The plans for the West End project that will bring a new library and fire station to the area were unveiled last week and we’d like to know what you think about the pretty daring design. Crafted by Mexican architect Enrique Norten of TEN Arquitectos, the project is a major architectural statement dominated by glass windows and an uncharacteristic shape.
Already the development blog Greater Greater Washington is calling it an intriguing and refreshing addition to a neighborhood “bordered by classic but staid rowhouses and filled with boring or even depressing institutional architecture.” Well, yes, we suppose that’s what happens when part of a neighborhood is preserved as historic rowhouses and the other part gives way to 1960s and ’70s-era buildings — known to some as the dark ages for office building architecture (see: J. Edgar Hoover FBI building).
