New Global Trade Center…Yikes
11 11 2011Often times an architect designs a building to convey a message, and literal interpretations can have varying degrees of success. We will let the following rendering via the WBJ speak for itself, but it looks more like something out of SimCity, then something that would work on just about any street in this town.
The Washington Global Trade Center is part of the plan to build over top of some of the north section of I395 with over 1.3 million sq-ft of new space. We will see how the plan goes…
[Rendering: AEPA Architects]
Everyone always complains about how boring and mundane architecture is around here, well this is what you all get. You think those glass boxes they are building now are going to age badly, imagine this thing in 10 years!
Goodness gracious. Looks more like a Minecraft experiment gone wrong (just to update your PC game references
I’m with With the rest. Here’s your innovative and non-cookiecutter design. It even has one of those nifty “clear, simple and concise concepts”.
Not so much – Check out the website for this firm. Hardly a great design firm. Don’t lump this in with good contemporary architecture because it is not.
The author of this piece gets it wrong. This is in no way part of the plan to deck over I-395 between Massachusetts and E. This is the northernmost part of the sunken highway that is a full three blocks north, between New York Ave and K Street.
It’s just a “vision” put forth by an architect with nothing better to do than to create a “buzz” around his firm. Unfortunately I think he’s going to receive nothing but a negative reaction to this piece of… There’s nothing worse than accepting this kind of architecture as an alternative to the “boring box” of most of DC’s buildings. We’re not looking for crazy cliche design, we’re looking for color, style, height (!), and interest. This design has nothing of the sort. And either way, I happen to love the current crop of glass boxes. They’re little jewel boxes scattered throughout downtown with none of the colored or tinted glass of yore.
See: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/housingcomplex/2011/11/11/chinese-american-architect-proposes-globular-bowl-for-atop-i-395/
I don’t know anyone who would lump this design in with “good contemporary architecture” as you say becasue first of all, it’s not good, and secondly, most contemporary (re: modernist) architecture isn’t good. When one has to hold out for the few “little jewel boxes” in the sea of glass box banality, then that should tell you something about modernism as a style. It has its successes to be sure, but in the hands of your average architect, it’s output is so far below average buildings executed in traditional styles, than one has to wonder why so many architects persue it.
It’s fine to want to be a rock star architect, but unlike musicians, these architects play only to their priesthood while the non-initiated are stuck with buildings that unlike avant guard music, we can’t turn off.
Hey, it looks fun to me! I just hope that they “bird-collision-proof” the glass. It’s now built into LEED certification!
The issue: http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/collisions/glass.html
Here’s the solution: http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/releases/111031.html
Clearly someone from the west coast or Europe broke his heart. They are both missing from his horrible design!
Wonder how the residents of the two nearby apartment buildings feel about this eyesore that will be next door in the future