Architecture
Don't just preserve history at AU, interpret it
With a more creative approach to preservation, American University's plan for its Tenley Campus could produce better urban design and a more compelling presentation of the site's history.
Capital Hall. Image from Wikipedia.
AU has agreed to preserve several structures on the site: the a former farmhouse called Dunblane House, Capital Hall the main building visible from Tenley Circle, and a Chapel. Together, these buildings form an axis that the Historic Preservation Office has insisted on preserving.
The Historic Preservation Office is right to emphasize this axis; it is probably the most interesting part of the site. The architects at SmithGroup have worked within these requirements to create a private quadrangle between the old house and Capital Hall, which looks good so far.
But AU has also decided to build on the footprints of the existing 1950s buildings and not construct anything that would obscure Capital Hall. The buildings are preserved, but no part of the campus will feel different from the others, even if they are in a slightly different style. The new buildings offer no key to understand on the site they inherit.
To understand what I mean by interpretation, take a look at Machado & Silvetti's renovation of the Getty Villa. They combined the pragmatic need for an an entry stairway with architectural promenade that helps visitors understand the museum's curatorial approach.
An abstract amphitheater is used to frame the Getty Villa as an an art object.
Treating the 1970s replica of a roman villa as an object in a collection, stairs and pathways frame the building in a sequence that calls to mind an excavation. The stair gives visitors a lens with which to understand the building and clears their minds of the drive out to Malibu.
At Tenleytown, the preservation aspect should have the same approach. Rather than preserving the front of the campus as slice of DC's rural history, any new buildings should frame the old buildings in a way that heightens one's awareness of the area's history, which dates back to the tobacco plantations and and dirt farmers who worked the land before the streetcar suburbs.
Dunblane - marked H. Blunt in 1859. Image from the Library of Congress.
By at least 1820, Dunblane House stood on the site, connected to what was then called Georgetown Pike by a long perpendicular driveway. In 1902, when the Sisters of Providence purchased the property for a women's college (Immaculata), they constructed Capital Hall and a chapel over that driveway.
Then, when the city was carving out Nebraska Avenue in the early 20th century, they designed it to intersect Wisconsin Avenue at the same spot where the Dunblane axis ends. Now, from the Dunblane site to Tenley Circle, we have a series of related buildings with a lot of history. But those buildings feel disconnected from the neighborhood.
A good redesign of the campus would link the neighborhood to the campus without diminishing the historic structures.In most projects, architects contrast new work through a difference of style. Here, the architects have an unequaled opportunity to explore the difference through urban design strategies.
The carefully arranged axes at the Tenley Circle. North is up. Image by the author.
Capital Hall is oriented towards Wisconsin Avenue, but it's hard to see the connection to Wisconsin Avenue for two reasons. The first is the lawn in front of the building, which distances Capital hall from its focus. The second is that none of the adjacent buildings are on the same axis. The residences on Nebraska are face that thoroughfare, while St. Anne's Church and the old convent on Yuma Street are aligned north-south on the city's grid.
I propose that the most effective way to contextualize the historic buildings is to heighten the sensation of contrast between the four axes at Tenley Circle by framing part of the frontal lawn with buildings. One would be aligned to Nebraska Avenue and the other to Yuma Street, with a staircase and plaza preserving line-of-sight between Capital Hall and the circle.
A rough alternative for the Tenley Circle campus. A public stair leads up to a semi-private courtyard, framing Capital Hall. Wings along Yuma and Nebraska tie the campus to the city.
The plaza would serve as the badly needed front entrance, while focusing the view from Capital Hall to Tenley Circle. Wings that face Nebraska Ave. and Yuma St. would relate the campus to the city streets. The difference in orientation would allow for a poetic negotiation from the historic architecture to the contemporary, and from the work world to the academic one.
At the opposite end of the axis, AU should not have to keep the physical structure of Dunblane House, which does not have any merit for legal protection. However, AU should reinterpret the outlines, either another building or a garden feature, to anchor the axis and suggest an imprint of history.
AU's current plan misses a unique opportunity to interpret history through public space. The HPO's insistence that nothing can occlude Capital Hall will render that history as inaccessible the building itself. A different approach is necessary, one that lets us understand the past in relation to our needs and ideas. I believe that I have only scratched the surface of the tremendous architectural potential at the Tenley Campus.
 | Neil Flanagan grew up in Ward 3, and is currently studying for a Masters in Architecture at Yale. He writes on more architectural and Russian topics at цarьchitect.  |
Comments
@ggwash
- Latest Metro map drafts add Anacostia parks and other tweaks
- Bikeshare is a gateway to private biking, not competition
- Short-term Washingtonians deserve a voice, too
- DC Council makes major policy changes overnight
- Judge denies injunction against closing schools
- Public land deals have both benefits and pitfalls
- Parklets give every block a little park
by Johnny on Jul 22, 2011 1:17 pm • link • report
This is an issue for AU's board of trustees. I'm not going to be an art critic. In fact, I think that DC could use a lot fewer art critics among the local busybodies here.
Does this have anything to do with zoning, transit, retail, traffic, or other quality-of-life design issues? No, these are about campus aesthetics and architectural/style decisions. Leave it alone. Universities have a right to develop their campus in an unfriendly, unwelcoming manner.
by JustMe on Jul 22, 2011 1:52 pm • link • report
Creating a semi-private courtyard that obscures the most memorable building in the complex from public view doesn't seem like the right approach though. I like the Nebraska street frontage idea, but the flanking buildings of Capital Hall seem to show their side elevations to Tenley Circle. I thought making the green buffer (berm excluded) into a more inviting public space was a good starting point.
The open lawn isn't what distances Capital Hall from the circle though, it's the actual distance. Had you the shoulder space to set up a Campidoglio (Rome) type figure-ground, you might actually connect the main building to a new public space that would better bridge the campus to the circle, but I don't think you have the space here unless maybe the wings are pulled back some.
Either way it's a great idea to think through what seem like ordinary peices of our fabric into a more cohesive civic whole, and your analysis made me think of a space I've always taken for granted.
by Thayer-D on Jul 22, 2011 2:22 pm • link • report
Designing buildings oriented towards the street has been proven to slow traffic. This combined with the improved sense of place encourages more pedestrian activity, which just about any retailer will tell you is good for business.
by Dave Murphy on Jul 22, 2011 3:08 pm • link • report
by Tim on Jul 22, 2011 3:09 pm • link • report
I'm sure I have a few ideas about how you could better arrange your living room furniture or what color window blinds you should buy, but you didn't ask me, now did you?
AU's campus aesthetics, outside of zoning and traffic/transit issues, is not a point of public policy debate outside of the AU community.
I feel the same way about the condo building on 14th-- we can debate the height, retail, and zoning issues forever, and that's great. But, "it's hideous" is not an argument: no one asked me or you to be an art critic.
by JustMe on Jul 22, 2011 3:28 pm • link • report
Generally, I would take your perspective. In fact, I was reluctant to offer alternatives at all.
However, you're mistaken on a number of counts here. AU is required to get ANC and OP approval for this project, because it is zoned in a residential neighborhood. Secondly, AU is already dealing with considerable opposition to this project and do anything that increases the density of the campus. This post is kind of a necessary evil.
Thirdly, nothing I touched on relates purely to aesthetics; all points tie back to preservation and urban design issues, which go beyond aesthetics. Fourthly, it is fair to discuss aesthetics, design, and planning, even if you have no legal recourse, for the benefit of professionals and the public. I feel like you just hand-waved the entire field of arts criticism into a hobby for busybodies.
Finally, just as AU has no obligation to listen to me, you are under no obligation to read any kind of architectural criticism.
I think GGW should find a graphic artist contributer that can bring posts like this to the next level with some renderings. Everyone loves some good rendering eyecandy.
Johnny: Renderings are great, but they are incredibly time-consuming to do. I also don't have all of the information about these buildings, and didn't want to get too specific in my arguments, because that's not fair to the actual architects.
by Neil Flanagan on Jul 22, 2011 3:52 pm • link • report
Instead, I thought that the tight space in front of Santa Maria della Pace might be more fun.
by Neil Flanagan on Jul 22, 2011 3:56 pm • link • report
by Kent on Jul 22, 2011 6:12 pm • link • report
As for the comparison of arranging ones furniture to commenting about the aesthetics of buildings we all will look at is the artistic equivalent of libertarianism. It presuposes that if human relationships aren't easily codifiable, that somehow they doesn't exist or at a minimum, aren't relevant to comment on. It's totally valid to be sensitive to over-reaching and trampling over other's right to do with their property as they please. It's another to imagine we don't all share the same air and space.
If thinking through Neil's ideas actually improves the design, then it might redound well on AU and the larger community it's a part of, but we wouldn't know that if we're so afraid of public discorse on subjective things that we all hide away in our protective cocoons, and God knows that's the last thing this world needs more of.
by Thayer-D on Jul 23, 2011 8:43 am • link • report
Fortunately, AU does NOT have to get ANC approval. The ANC can only vote to support or oppose a project and then can send a letter to the appropriate DC government agency registering its support or opposition. The agency is required by statute to give the ANC "great weight" in making its decision.
What "great weight" means is the agency can do whatever it wants to do, and almost always does. However, the agency is required by a Court of Appeals decision to explain why it reached a different conclusion than the ANC if, indeed, it decides counter to the ANC recommendation.
AU and its students have been under attack from their neighboring ANC. It's been going on for a long time and DC agencies know that and give that ANC's letters and motions the weight they deserve. Not much.
by Familiar with ANC's on Jul 23, 2011 8:09 pm • link • report
by Sarah on Jul 25, 2011 10:02 am • link • report
Thayer: Thanks for the kind words. In relative distances, the street in front of SMdP is more consistent, but it's actually around the same width in feet (20-30) as this example. Do you think the change is jarring, or just that the public space is to narrow?
Sarah, In Soviet Rassha, Cheh asks "whose is it?"
by Neil Flanagan on Jul 27, 2011 8:56 am • link • report
I hope that GGW will keep commenting about AUs proposals for redevelopment of the Immaculata campus and that others -- particularly others who live or work nearby -- will support the good suggestions that Neil has made,
by Richard Arkin on Aug 6, 2011 4:17 pm • link • report
Add a Comment