801 17th Street NW, a.k.a Lafayette Tower: The first LEED Platinum-certified office building in D.C., this building has a transparent facade that seems to float in the air, almost as if there were no building there at all---a relief in this exhaustingly monumental city.
It's easy to complain about downtown's uninspired, Height-Act-flattened boxy office buildings. And much of the disdain is deserved. But there are a good number of really excellent buildings downtown as well--so after a bit of trashing, we'll move on to some examples.
advertisement