By Paul Schwartzman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 7, 2007

A District preservation board yesterday conferred landmark status on a 36-year-old downtown church, despite opposition from congregants and community leaders, who dismiss the building as an architectural blight.

The Historic Preservation Review Board's 7 to 0 ruling bars the Third Church of Christ, Scientist from redeveloping the fortresslike sanctuary at 16th and I streets, two blocks north of the White House.

Although several board members expressed reservations about the church's modernist appearance, they said the building is among the city's most significant examples of Brutalism, an architectural movement of the 1950s and 1960s that espoused the use of roughly cast concrete.

The church was designed by Araldo Cossutta, who worked with renowned architect I.M. Pei's firm.

"You don't necessarily have to like it, but you can learn enough to have an appreciation for it," said board member Denise Johnson.

Civic leaders criticized the ruling, saying the church does not deserve a status that is reserved for the District's most architecturally significant structures.

"It's both dysfunctional and poorly designed, period," said Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations. "If this building is considered to be historic, then you can make the case for just about any building in the city."

Congregants said they were unsure whether they would appeal the ruling to preserve their octagonal home, with high, windowless walls, located on an unadorned plaza across from an accompanying seven-story office building. But they said it might be too costly to repair a 400-seat sanctuary that's no longer suitable for a church that draws 40 to 60 Sunday worshipers.

"We know of no way to adapt the building to meet our needs," said Darrow Kirkpatrick, a congregant. "It's not a welcoming building."

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public interest law firm that defends religious expression, said it might challenge the ruling. Roger Severino, legal counsel to the fund, said in an interview that the District, by preventing the congregation from demolishing its sanctuary, was "imposing a substantial burden" on religious expression.

"We have let HPRB know that it is treading on dangerous ground," Severino said.

Tersh Boasberg, the board's chairman, said during the hearing that the board would not address First Amendment issues in its consideration of the church's architecture. Instead, he said, the board would base its ruling on the significance of the design.

Responding to concerns that the church is not old enough to deserve protection as a landmark, Boasberg said review boards nationwide have faced a growing number of applications to designate modern buildings. In recent years, the District's review board has bestowed landmark status on modern buildings such as the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library and the Watergate complex.

In a November report considering Third Church of Christ, District officials wrote that they "rarely" endorse landmark designation when the property's owner is opposed.

But the officials wrote that the church deserves the status because it's "one of the best examples of Brutalism in the Washington area and one of the most important Modernist churches," a view echoed in letters that architects and historians sent to the board.

Board members vowed to work with church officials to help them remain on the site, although they offered no specifics. "No one wants this thing to sit empty," Boasberg told one congregant. "That doesn't help anyone."