Documentary Photography

Brutal and Other Ultra-Functional Architecture of Washington DC

Buildings lacking an aesthetic theme, or at best garnered with superficial décor as if an afterthought, have been defined as “brutalist” in the more extreme cases. Frequently these structures were designed with a single-minded focus on functionality, were constructed of reinforced concrete, and can be of sizable mass. Brutalist architecture can take on a hulking, even intimidating presence. Occasionally a brutalist structure may be attractive when simplicity of form outweighs the effect of tedium or heavy mass, sometimes helped by a dash of color.

 

		Arts Center, American University. An extremely rare, new, attractive brutalist-modernist structure. Completed in 2005, the streamlined form of ivory-hued limestone, set on green landscape, makes for an uncharacteristically pleasant brutalist building.
		Closed up and painted black. Forlorn following the recession of 2008, this building in the Tenley neighborhood formerly housed a small business. Photographed in early 2011.
		Third Church of Christ, Scientist. The Christian Science church at 16th & I Sts. NW, built in 1970, had been designated for historic preservation on account of its novel brutalist design. Church authorities, however, have obtained permission to demolish the structure.
		Embassy, Glover Park. Originally designed as an office building, the structure features gestures at décor so superficial as to accentuate its severity.
		City block in transition, Glover Park. Strictly utilitarian.
		Office building, Glover Park. Imposing through its symmetry, a good example of the few-frills, low-rise corporate architecture prevalent in the District in the 1970s and 1980s.
		Office buildings in the rain at Murrow Park
		Farragut West Metro Station
		Atrium, International Monetary Fund. The interior architecture closely resembles the exterior. Built in the early 1970s, the edifice projects solidity, strength and organization.
		International Monetary Fund buildings. The IMF main complex, at left, includes the atrium shown above. The newer building at right, an annex, was completed in 2005.
		Construction of the building at right above, encompassing a city block and virtually surrounded by brutalist architecture.
		Historic Image International Monetary Fund. The concave building, constructed in 1958, was a classic example of the initially austere, post-war “International style” of architecture adopted by many public agencies. The structure was demolished in 1993. Photographed in 1991.
		Agency headquarters, near Gallery Place. A rare surviving example of early International style, this maximally functional office building dates from 1951.
		Agency headquarters, Penn Quarter. Forceful and capacious, this unusually large building was designed in the mid-1960s, and required a decade to construct. An architectural landmark, the edifice ultimately served to demonstrate the limit over which public taste would not accept brutalist design on a large scale.
		U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, L’Enfant Plaza. An icon of original brutalist architecture, presently under renovation and of which only a small segment is pictured, was completed in 1968. The complex has been lauded for stylistic touches including subtly angled rise and the supporting buttresses.
		Longfellow Building, Connecticut Ave. Built in 1940, among the first brutalist (and in its day, modernist) commercial office buildings in Washington DC. The façade, originally of light beige, was supplanted with Spanish rose marble in a retrofit in the 1990s.
		National Association of Broadcasters Building, Dupont Circle. Dynamic elements of contemporary International style with basic-pattern curtain wall.
		Caravel Building, Dupont Circle. Located in a neighborhood of century-old architecture, this brutalist structure once featured in a facetious “Tear it Down” satire in the Washington Post Magazine.
		Sunderland Building, Dupont Circle. Among the more tasteful concrete office buildings in DC, reflecting a significant effort at design together with restraint in size. Constructed in 1969.
		Agency headquarters, near Union Station. A recent retrofit added glass curtain wall and other modernist adornment to a stark brutalist façade.
		University of the District of Columbia, Van Ness. Archetypical brutalist architecture of reinforced concrete unadorned, dating from the 1970s.
		Fire station, Gallery Place. A rare, attractive concrete structure in the brutalist style. The clean brutalist building at left is Metro headquarters.
		Agency headquarters, L’Enfant Plaza.
		GWU Medical School, Foggy Bottom. Originally of plain reinforced concrete and beige brick, the school was considered among the least attractive buildings in the city. Now clad in white, the structure is slightly better received.
		World Bank, Foggy Bottom. Sheer mass in bright white travertine, tempered by gently sloping curvature. Constructed in 1967, this early brutalist-modernist building was renovated in 1991, and is meticulously maintained. Photographed from within a glass-enclosed portico.
		Atrium, World Bank. Smoky glass fronts a highly functional interior. The design appears to reflect the geometry of quantitative analysis, highlighted by attractive flourishes.
		Atrium Café, World Bank
		Upper level, Atrium Café, World Bank
		World Bank at dusk. Warrens of offices.
		Historic Image Courtyard, World Bank. This open-air plaza centered the complex of buildings in the 1800 block of H St NW. The courtyard was razed in 1990, the space redeveloped and replaced by the atrium shown above. Photographed in 1988.
		Historic Image Office buildings, World Bank. Surrounding the courtyard pictured above, these structures were partly demolished then reconstructed in the 1990s. Photographed in 1988.
		Residence, Chevy Chase. Softened in nature, the clean white sphere, technically a “brutalist” structure, is reminiscent of a storybook image.
		Derelict apartment house, Dupont Circle.
		Bleak courtyard, Dupont Circle.

 

Embassy entrance, Glover Park, Washington DC.
Also see image of full front of building at right.