A city reflects its origins. Washington is entirely artificial since the origin was simply a compromise location between the Tobacco- Slave Culture of the South and the Commercial Trade culture of the North. There is no City, no street life, no mingling cultures. Isolated pockets of urban life have emerged, like weeds through cracked marble, but most of it is in small toneyghettos. Nice Museums though, and a good Metro to get you out to where humans actually live.
Happy to see this after listening to the sculpture podcast (and as a DC resident). It seems as if marble is overused here in the US - I used to live in NYC and remember once being lost in the WTC-area complex when it was in construction, it was like being trapped in an underground over-scaled ice labyrinth. But here in this context it just works.
Super interesting point about marble, I did not know that.
A city reflects its origins. Washington is entirely artificial since the origin was simply a compromise location between the Tobacco- Slave Culture of the South and the Commercial Trade culture of the North. There is no City, no street life, no mingling cultures. Isolated pockets of urban life have emerged, like weeds through cracked marble, but most of it is in small toneyghettos. Nice Museums though, and a good Metro to get you out to where humans actually live.
Nailed it.
Happy to see this after listening to the sculpture podcast (and as a DC resident). It seems as if marble is overused here in the US - I used to live in NYC and remember once being lost in the WTC-area complex when it was in construction, it was like being trapped in an underground over-scaled ice labyrinth. But here in this context it just works.
(I also enjoyed your Great Rezoning talk).
Also, buildings like the Pentagon and Department of Justice show how the style can be translated into limestone.