"AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, DC" (1965) 2nd Edition (1974) 3rd Edition (1994) 4th Edition (2006) 5th Edition (2012) - Walking Guidebook to DC

[DonRocks]

This thread could just as easily go in the History forum, or the Science forum - undoubtedly, one day it will be a forum of its own.

Two books have been sitting in my basement, virtually untouched, and right now they're sitting beside me:

"City of Trees" by Melanie Choukas-Bradley, illustrated by Polly Alexander

"AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, DC"

Although the former is only tangentially related to architecture, my knowledge of the subject is so limited that I don't even know if the latter is considered to be a decent reference. What it seems to be is a nice little walking tour, which is kind of what I want.

Nevertheless, one of my "projects" has been to really learn about DC's architecture and flora, using the AIA Guide (or some suitable substitute) as my starting point.

And this thread could just as easily go in the Art forum, or the History forum - I'm actually thinking about moving it to the latter.

I've decided to pick up my copy of the AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, DC (my copy is the 3rd Edition), and study it a bit. The link is to the 5th Edition, which came out in 2012 - if it's substantially different, and people want to attend this party, I'll spring for it, since a lot has changed in the past 21 years.

After the introduction, Tour A starts off in Capitol Hill, with an 8-page description of the Capitol (and more detail later about certain aspects of the Capitol). Anyone interested in doing a pseudo-walking tour with me? I want to actually see these things, rather than simply reading about them - I had no idea, for example, that the Capitol had corn-cob and tobacco-leaf capitals (a capital is the top part of a column).

Also, I always thought Robert Mills was responsible for the Capitol Dome; here, he doesn't even get a mention (although I'm sure he'll be mentioned in the Washington Monument (*) section) - Thomas Walter is credited with making the dome as high as it is today (it looked really "squat" in bygone eras), and I cannot imagine it like that after having seen the current version my entire life. Did you know they extended the east face by 32 1/2 feet in 1959-1960, and in the process, added *102 rooms*?!

If anyone wants to do an on-your-own group tour of DC's architecture and discuss it here, I'm game.

(*) Who knew that before the Washington Monument, the world's tallest building was the Cologne Cathedral? Boy, I certainly didn't.

[The Hersch]

(*) Who knew that before the Washington Monument, the world's tallest building was the Cologne Cathedral? Boy, I certainly didn't.

The Cologne Cathedral, while begun in 1248, was completed only in 1880, four years before the Washington Monument was completed. I'm not sure when its spires achieved their current immense height, but I believe it was in the late 1870s, so it was the tallest building in the world for a very few years. In 1890, Ulm Minster (begun in 1377) was completed. Its single spire is even taller than the Cologne Cathedral's, and it remains the tallest church in the world. As a younger and more vigorous man, I climbed the Ulm spire. The very last, highest part is a very narrow spiral stairway, and I actually chickened out and didn't make it quite to the top. I was thinking "yeah, this has been here for a long time, but everything falls down eventually" as I retreated down the steps. I could feel the spire swaying slightly, which is what scared me.

[lovehockey]

The corncob pillars, located on the 1st floor next to the entrance to the Old Supreme Court Chamber, survived the British in 1814 and the basement gas explosion of 1898.  If you look at the photo of the crater in the second link, the pillars are located beyond the entryway; that area too sustained significant damage.