PoPville » Judging New Buildings – New York University Building on 1300 block of L Street, NW

Judging New Buildings – New York University Building on 1300 block of L Street, NW

Check out the new NYU building on the 1300 block of L Street, NW. What do you think so far – thumbs up or down?

The NYU Web site says:

In fall 2010 New York University held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Constance Milstein and Family Global Academic Center, a new facility in Washington, DC, establishing the University’s permanent presence in the nation’s capital, and expanding NYU’s network of study sites around the globe. The Center is named for NYU Trustee Constance Milstein in recognition of her $10 million gift to help establish the new site.

The facility itself will encompass a 12-story, mixed-use building, with 75,000 square feet of space. It will be centrally located in Northwest Washington, just blocks from the White House, the World Bank, and the Smithsonian, and adjacent to the cultural attractions on DC’s 14th Street corridor.

Designed by the award-winning firm of Hickok Cole Architects, the building will serve a variety of functions. The lower levels will feature seminar rooms, meeting spaces, and offices, as well as a 200-seat auditorium and an expansive lobby that will double as a student lounge and a venue for public events. Above, there will be five floors of dormitories and a few visitors’ apartments. In addition, the NYU Office of Government Relations and Community Affairs, and the Brademas Center for the Study of Congress will establish satellite locations within the Center. Importantly, the building will embrace NYU’s commitment to sustainability, targeting Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.

Category: Architecture, Buildings, Downtown

By: Prince Of Petworth | 08 June 2012 4:00 PM | 12 Comments

Anonymous

Sounds like NYU is trying to copy the University of California Washington Center (16th and Rhode Island NW) but on a much smaller scale.

June 8, 2012 at 4:07 pm
CPT_Doom

I work in the building next door (on the right in the photos) and hate this building, because it was supposed to be 2 floors shorter when it was first designed, and my company lost windows to offices along a full corridor when the building ended up higher than expected (the law office above us was even more ticked off).

Architecturally, I think it is interesting, but doesn’t really fit into the neighborhood. My understanding was that architects typically try to echo some features of surrounding buildings to provide some cohesiveness to the area.

June 8, 2012 at 4:16 pm
- Anonymous
  
  Ticked off law office? Sounds like a good start to me.
  
  June 8, 2012 at 10:43 pm
- Anon
  
  Did you really expect that anyone would build lower than max height in that area? That would be financially irresponsible. Warning to anyone else in the neighborhood with at risk windows: they will all be gone in the next several years as builders seek to maximize space in a booming yet limited area. NYU is acknowledging that by limiting its own exposure to the issue, as presumably the building next door will itself be rebuilt to maximize square footage sometime relatively soon.
  
  June 10, 2012 at 1:29 pm
Bloomingdude

Very unpleasing shapes and proportions. It’s like a squat, out-of-shape person you don’t want to see naked.

June 8, 2012 at 4:16 pm
Anonymous

Oh wow this is so cool – dorms and classes all rolled into one in a pretty convenient location. I wonder how many DC classes they’ll offer?

June 8, 2012 at 4:19 pm
monkeyrotica

Worse than Hitler. If Hitler went to NYU, he’d love it here.

June 8, 2012 at 4:22 pm
wreckfish

It’s hard to say at this point because it’s not really finished. I work around the corner and I would hope that this building would NOT fit in with the surrounding buildlings because they are uniformly fugly.

June 8, 2012 at 4:36 pm
- Josh
  
  Yeah, why try to preserve the architectural integrity and continuity of L Street? That battle is lost; the war is over; the veterans are buried; their cemeteries forgotten.
  
  June 8, 2012 at 4:40 pm
  - austindc
    
    And then someone built another crappy LEED building on top of the forgotten cemetery and it got haunted big time.
    
    June 8, 2012 at 4:48 pm
bgluckman

I love one block over on 11th and L, and I hate this thing. It’s a squat glass box trying to pretend it’s something more than bland and forgettable.

June 9, 2012 at 2:30 pm
Anon

It’s not even halfway finished. The part tht will really be visible from the street hasn’t even been built.

June 9, 2012 at 8:39 pm