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Rooftop terrace.

ASU’s president Crow literally put his hand on a map coordinating the various user-tenants, leaving CORE
of central DC covering the area in which he wanted to focus on the challenges of design, preservation and
the center to be located—a radius of about ten minutes’ other approvals, and construction logistics.
walk from the White House. ASU’s real estate wing The first problem was that the building simply
went to work, and found the building at 18th & I to be a wasn’t big enough for ASU’s needs. Filling in a pre-
nearly ideal candidate.. existing courtyard—more like a big light well, really—
For the previous owner, who was seeking to sell and adding an eighth story resolved that elemental
the building, CORE architecture + design had done problem but, as is so often the case, created others. It
“test fit” studies as part of the marketing package. was necessary to get approval from the DC Board of
When ASU purchased it, the university saw wisdom Zoning Adjustment, and, more consequentially, the DC
in building on CORE’s previous work, so the same firm Historic Preservation Office (HPO) became involved.
was hired for the job, with principal David Cheney, The Barrett and O’Connor Washington Center
AIA, as the lead. The university’s architects (back at was one of the first projects subject to a new form
the main campus in Tempe) played the critical role of of historic design control. The building was not in a

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