by Tracy F. Ostroff
Associate Editor

The glass façade and flagship design of the new Washington Convention Center beckon guests to enter the massive complex and take in the details and amenities that abound in each corner of the 2.3-million-square-foot building. The center, designed by Thompson, Ventulett and Stainback, Atlanta, recipient of the 2002 AIA Firm Award, with Mariani Architects-Engineers and Devrouax & Purnell Architects-Planners, both of Washington, D.C., is intended to be a monument unto itself, and city officials and building designers are banking on the fact that city dwellers, visitors, and meeting planners will share their excitement for the latest addition to the Washington, D.C., skyline.

The five-block complex would cover six football fields, so much of the architects’ initial challenge was to break down the enormous scale. Instead of one continuous monolith, the building is broken up into three linked elements, each with its own curved roof, with much of the building’s bulk sunk belowground. A full two-thirds of the exhibit space, a 500,000-square-foot room, is set in this subterranean bathtub, allowing the structure to enclose vast amounts of space on a tight site and within D.C.’s mid-rise height limits. Setting so much of the building below ground allowed the architects to stack the space inside for vertical circulation that reduces walking and “exhibit fatigue.” The expansive glass front and walkways offer scenic gateways to each direction of the city, give the building a sense of transparency, and visually connect to the six distinct surrounding neighborhoods.

By breaking the façade into a series of elevations, the designers further fit the building comfortably into its surroundings of buildings of various shapes and sizes. The center commands prominent vistas of L’Enfant’s city plan. Directly to the south is the Beaux Arts former D.C. Central Library, to which the Convention Center presents its highest elevation. The center’s limestone, granite, and glass south face pays tribute to this “City Beautiful” landmark, now being restored, and the monumental Capital Mall a mile further south. The Convention Center’s opposite façade, on the other hand, is clad in brick, akin to its residential neighbors to the north.

Grand opulence
The new four-level convention center offers 36,000 square feet that can be dedicated to registration space, 150,000 square feet of meeting space with 66 break-out rooms, and 725,000 square feet of column-free prime exhibit space. Makore wood adorns the prominent space in the center, and the carpet, featuring several variations upon a theme, is designed especially for the venue.

The design team is particularly proud of the convention center’s ballroom, which, they say, is one of the largest on the East Coast. A stylish, latticework plaster-cast vaulted ceiling calms the acoustics and offers a base for supporting sound, graphics, lighting equipment, fire detectors, and sprinklers. Its diamond pattern, custom-made for the ballroom, recalls elaborate ceilings in older Washington buildings, noted Ted Mariani, AIA, principal of Mariani Architects Engineers PC. Multicolored fabric panels, more makore wood, and specially designed carpets further adorn the space. Taking advantage of its setting, the ballroom provides views of the capital’s monuments from the pre-event area.

Interior markers and themes aid wayfinding. Convention planners can use the larger exhibit rooms as a continuous concourse or break the space into smaller venues. The exhibit space offers high-tech capabilities, including receptacles for information-technology attachments, power, water, and compressed air. The architects said they took care that the grand, opulent interior features enhance, not interfere with the displays that will eventually populate the convention space. And because the design offered extensive security measures from the outset, few alterations were necessary to meet the increased security concerns following September 11, the architects said.

To add to the center’s richness, the WCCA decided to incorporate what it calls “the largest public arts program in U.S. convention-center history,” which will display 85 to 100 pieces of art in a gallery that will prominently feature contemporary pieces and artists from the Washington area.

Urban environs
TVS principal Andy McLean, FAIA, called L’Enfant’s site plan for Washington, D.C., a “historic resource” to which the architects often referred during design. “It was in our thinking all the time,” McLean said. That sentiment shows in the cityscape vistas that convention-goers can enjoy from the glass-enclosed complex. The design also “retains the spirit of the street,” McLean said. He noted that the architects were sensitive to the concerns that closing off two major thoroughfares for the sake of the convention center would create headaches for residents and commuters and would isolate some of the city’s most historic neighborhoods. They chose instead to retain the roads by creating the glass-enclosed “L Street Bridge” to connect the north and south buildings and allow views of the distinct neighborhoods. They also made the building accessible to the city’s Metro subway system.

Hopeful investment
The impetus for creating the new center, which sits only a block or two from the old convention center, was to increase “size, flexibility, and utility, and to capture the pent-up demand for Washington, D.C. as a convention destination,” said Bill Hanbury of the D.C. Convention and Tourism Corporation. Although the old Washington Convention Center, whose fate is yet to be determined, was one of the largest facilities in the U.S. when it opened, it soon was dwarfed by the larger and more cushy complexes that popped up nationwide during the late 1980s and ’90s.

The city government, which launched a tax on area hotels and restaurants to secure about $650 million in bonds needed to build the $834-million complex, is banking on the fact that the new center will be able to recoup their investment. The Washington Convention Center Authority (WCCA) estimates that activities related to the complex will add $1.4 billion to the city's economy, 9,000 new jobs, and three million new visitors per year for the District of Columbia. Hanbury said officials already have booked 190 events, calling it the “most successful pre-opening” of a convention center yet.

Planners hope that that the new convention center will offer something for everyone, whether it is the comfortable and state-of-the-art meeting spaces, a variety of dining choices, the public art program, or bird’s-eye city views. The one thing it certainly extends is the opportunity for Washington, D.C., to attract even more visitors and convention-goers to the nation’s capital.

Copyright 2003 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved. Home Page