Brutal Washington

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Hubert H Humphrey Building by Marcel Breuer (1977)

James V Forrestal Building by Curtis and Davis Architects and Engineers (1969)

DC Metro Stations
[Photos: Ty Cole]

The brutalist contingent is only a small part of Washington's architecture, of course. The overwhelmingly dominant style, round the White House and the Capitol and the National Mall, is neo-classical. Very neo-classical. It was meant to echo the Republican virtues of Ancient Greece and Rome, but nowadays it's not hard to see the more bombastic side, with, well, echoes of a more fascist aesthetic.