Description
Neoclassicism is the predominant official style in Washington, but the city also boasts enough architectural variety to provide a kind of primer to the broader history of Western architecture. In this armchair tour of Washington’s “other” architecture, we’ll explore buildings directly inspired by ancient and historical prototypes. We’ll examine the principles of Gothic and Byzantine architecture in the soaring vaults of the National Cathedral and the gold-encrusted domes of Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Also modernism’s break with the past in the spare steel and glass of the World Bank Headquarters and US Institute of Peace. Recently completed (and much acclaimed) DC Public Libraries show a new perspective on traditional and modernist architecture.
