A Clear Day in D.C.

Glass Buildings Are All the Rage in Washington As Architects Adopt Modern Design and Attitude

Washington, the city of secrets, is going transparent.

In appearance, at least.

Brick and limestone buildings that have long given the nation's capital its neoclassical gravitas are being challenged by sleeker, more modern designs.

Office buildings sheathed largely in glass are rising across downtown, from Capitol Hill through the K Street corridor, adding a touch of 21st-century chic to canyons famous for their historic and often drab architecture.

"We're in the style business, and that's what's in style," said developer Douglas Jemal, who is building a glass-cased office building at 11th and F streets NW.

"That right there is out," he said as he gazed at two 1960s-style buildings on Connecticut Avenue, the type of concrete boxes that were staples of the city.

The boom in glass designs reflects Washington's evolution into a cosmopolitan hub that is home to a widening array of industries, developers and architects say.

"The city has matured; it has become a world capital. The government's not the only driving force," said George Dove, a District-based architect.

"We in Washington have been brainwashed to think that the traditional design aesthetic -- Greek and Roman and Colonial Chippendale -- represents the finer things in life," he said. "It's a very conservative approach. Maybe embracing the 21st century isn't such a bad thing."

Driven by technological advances, developers in the 1990s began trumpeting glass buildings that differed dramatically from generations of modernist styles, in energy efficiency as well as transparency. Glass structures emerged more recently in Washington, where about two dozen completely or predominantly transparent buildings are planned, are being built or have been completed.

Dewey & LeBoeuf, a law firm, happily made the leap into the future. For years the tenant of a concrete fortress on Connecticut Avenue, the firm recently moved to the top three floors of an all-glass building at 1101 New York Ave. NW, across from another that is under construction.

From an 11th-floor corner office, the panoramic, floor-to-ceiling vistas make the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Monument and even the street seem close enough to touch.