structure. The one that comes to mind, is the gap between the tower and the pedestal of Lever House, but Mellon Auditorium has these short arcades to either side that are massed like shadow joints
Here, it’s the vertical strip between the glass volume and the stone wall, which I think keeps the lines of the modern building strong while also meshing with the red-brown building.
The two on the left are indeed Federalist in as much as the regular openings on a flat facade could be called federal. Technically, the federal style is what Georgian architecture was called once the United States won its independance and extends to around the 1840’s in most of America. There where some differences from Georgian such as concentrated moments of Adams decoration (the English counter part) but the ‘body’ of these buildings look to be built around the Civil War, when stone lintles replaced jack arches at window openings.
In the victorian period, these vernacular structures where decorated with ‘Italian’ cornices, ‘French’ roofs, and ‘English’ bays, but the typology remained essentially unchanged until WWII when the automobile’s dominance changed the way most Americans shop.