District Architecture Center

I went once to the District Architecture Center to see an exhibit in its Sigal Gallery, its only exhibition space. The exhibit I saw, Could Be: The AIA|DC Awards for Unbuilt Architecture (scroll down in the above linked page), was part of three exhibits organized by the National Building Museum related to unbuilt work. Incidentally, I visited the other two exhibits at the National Building Museum and the American Institute of Architects.

It's unusual to see an exhibit of unbuilt architecture awards--most architecture awards go to completed projects. Surprisingly (given the connection to the Unbuilt Washington exhibit), only about a fifth of the winners presented here were designs for the Washington D.C. area.; most were for other countries. My favorite Washington D.C. design was for a work of art, not in my opinion a work of architecture: a proposal to form a light pyramid above Washington D.C. using high-powered spotlights along D.C.'s borders that focus at a point in the sky above the Washington Monument.

My favorite design from any region was the Fellowship Bridge across Lake Beluthahatchee, Florida by KGP Design Studio. Check it out. I hope it eventually gets built.

Also, I was intrigued by the proposal for modern residential buildings in Suzhou, a city in China with many canals that I visited.