Then and Now: The Schneider mansion

History

Then and Now: The Schneider mansion

by David Alpert • November 14, 2008 1:02 pm

DCist highlights this photo (left) of the Schneider mansion, which once stood at 18th and Q. The Dupont East condo building (right) now occupies the site.

Left: The Schneider mansion at 18th and Q. Photo from the National Photo Company Collection.
Right: The Dupont East condominium on the same site today. Photo by NCinDC on Flickr.

This building is directly across the alley from my house. I'm glad the corner now accommodates the larger number of residents that can fit in the Dupont East, but wow do I wish we'd kept part of all of the Schneider Mansion. At least there are still many other, though perhaps not quite as impressive, Romanesque Revival Schneider houses on Q and elsewhere in the neighborhood.

Fortunately, the area still kept a little Schneider-ness: Greater Greater Fiancée's last name is also Schneider, though I'm not aware of any relation.

13 comments

Tags: architecture, DC, Dupont Circle, history

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Then and Now: The Leiter House (Apr 13, 2009)
Then and Now: 13th Street, NW (Nov 9, 2009)

David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

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David, the more familiar you become with the local DC issues, the more I see your views shifting toward the views of those "old and tired" preservationists ... So, when are you joining the Committee of 100 on the Federal City? ;)

by Lance on Nov 14, 2008 1:48 pm • link • report

It wouldn't sting so much if the newer building had any grace to it at all.

Alas, many of the buildings we continue to build prove we haven't learned the lesson.

by BeyondDC on Nov 14, 2008 1:51 pm • link • report

One problem with the fixed height limits: They encourage building flat-topped boxes. Something like a 200ft high church steeple does not impede the view as much as a 20 story office building, but they're similarly banned.

by Squalish on Nov 14, 2008 3:54 pm • link • report

Sidenote: The new building has approximately 20 times the floor area of the old building, to my eye.

by Squalish on Nov 14, 2008 4:00 pm • link • report

Squalish, I'm pretty sure the height limit only applies to occupied floors - steeples, gables, elevator penthouses, etc. are all permissible, though regulated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heights_of_Buildings_Act_of_1910

by Alex B. on Nov 14, 2008 4:03 pm • link • report

You can definitely get an exception for decorative spires.

This building on Franklin Square, built in the 90s, is a prime example.

by BeyondDC on Nov 14, 2008 4:10 pm • link • report

Also, compared to other cities, DC has a lot of decorative corners elements. Denied the opportunity to merely sculpt crowns, architects here turn to the corner.

Here are a few examples

by BeyondDC on Nov 14, 2008 4:16 pm • link • report

Yeah, One Franklin Square is always the one that comes to my mind. I really like it - it's a very wide building, but it feels taller than it is, thanks to the well crafted setbacks and the strong vertical visual element that the two towers bring - it really helps break up the facade. Considering that it's across the street from an open space only makes it better, too.

I don't think the height limit is 'bad' for architecture - certainly not in a blanket statement like that - as it forces the architects to be more creative in their designs. They can't just take the easy way out to make a building stand out. It also gives a coherent vernacular scale to the entire downtown, makes it feel more cohesive. Even amongst many uninspiring office blocks, you get the sense that the whole is greater than just the sum of the parts.

by Alex B. on Nov 14, 2008 4:34 pm • link • report

Lance: Haha! I've always been in favor of preserving beautiful architecture. I just don't consider concrete bunkers, surface parking lots and strip malls worth preserving.

by David Alpert on Nov 14, 2008 7:04 pm • link • report

I take offense to that - our concrete bunker with a surface parking lot in it is historical in the extreme, and we'd have nowhere to reminisce about the Beatles if it were taken down.

Okay, bad example with the church steeple. The point was that on valuable land, buildings are encouraged by the height restriction to build habitable space right up to the restriction, rather than leaving some of it empty and building taller on the rest. I questions whether a combination of height and FAR-above-max-height would make for a more diverse, less boxy, equally dense landscape with about the same visual obstruction.

by Squalish on Nov 14, 2008 7:25 pm • link • report

to my mind, one of the best parts of this house would have been how well it capped off a row of beautiful houses of similar design by the same architect. It really would have completed the visual integrity of that block. The Dupont East (like the Brookings Institute monstrosity one block south on P) does just the opposite.

by anon on Nov 14, 2008 9:00 pm • link • report

Check out the Schneider beauty at the corner of Hilyar (?) and Connecticut, two doors down from Zorba's. It has that stumpy tower skyline profile that we lost at Dupont East.

When's the Schneider book coming out?

by Thayer-D on Nov 17, 2008 9:57 am • link • report

Thayer-D,

You mentioned a Schneider book. Could you please let me know more about this? Thomas Franklin was my great great uncle. Over the past year I compiled a great collection of the Schneider's of DC and our lineage.

It is sad that this building was demolished but we still have many other works from the Schneider family.

by Jon M Schneider on Dec 26, 2008 11:15 pm • link • report