A Very Ugly Situation

This is an unprecedented edition for us—we’re going to jump into a policy debate. Armed with views of a few DC streets, we will try to show you a huge opportunity that could drastically improve DC’s skyline, without increasing the height of buildings. If only we can get the DC Council’s or Congress’ attention.

Here’s the first part of the problem. It’s called a “mechanical penthouse.” It houses things like air conditioning. It is not pretty.

In fact, it is downright ugly when seen from a distance like here on Pennsylvania Avenue looking east at 20th St toward the White House. It generally makes no effort to integrate itself with the architectural look of the building but is just dumped on top.

Unfortunately, it’s not unusual. You can see it all over town. Like here atop the National Women’s Museum, marring its striking cornice and terracotta roof.

Or above the trees on the north side of McPherson Square, blighting that curved facade’s subtle echo of Vermont Ave as it intersects K Street. Why do they all look like this? Because the regulations say they must be set back a minimum 45 degree angle from the roof’s parapet and have a uniform height no taller than 18 feet six inches. That leads to designs divorced from the main building facades and constructed with utilitarian materials. In turn, this has led to a view that the structures are not important and won’t be noticed. Wow.

Do you remember all those low-scale townhouses with beautiful sculpted rooftops along the 2000 block of Penn? They were replaced by this elongated building—that’s fine; but look at what’s on top.

And here we are looking at the south side of Washington Circle.

The Verizon Center may hold the record for the largest and most visible penthouse in town. Maybe ignorance is bliss, so we shouldn’t have called this to your attention. Now you may never want to look up.

But DC’s rooftops don’t have to look that way. Check out Nabil Gholam Architects’ design for CMA-CGM’s HQs in Beirut.

Or AASB’s young workers residence in Paris. Under DC’s Height Act, you can exceed the maximum height for “spires, towers, domes, pinnacles or minarets” (the rules were written in 1910) and for mechanical penthouses (the main exception introduced since 1950)—but not for other forms of architectural ornamentation.

And Sauerbruch Hutton's design for KfW Westarkade in Frankfurt. So what should be done in DC?

1. Allow “ornamentation” beyond 19th Century ideas of minarets, spires, and small towers or the ’50s exceptions of AC sheds, elevator or ventilator shafts, antennas, chimneys, smokestacks, and fire sprinkler tanks—incredibly, the only embellishments permitted under current regulations.

2. Require “integration” of mechanical penthouses so they'll be more architecturally attractive.

For technical reasons, regs recently passed by Congress are under review by the DC government. If you agree, contact your DC Council reps. If you don’t agree (or if you do), write us and we’ll publish other comments.