Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, has a unique and diverse architectural history. Encompassing government, monumental, commercial, and residential buildings, D.C. is home to some of the country's most famous and popular structures designed by some of the leading architects of their time.
Due to the city's political and historic importance, the architectural motifs found throughout the city encompass a diverse range of styles. The city is most famous for its Neoclassical government buildings, monuments, and memorials. Located mostly Downtown and along the National Mall and Tidal Basin, these buildings, inspired from ancient Rome and Greece, were designed to capture the power, strength, and grandeur of the U.S. government while honoring the political and philosophical thinkers and leaders upon which many the nation was developed. These structures have large pediments, classical columns, domes, and classical statues and reliefs often made of stone or marble.
Although the Height of Buildings Act limits the upward trajectory of its buildings, many architects have contributed to the city's architectural character by intersecting creativity with practicality without surpassing the city's height limits. As such, unlike nearly all large American cities, Washington, D.C. has no skyscrapers. However, the city is home to notable examples of many important architectural movements of the 20th and 21st centuries, most notably Beaux-Arts, Brutalism, and Postmodernism.
In addition to historic Neoclassical government buildings, monuments, and memorials, Washington, D.C. is also famous for its museums and non-Neoclassically inspired memorials. The city's museums and modern memorials are some of the most visited sites in the United States and have inspired the creation of other architecturally important structures throughout the world.
History
18th century
Washington, D.C. is a planned city. It was chosen by George Washington as the site for the capital city for the new nation. In 1791, President Washington chose Frenchman Pierre L'Enfant to design the plan for the new city. L'Enfant created the L'Enfant Plan to map out the city's streets. As outlined in the plan, D.C. is a grid city, with streets running east to west and north to south with diagonal roads crossing at certain intervals. The United States Capitol is at the center of the grid, and the point at which the city is divided into four quadrants. Depending on one's relation to the Capitol, one is either in Northeast D.C., Southeast D.C., Southwest D.C., or Northwest D.C. L'Enfant's plan called for the President's House and Capitol to be near the center of the city.
The City of Washington was largely underdeveloped for decades following its founding, with the exception of government buildings, small neighborhoods, and taverns. Early in the city's founding, a competition was announced to determine the designs for the President's House and the U.S. Capitol. William Thornton, whose design received approval from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, created the winning design for the Capitol. The design was simpler than other entrants, but spoke to the power and grandeur of the U.S. government with its Neoclassical construction. Thornton's winning submission was modified by architects Benjamin Henry Latrobe and Charles Bulfinch. Originally, the dome of the Capitol was a simple rotunda sitting atop a portico, composed of a pediment with Corinthian columns, flanked by two wings.
The design for the new President's Mansion was also determined following a design competition. Irish-American James Hoban created the winning Neoclassical design. Hoban's White House design was inspired by several European buildings, particularly buildings in France and his native Ireland. The southern portico, for example, was inspired by the Château de Rastignac in France. Both the White House and Capitol were completed in November 1800.
19th century
Through the early- to mid-1800s, much of the city outside central Washington, D.C. remained heavily underdeveloped, but an increasing number of Federal-style houses and public buildings were being constructed, especially on Lafayette Square. Along Pennsylvania Avenue, the diagonal road branching northwest from the Capitol to the White House, more construction was occurring, mostly for journalists covering politics in the city. Newspaper Row, as this area was called, remained an active district for newspaper companies until the National Press Building was built in 1927 and consolidated many newspapers into one building.
The mid-1800s saw two landmark architectural projects take shape. In order to account for the growing representation in Congress, the two wings of the Capitol building were expanded. Following this, it was determined that the dome needed to be enlarged as well. The current dome of the building was designed to have a far more intricate pattern than the original and was completed in 1866. The current dome was built in cast iron, with an exterior dome sitting on an interior one.
Shortly after George Washington's death in 1799, proposals were presented to create a monument in his honor in the capital.Sheldon S. Cohen, "Monuments to Greatness: George Dance, Charles Polhill, and Benjamin West's Design for a Memorial to George Washington." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, April 1991, Vol. 99 Issue 2, pp. 187–203. . Retrieved February 16, 2015. Robert Mills created the winning design in 1836, though it was simplified significantly due to increasing costs. The obelisk design was begun in 1848 and continued until about one-third of the structure was complete in 1854, at which point funding ran out. The Washington Monument stood in this unfinished state until construction resumed in 1879 and was completed in 1884. At the time of its completion, the Washington Monument was the tallest man-made structure in the world at a height of 555 feet.
The mid- to late-1800s saw many Victorian homes be built around the city, particularly in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and in Northwest Washington. This period also saw the construction of Romanesque Revival architecture, including the Smithsonian Institution Building and the Arts and Industries Building. The Old Post Office, also designed in this style, was built on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1899 with the hope that it would transform Washington into a city that could rival European capitals, most notably London and Paris, in its architectural prowess. The Old Post Office was the first building in the city to be made of a steel frame and the first to have electrical wiring.
Popular European architectural movements inspired many American buildings throughout the 1800s. One such building was the Renwick Gallery near the White House. It was built between 1859 and 1873, and was created to be Washington, D.C.'s first art museum. The structure was designed in the French Second Empire Style by architect James Renwick Jr., who designed the structure to be a miniature version of the Louvre in Paris. So similar were the façades of the two buildings that the Renwick was known as "The American Louvre" upon completion. Unlike the Louvre, however, the Renwick is made of red brick.
A second notable public building in the city constructed in the French Second Empire Style is the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Sitting directly west of the White House, the building houses much of the president's staff. The structure was designed by Alfred B. Mullett and built between 1871 and 1888. Like many buildings of the Second Empire Style, the Eisenhower Building has numerous columns, windows, and chimneys in symmetrical relation to one another. The unique and radical design in a city used to Neoclassical and more traditional architecture led to it being widely criticized for decades after its completion. The widespread criticism was fueled by the media, which mocked Mullett relentlessly for his design of this and other Second Empire buildings. This public ridicule, combined with severe financial difficulties, led Mullett to commit suicide in Washington in 1890.
The extravagant Beaux-Arts architecture became popular in the late 1800s through the early 1900s, as did Gothic Revival. Beaux-Arts buildings in the city include the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, completed in 1897. This is an example of some of the most elaborate art and architecture of the American Renaissance and captures the ornate elements of the Beaux-Arts motif with elaborate interior designs that are among the richest in the United States. The building contains many busts and statues to American political, social, and intellectual leaders inside the main reading room and great hall as well as on the western façade of the building.
Although Gothic Revival architecture was most popular in the 1800s, the most famous Gothic Revival structure in the city—the Washington National Cathedral—was not built until the turn of the 20th century. The building is made of a long nine-bay nave, five-bay chancel, and six-bay transept. The exterior includes three towers, numerous flying buttresses, and gargoyles. The interior also includes statues and stained glass windows to American political icons, such as George Washington. Although talk of constructing a national cathedral date back to the city's founding, construction was not begun until 1906, and was not complete until 1988.
20th century
In the early 1900s, a movement to beautify American cities, known as the "city beautiful movement", led to the construction of new architectural plans for many American cities. The McMillan Plan was written in 1902 by the Senate Park Commission in an attempt to beautify Washington, D.C. The plan included a general design for what is now the National Mall, including the construction of public buildings along the grassy lawns of the mall. The plan called for the elimination of the Victorian-era landscape design of the mall, instead opening it up and allowing pedestrian traffic to easily move east to west. Although the plan was never fully adopted, it was implemented piecemeal in the subsequent decades. The plan succeeded in opening up the mall and extending it westward toward the banks of the Potomac River. It also succeeded in moving public constructions to the Tidal Basin. Parts of the plan that were never built include a public garden at the base of the Washington Monument as well as a Neoclassical building across Lafayette Square.
In 1910, the Height of Buildings Act of 1910 was passed by the 61st US Congress to limit the height of buildings in the city. This act was passed following the construction of the 1894 Cairo apartment building, which raised concerns that buildings of such height made it difficult to fight a potential building fire. Although the city's height limit has been altered over the years, it remains in place, despite controversy from both architects who claim it limits the possible architectural design of the city's buildings and by those claiming that it increases housing costs.
Washington Union Station, the city's main train station, opened in 1908. It was designed by Daniel H. Burnham, who used numerous architectural styles to create the structure. The ceiling of the Great Hall is made of gold leaf symmetrical patterns, while neoclassical elements, such as columns and statues, line the interior and exterior of the building.