Future Home of NPR Looking Really Good

by Prince Of Petworth August 28, 2012 at 4:00 pm 25 Comments

The future home of NPR at 1111 North Capitol St, NE (at L Street) keeps getting better and better. You can see what it looked like in April 2012 here. Do you like the blue panels up top?

Anonymous

Yeah I love Star Trek: The Next Generation. This is the part where Data rearranges all the blue chips in the control panel to override the main deflector dish and reroute auxiliary power to the shields, right?
- John M
  
  +1,000
  
  On a gigantic scale, yes.
jt21

Meh. I like the colors in the windows, but otherwise it looks very fortress-y. It’s the twin of the ATF building on NY Ave.
- Mike
  
  They’re getting ready for attacks from the rabid reactionaries.
bgluckman

I’m more interested in hearing how long it will be until their current building at Massachusetts and 7th is torn down. I can’t imagine it will still be up come this time next summer.
CA

Still blows my mind that is happening on N. Capitol St. #thenewDC
Drew

I wish they had done something more urban, with street level retail, so North Cap can stop looking like a highway, but here in DC we just love monumental and impersonal architecture…
- Anonymous
  
  Its an office building…get over it
  - Anonymous
    
    not entirely.
    it’s recording studios and live performance spaces as well. it’s a space that will actively engage with the public, not just office workers.
    - drew
      
      It’s great that the new building will engage the public, but if DC really wants to be lively and pedestrian friendly its buildings actually need to engage the street. It’s an office building, sure, but plenty of office buildings don’t create Federal Center SW or Federal Triangle-esque dead zones.
petwurf

Oy. But for a bit of blue, this thing is utterly nondescript.
Anonymous

smithsonian
- Tony G
  
  Yes, before NPR, and the Smithsonian, it was built for the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company.
Anonymous

Well, it’s certainly boxy, so it’s got that going for it…
Rich

Ugly. It’s kindof a brutalist revival attached to a generic 40s warehouse.
Thor

on a plus side the front could double as a correctional facility? I don’t know. that’s the best i could come up with. in other, simpler words this is just ugly. it could easily be confused with a self storage business.
- Anonymous
  
  come to think of it, I’ve seen American embassies abroad that look less militaristic. it’s only missing guard towers.
wreckfish

I like it. I can imagine that it’s tough to lighten up what was a pretty heavy building to start with. The abundance of glass helps as will the addition of workers.

I agree that it would be yet another insult to this neighborhood if there is no ground-level retail or something that adds life after 5pm. It’s already suffering from fortress syndrome. After 5pm, the only people around are frightened and lost bus and train folks, urban zombies and cops. There are plenty of folks who live nearby but they have no reason to venture into this area.
- Drew
  
  Exactly. There’s no one on the street. That’s why, despite NoMa and Mt. Vernon Square Metros being fairly close, the walk between them is fairly terrifying.
brookland_rez

I think it looks cool. People always complain that DC buildings all look alike, well, here is something unique.
- Anonymous
  
  Apparently you have never seen the FBI building.
  - brookland_rez
    
    Of course I have. And this looks nothing like it.
NoLongerNew2CH

Thumbs up!
ear666

Looks great. I love the blue and I think this is a big improvement for North Cap. However, I am always hesitant to look at the comments on this site, because they always seem to be filled with negativity.
Anonymous

Does this mean that WTOP will have to give up the title of “Glass Enclosed Nerve Center?”

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