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EPILOGUE We begin this issue of ARCHITECTUREDC with an ending. On CONTRIBUTORS

Bradley W. Johnson the same day last month, our community lost two of its design Celia Carnes (“Inside Madison
Marquette’s Comfort Zone”) is the
giants: Hugh Newell Jacobsen, FAIA, and Frank Schlesinger,
marketing coordinator for BELL
FAIA. These two luminaries of Washington architecture, both
Architects, PC, and a new contributor
classic modernists, had a huge and lasting impact on the local
built environment and the practice of architecture in our area, to ARCHITECTUREDC.
and for this reason, both were recipients of the Centennial Steven K. Dickens, AIA, LEED AP
Medal, AIA|DC’s highest award. (“Lofty Ambitions” and “Art for Work’s
Jacobsen’s iconic house designs, with their simple, Sake”), is a partner at Eric Colbert
Monopoly-house forms, pure white walls, and clean lines, were & Associates.
instantly recognizable, and were regularly covered by shelter magazines in the 1980s
and 1990s. When I was studying for my planning degree, I worked at AIA Journal,
where Jacobsen’s projects were frequently featured, and it was during that time that Denise Liebowitz (“This Just In” and
I first became familiar with his work. Many of his clients were world-renowned, and “The Writing on the Wall”), formerly
included Jacqueline Onassis and figures from the entertainment world. with the National Capital Planning
But even as people continued to commission his trademark houses, he designed Commission, is a frequent contributor
a number of important projects of other types that were less widely known to be his, to ARCHITECTUREDC.
including the first renovation of the Renwick Gallery and the significant terrace-
level addition to the Capitol, which he did so skillfully that it’s hard to know it’s even G. Martin Moeller, Jr., Assoc. AIA
there. “Good architecture never shouts,” he once said. “It is like a well-mannered (“Keeping Your Distance” and
lady, kind to its neighbors. It takes a double take to know that she is there at all.” “Mission-Driven Design”), is an
WELCOME the editor of ARCHITECTUREDC.
independent curator and writer. He is

Ronald O’Rourke (“Out of Many,
One” and “A Fashionable Place to
Work”) is a regular contributor to
Schlesinger, in the words of Charles Gwathmey, FAIA (1938-2009), was “an ARCHITECTUREDC. His father, Jack
architect’s architect” whose local projects include National Place, 3300 Water Street, O’Rourke, was an architect in San
the National Cathedral School, and 3336 Cady’s Alley. Schlesinger spent much of Francisco for more than four decades.
his 60-year career teaching other architects—and many of Washington’s current
leading architects, including some featured in these pages, were students and close
colleagues of his who remember him as a generous teacher, a direct critic, and a CORRECTION
powerful designer. As Maggie Haslam has written for the University of Maryland,
Schlesinger’s legacy reaches far beyond the many buildings he designed because it
also includes the generation of architects who followed him. In the article about the Kozo
I started my work for AIA|DC in 1998, when both men were still at the top Condominium in the Spring issue of
of their game. They loomed so large to me that I was little stunned during a 2014 ARCHITECTUREDC, the name of project
panel discussion on DC housing that there were folks in the audience who were designer Emily Hirst, Assoc. AIA,
unaware of Jacobsen’s work. From that moment, our Chapter has devoted resources LEED AP, was misspelled on the first
to documenting the careers of architects such as Jacobsen and Schlesinger who have reference to her in the text. We regret
had a significant impact on our city, region, and country. I like to think of it as a the error.
tradition that we are carrying on from the late Don Myer, FAIA, who painstakingly
documented the first 100 years of the Chapter’s history.
Although an epilogue is often thought of as end—the conclusion of the story—
in the case of these two men, I prefer the alternative definition: that it is a comment
on two lives that were well and generously led, and which will continue to have an
impact not only through the buildings they gave us, but through the people they
trained and influenced, and whose work will continue to shape the Washington
architectural scene for decades to come.

Mary Fitch, AICP, Hon. AIA
Publisher
mfitch@aiadc.com
@marycfitch

WELCOME 5