I made a springtime trip to Washington, DC this year. I was there for a conference but also got some walking-around time, had an official visit to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and even a tour at the White House itself. I deeply appreciate how Washington was (at least originally) developed in a classical European style, both in layout and architecture, and wish other American cities had taken note.
A spring evening walk to the White House yielded soft colors amid the budding leaves and perfectly-manicured lawn.The Eisenhower Executive Office Building is a nearly-Roccoco structure inside and out, which offers a lot of interesting angles, even if the overall architectural effect is…. a bit much.Georgetown University certainly has its old-school buildings, which they wrap with some nice green spaces and plenty of walking paths for the thousands of students. Sadly, not all of the buildings are classical designs.Detail from inside the EEOB, snapped while on the move inside this ridiculously-busy building.Ceiling details from the meeting room our conference group used briefly during our EEOB visit with the United States Digital Service (USDS).Ah, the State of Ohio flag, draped amongst all the others at the Kennedy Center. There’s a “throwback” feeling to the facility that almost feels like you’ve been transported back to the Kennedy era in DC.Ceiling detail from inside the main concert hall at the Kennedy Center. The hexagonal patterns definitely mark the timeframe of the building’s design, reminding me of the Philharmonie Berlin facility in Germany, which also feels frozen in mid-century.I’m not a fan of chandeliers, really, but sometimes they are just so over the top you have to appreciate teh workmanship. In this case this is from inside the White House, in one of the dining or state rooms (can’t remember which).If you’re going to go on a White House tour, you have to appreciate the George Washington portrait, which was even saved from the destruction of the original White House in 1814.There are several official portraits on display in the White House, but none of them are as striking as the Obama portrait, with the photographic style and the total absence of a background.Finally, perhaps my favorite architecture in DC: the many Metro stations and their repetitive concrete forms on the walls and ceilings. There’s something about this simple, brutalist design that feels “right” for a subway. It’s human-accessible in terms of materials and simplistic design, but it takes on a grand appearance at scale.
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