My dad recently gave me some of his slides from a 1965 visit to DC. He traveled with some colleagues from NYC’s Lower Manhattan Project to check out the new SW waterfront developments by prominent architects like Hary Reese, Charles Goodman, and Cloethiel Woodard-Smith.
Urban renewal of SW DC in the 1950s-70s was and is controversial. The massive project displaced over 20,000 people- mostly African American and Jewish residents- and demolished upwards of 90% of the existing working-class community. It resulted in a mixed legacy for the built environment of the neighborhood and the creation of a new demographic for DC’s Ward 6. One of those legacies was the construction shown in these photos, most of which still stands.
As that area has recently – and still is- undergoing another wave of redevelopment as part of The Wharf District and the current administration’s aggressive selling of federal properties, I thought it’d be interesting to peak back as modernist Washington emerged.
Architect Charles Goodman’s 1962 River Park complex is known for its barrel-vaulted roofs and inventive use of aluminum.You can see the distinctive white roofs of the River Park apartments in the middle of the picture.Arena Stage has undergone several renovations and additions over the years, but here’s the original 1961 structure designed by Harry Weese & Assoc.Arena Stage again on the right. The structure is now distinguished as the Fichandler Stage within the larger Mead Center for American Theater.The identical Town Center Marina View Towers (on 6th St behind Arena Stage) were designed by I.M. Pei & Partners. Town Center East was identified as one DC’s best examples of international style and mid-century modernism on its National Register of Historic Places listing.The Tiber Island complex, designed by Keyes, Lethbridge and Condon, includes high rise towers, low rise buildings, and townhouses. The Carrollsburg Condos at Tiber Island was completed in 1965. The complex won an AIA Honor Award a year later. Tiber Island was included on Forbes’s list of the ten best buildings in the US.
Developer Monty Hoffman joined Cindy Gueli and AOI of DC to discuss The Wharf, the redevelopment of the SW Waterfront, and its place in Washington, DC history
This 1943 cartoon celebrates the 1st Anniversary of the WWII Navy WAVES. It’s credited to “Sixta, USNR,” suggesting the artist was in the Naval Reserves and therefore likely a WAVE. As the cartoon depicts, the WAVES had “27,000 women in the service” by July 30, 1943.
WWII Government Girls remained a prominent part of Washington’s post-war federal work force. These “G-Girls” still garnered media attention, even appearing in this July 1952 offshoot of the popular True Romances magazine franchise, which focused more on titillating fictional confessions than a factual depiction of these professional women.
CINDY GUELI 