Page 73 - ArchDC_Winter 2019

Street façade following renovation.

stepsiblings, but, not being related by blood, they
Project: La Quercia Apartments, later fell in love and married. As Robert pursued a
1619 30th Street, NW, Washington, DC
successful career in the Foreign Service, the couple
Architects/Interior Designers: Cunningham | Quill Architects built a reputation as astute collectors and avid patrons
Landscape Architects: Landscape Architecture Bureau of the visual and performing arts.
Structural Engineers: Keast & Hood In 1920, the Blisses bought a large estate at the
(merged with Simpson Gumpertz & Heger) northern edge of Georgetown that had been owned by
MEP Engineers: RYN Engineers
Civil Engineers: AMT a succession of prominent figures. They combined two
Code Consultants: Jensen Hughes of the property’s traditional names to call it Dumbarton
Security/Low-Voltage Consultants: Genesis Security Systems Oaks. The couple oversaw a complete renovation of
Commissioning: Facility Dynamics Engineering the main house and commissioned Beatrix Farrand to
General Contractor: Consigli Construction
design the extensive gardens for which the property
is now famous. In the late 1930s, they accelerated their
Nestled in a leafy corner of Georgetown, seemingly art and book collecting and commissioned a new music
oblivious to the bustle of commercial and room, library, and exhibition galleries.
governmental DC, the Dumbarton Oaks Research Then, in 1940, the Blisses donated all of the
Library and Collection is an oasis of quiet and calm. buildings on the property along with their art
Many Washingtonians—along with tourists willing collection, library, and most of the surrounding land
to look beyond the more standard sights on and to Harvard University. In doing so, they hoped to
around the National Mall—know Dumbarton Oaks create “a quiet place where the advanced students
for its extensive gardens and its galleries displaying and scholars could withdraw, the one to mellow and
Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art. Few are aware of develop, the other to write the result of a life’s study.”
the institution’s primary purpose, which is to provide Since becoming a part of Harvard, the Dumbarton Oaks
a place for scholars in landscape, Byzantine, and Pre- campus has continued to develop. The most notable
Columbian studies to conduct advanced research. addition was the Pre-Columbian Collection Pavilion
Dumbarton Oaks owes its existence to Mildred designed by Philip Johnson and completed in 1963.
Barnes Bliss and Robert Woods Bliss. Mildred Research fellows were initially housed on the
Barnes inherited a fortune derived from her parents’ main property, but as the institution grew in scope
investment in the wildly successful patent medicine and importance, those facilities became inadequate. In
Fletcher’s Castoria. After her father died, her mother 1994, Dumbarton Oaks bought an existing apartment
married William Bliss, an attorney and father of building on nearby 30th Street to provide additional
Robert Woods Bliss. Mildred and Robert thus became

ROOM(S) TO THINK 71