Firm： SHoP Architects

Type： Commercial › Office

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2018

SIZE： 500,000 sqft - 1,000,000 sqft

Located in the heart of Washington, D.C., Midtown Center is a 14-story mixed-use office, dining, and retail complex arranged around a large new public plaza. The building works to integrate with its environment—and honor local architectural traditions—through a unique glass-and-copper facade designed to slowly patina over time. This architectural expression optimizes solar shading while maintaining maximal daylight conditions for the workplaces within; it also serves to negotiate the scalar differences inherent at this site, where larger civic buildings abut smaller-scale streets. A series of three bridges cross between the two wings of the complex, sculptural elements that animate the courtyard below. Much of the ground plane is given over to smaller gathering places linked by public pathways that “cut the corners” and connect adjoining neighborhoods along the most direct and natural pedestrian routes. Together with our client, Carr Properties, SHoP has created conditions that will foster dynamic public spaces—a critical addition to the larger network of open spaces that defines the city’s increasingly lively downtown.