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Constructing a podium for the largest air rights project to date in Washington, D.C., is one thing. Doing it in a confined work area over an active highway is something else entirely. Topping that, the project includes moving Washington’s oldest synagogue—twice.
The project’s complexity stemmed from balancing “the practical needs of construction and preserving design flexibility for future vertical development,” says Kristopher Takács, the Washington, D.C., practice leader in the office of architect-engineer Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. SOM provided master-planning, entitlements, infrastructure planning and urban design for the project. It is also providing architectural services for some of the buildings.