2100 Pennsylvania Avenue adds new iconic presence along Washington DC’s most prominent boulevard

Washington, D.C., USA

Steps away from the White House, 2100 Pennsylvania Avenue is a dynamic mixed-use development that marks the northern gateway to George Washington University. This vibrant public-private collaboration creates a landmark building with a dramatic curved façade that undulates along Pennsylvania Avenue, 21st Street, and I Street. Composed of glass, terracotta, and projected metal fins, the façade unfolds with an uplifting sense of motion like the surface of a waving flag. The architecture evokes formal connection to New York’s Flatiron Building and Barcelona’s Casa Mila, maximizing the site’s unique geometries and offering a welcoming link from the surrounding neighborhood to the building’s inspiring public spaces.

Steps away from the White House, 2100 Pennsylvania Avenue is a pioneering mixed-use development marking the northern gateway to George Washington University in Washington DC.

From a bustling bakery/cafe to GWU’s new national flagship Campus Store, Foggy Bottom’s eclectic community of students, residents, commuters, and visitors can enjoy a spectrum of communal experiences.

The high-performance curtain wall integrates large-vision glass units framed between shaped metal mullions and terracotta panels, providing rich material textures that subtly shift in color as light changes throughout the day.

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“This celebratory design strengthens Washington DC’s urban fabric by creating deep connection between the new landmark building and surrounding public spaces in the city’s vibrant urban outdoors.” — Rafael Pelli, FAIA, LEED AP

A place for inspiration and connection in the heart of the nation’s capital

Grand and open, the building’s lobby is welcoming with wood and sparkling translucent glass leading into to a soaring atrium stretching eleven stories high. Bustling cafes, markets, shops, and entertainment venues at street level will be a central hub for Foggy Bottom’s eclectic community of students, residents, commuters, and visitors. The adjacent public park is in harmony with the striking features of the lobby’s atrium — waving profiles, cascading steps, and patterns in stone — amplifying connection between the building, outdoor public space, and the surrounding city.

Projecting white oak mullions imbue the entry lobby surfaces with textured warmth, alluding to a lightly wooded forest.

Each aspect of the design instills flexibility for the future by incorporating large floor plates that increase natural daylight, fresh air, and connection to the outdoors.

At the center of this light-filled public space, a dramatic sculptural staircase invites impromptu gatherings.

Wood-veneered baffles ripple below the atrium’s skylight, filtering daylight like a canopy of overhead branches.

“The design transforms into a waving forest, from outside to inside…an enriching formal and material nod to its prominent and historic place, on Pennsylvania Avenue. The exterior frontage resonates with abundant layers of aluminum fins, flowing and transforming inward into the wooded interiors along sinuous planes of glass, eventually changing under daylight filtering beneath the atrium canopy, like trees magically illuminated deep within a hidden meadow.” — Craig Copeland, AIA, LEED AP BD+C