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ArchDC Fall 2017.qxp_Fall 2017  8/10/17  1:06 PM  Page 6

                                                                                          Contributors


                                                                                      Steven K. Dickens, AIA, LEED AP
                                                                                      (“Home is Where the Innovation Is” and
                                                                                      “Democracy Lives in Light”), is senior
                                                                                      associate with Eric Colbert & Associates.

                                                                                      Peter James, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
                                                                                      (“Starting Up in Woodridge”), is an
                                                                                      associate with Perkins Eastman DC.

                                                                                      Denise Liebowitz (“The Medium is
                                                                                      the Message” and “Design at Work”),
                                                                                      formerly with the National Capital
                                                                                      Planning Commission, is a regular
                                                                                      contributor to ARCHITECTUREDC.

                                                                                      G. Martin Moeller, Jr., Assoc. AIA
                                                                                      (“This Side of the Tracks” and “Taking
                                                                                      the Office for a Spin”) is an independent
                                                                                      curator and writer, as well as senior curator
                                                    Photo by Ana del Castillo / Shutterstock.com
                                                                                      at the National Building Museum.  He
        De Rotterdam building (at right), Rotterdam, The Netherlands, by OMA.
                                                                                      is the editor of ARCHITECTUREDC.
                One of those Red Star Line emigrants was a five-year-old named Israel Isidore
                                                                                      Ronald O’Rourke (“Every Story Has
        Baline. He later changed his name to Irving Berlin and became one of America’s greatest
                                                                                      Two Sides” and “Slipped Right In”) is a
        songwriters, penning “God Bless America,” among other famous tunes. One of his pianos
                                                                                      regular contributor to ARCHITECTUREDC.
        is on display at the museum.
                                                                                      His father, Jack O’Rourke, was an
                Reading Berlin’s story and others at the museum was a deeply meaningful way to
                                                                                      architect in San Francisco for more than
        celebrate the Fourth. I was in Belgium, but for me and my husband (whose family on his
                                                                                      four decades.
        mother’s side emigrated from Eastern Europe in the early 20th century), it was a very
        American moment.
                We were in Antwerp that day as a side trip from Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and as
        it turns out, our hotel in Rotterdam was built on the site of a similar point of departure,
        this time for the Holland America line. The hotel takes up part of a large mixed-use
        building, called De Rotterdam, which was designed by Rem Koolhaas and also completed
        in 2013. Intended as a vertical neighborhood of 5,000 people, the complex also includes
        apartments, offices, and restaurants. It has become Rotterdam’s most iconic structure,
        even more than the nearby Erasmusbrug, the modern cable-stayed bridge over
        Rotterdam’s Nieuwe Maas River. The views from our hotel room toward the bridge, the
        river, and the city beyond were breathtaking.
                With more than 1.7 million square feet of space, De Rotterdam is the largest building
        in the Netherlands. And at 44 floors, it is much taller than anything in Washington. Even
        so, our infamous J. Edgar Hoover FBI headquarters building, with only one-quarter as
        many floors, is even larger, with 2.8 million square feet of floor space. At this writing,
        with the project to move the FBI headquarters to a new site having been cancelled, it now
        looks like we will have live with what our editor has called “the swaggering bully of the
        neighborhood” for some time to come.
                Elsewhere in the city, however, new office buildings are being built, and this issue of
        ARCHITECTUREDC focuses on showing you several recent examples. We hope you enjoy
        reading about them. Thanks for all your kind comments on the last issue, and we look
        forward to hearing from you.

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






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