G. Martin Moeller

When visitors come to Washington, they see a dominant neo-Classical architectural style suggesting power and authority, mixed with boxy bureaucratic structures, where suited federal employees pass their days in triplicate. They should read this book to enjoy genuinely the city around them.

A comprehensive introduction to DC architecture, this book predictably contains a history of the Capitol building and the Library of Congress and the 1901 McMillan Plan for the National Mall, but also various embassies, bureaucratic buildings, churches, parks, and so-forth. If I somehow failed to love the District completely previously, my infatuation is renewed. Maybe not everyone should own this book, but I’m quite convinced most people should, and certainly anyone who has any interest in DC.

What I find so delightful about this book, however, is how unabashedly editorialized it is. I frequently agree, and get a certain gleeful satisfaction out of its quick, perfect judgments. Less delightful is the fact that the tiny black-and-white photographs accompanying each entry rarely do justice to the true art and design of the building. And the maps are not always well-labeled.… (meer)