Buildings of the District of Columbia
Reviewed by Jim Sweeney
Don't overlook Buildings of the District of Columbia by Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee, thinking its another architectural survey that ignores Deco (Society of Architectural Historians, Oxford University Press, $45 hardcover or $16.95 softcover). Scott and Lee include many Art Deco buildings (depending on how you classify Art Deco and related styles, about two dozen buildings among the nearly 500 they cover).
The book doesn't cover just the best-known or most historic structures, either, although you'll certainly find the Kennedy-Warren Apartments, the Uptown Theatre, the Dupont Circle Building, and others in here. Jumping across the Anacostia River to an area often ignored by similar books, the authors include a Woolworths on Good Hope Road, SE, as well as a John Joseph Earley tinted-concrete house on W Street, SE.
It would be unfair to the scope and intent of this book to judge it only by the number of Art Deco buildings it contains. As an architectural overview of the city, it offers a comprehensive and well-researched look at its topic (the book covers the city only, not the suburbs). The commentary is thoughtful, which is not to say uncritical.
One thing that would be helpful would be more information on current uses of and plans for some buildings. For instance, nothing is said about the U.S. Tariff Commission Building at 8th and F Streets, NW, to indicate that its vacant or that it is supposed to be transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. From reading this book, you'd think the Tariff Commission was still there.
As a reference work, this book should be on the shelf of anyone seriously interested in D.C. architecture. Scott is a free-lance architectural historian, while Lee is a historian with the National Register of Historic Places. The book is one of the first in a series from the Society of Architectural Historians that will cover the buildings of every state.
This article originally appeared in Trans-Lux volume 12, number 4, September 1994.
Where to Find the Book
You can find Buildings of the District of Columbia in local bookstores or purchase it on-line in hardcover or softcover at a discount from Amazon.com Books.ADSW offers this book in association with Amazon.com Books and receives a small commission on sales referred to them.
Comments
Created Tuesday, May 19, 1998; Modified Thursday, September 18, 2003.
