Page 18 - ArchDC Fall 2018

ArchDC Fall 2018.qxp_Fall 2018 8/27/18 8:28 AM Page 16

The Square 50 project, showing the new
fire station with the squash club above and
affordable housing on top.

Boxed Up
Boxed Up

and Ready to Go
and Ready to Go Al

TEN Arquitectos Stacks a Mix-Use Building

into the West End by Ronald O’Rourke

Rarely in Washington has a building with such a high-energy design
Project: Square 50,
been given such a bureaucratically boring name. The mixed-use
23rd & M Streets, NW, Washington, DC
project, located in Washington’s West End neighborhood, is officially
called the Square 50 project, for the parcel at 23rd and M streets, NW, Design Architects: TEN Arquitectos
on which it sits. It seems destined, however, to become known Executive Architects: WDG Architecture
popularly as the Squash on Fire building, after the cheekily-named Consulting Architects for Fire Station: LeMay Erickson Willcox Architects
Interior Designers: TEN Arquitectos; WDG Interior Architecture
squash court business that occupies the building’s middle section,
Structural Engineers: Tadjer-Cohen-Edelson Associates
directly above its street-level fire station.
MEP/Security/Telecom/AV/LEED Consultants: Cosentini Associates
The design architect for the project was TEN Arquitectos, a Civil Engineers and Landscape Architects: Wiles Mensch Corporation
Mexico City- and New York-based firm headed by Enrique Norten, Curtain Wall/Waterproofing Consultants: Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
Hon. FAIA. (TEN stands for Taller de Enrique Norten, meaning Acoustics Consultants: Polysonics
Contractor: Clark Construction Group
studio of Enrique Norten.) The firm’s modernist work is well
represented in Mexico, New York, and New Jersey, and also

16 BOXED UP AND READY TO GO