Every now and then when I'm jetting down Constitution Ave or rolling around Dupont Circle in DC, I realize that this place, my stomping grounds, is actually one of the
top 3 tourist destinations in the country.
Somehow the tourists elude the locals very effectively. Tourists don't go to the bars and lounges we do. Tourists aren't at the networking happy hours or business events in the city. The tourists for the most part aren't even on the roads with us in DC, they are.... at the memorials.
People come to DC for politics, government contracting business, and memorial tourism. Let's take a look at what went into the making of some of those famous memorials and buildings. This will be Part 1 in a series of posts.
Driving into DC on I-66 from the west the first prominent structure you pass in DC is the Lincoln Memorial. After 8 years of construction it was completed in 1922, and was designed by
Henry Bacon, it sits on what was formerly swampland. The stone is
Yule Marble brought all the way from Marble, Colorado.
(photo on left from flickr user dyoshida)
Directly east from the Lincoln Memorial stands the world's tallest stone structure, the
Washington Monument. This 555' tall obelisk began construction in 1848 but and didn't complete until 1884 due to delays caused by the Civil War and lack of funds. Once completed it was the world's tallest structure, beating out the
Cologne Cathedral. Architect
Robert Mills' original sketch (shown below) called for a round colonnade at the base.
The Potomac River used to run much closer to the monument, but the land mass has since been built up and the Mall extended for structures such as the Lincoln Memorial. See a map from 1810 showing the proximity to the Potomac below.
At the east end of the National Mall stand the United States Capital. Architect
William Thornton won a design competition for the building in 1793 and construction began in 1793. After being damaged by the war of 1812, it was completed in 1819. It was later expanded and added to.
(Lincoln's Inauguration in 1861 with the Capitol still under construction)
(a great past/present composition by flickr user
jasonepowell)
More images and stories to come on the building of Washington DC, stay tuned.
I've seen renderings of this place around the web for a few months, and it appears that Qb Design has finally completed the Split Level House in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia.
(click to enlarge floor plans)
(The site before construction)
The incredibly talented architect/developer Sebastian Mariscal has finally blessed the East Coast with some of his work. Pio Pio restaurant in Hell's Kitchen combines rough-formed concrete enclaves with a dramatic ceiling and wall of dried canes from a ranch in Mexico. The cantilevered reception desk is pretty slick as well.
A quick and fun project came across our desks this past week in the form of a replacement sink for Fly Lounge nightclub in Washington DC. We've had several furniture projects recently that have kept us busy besides the usual architecture work, so this was a chance to again explore some CNC milled pieces and digital fabrication.
The nightclub is modeled after the interior of an airplane, so we carried the idea into the bathroom with a wing-shaped sink counter top CNC milled from 1/2" acrylic with the club logo and aerial photos of various airports printed on the underside.
For inquiries on similar projects email 'dbd *at* dbdstudiollc.com' or visit our website at www.dbdstudiollc.com
Directly east from the Lincoln Memorial stands the world's tallest stone structure, the Washington Monument. This 555' tall obelisk began construction in 1848 but and didn't complete until 1884 due to delays caused by the Civil War and lack of funds. Once completed it was the world's tallest structure, beating out the Cologne Cathedral. Architect Robert Mills' original sketch (shown below) called for a round colonnade at the base.
The Potomac River used to run much closer to the monument, but the land mass has since been built up and the Mall extended for structures such as the Lincoln Memorial. See a map from 1810 showing the proximity to the Potomac below.
At the east end of the National Mall stand the United States Capital. Architect William Thornton won a design competition for the building in 1793 and construction began in 1793. After being damaged by the war of 1812, it was completed in 1819. It was later expanded and added to.
(Lincoln's Inauguration in 1861 with the Capitol still under construction)
(a great past/present composition by flickr user jasonepowell)
(from the Gore Design website)
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