U.S. Government Central Heating Plant
- Architect
- Paul Philippe Cret
- Style
- Art Deco
- City
- Washington, DC
- Collection
- d.c. deco
The Central Heating Plant at 325 13th Street SW was designed in 1933 by Paul Philippe Cret for the General Services Administration to heat federal buildings near the National Mall. At the time it was built, it was the largest facility of its kind in the United States, serving 22 federal buildings. Cret dressed the essentially industrial structure in Art Deco styling, a sharp break from Washington's prevailing classicism.
the building
Hiding the smokestacks. Cret designed the roof profile so the plant's three octagonal smokestacks, only 42 feet tall, would not project above the equipment screen, satisfying the District of Columbia Commission of Fine Arts, which had jurisdiction over the design.
Columns without columns. In place of classical colonnades, Cret used pilasters and vertical ribbons of windows, letting the building read as ordered and monumental without borrowing literal classical elements.
Limestone reliefs. Limestone relief panels on the exterior illustrate the building's purpose, translating its industrial function into the kind of applied sculptural ornament typical of Art Deco civic buildings.
the style
Cret applied Art Deco styling to an industrial building type, a departure from the classicism that dominated Washington at the time, but integrated it into its surroundings through careful massing and detailing.
More on Art Decothe architect
Paul Philippe Cret was a major American architect also responsible for the Rodin Museum and the Folger Shakespeare Library; the Central Heating Plant shows him applying his design sensibility to an unglamorous industrial commission.
significance
The plant carries two separate DC Historic Landmark designations and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, added in 2007, recognition for what was, at construction, the largest heating facility of its kind in the country.
nearby
- U.S. Department of Agriculture Cotton Annex
- Department of Agriculture South Building
- Jamie L. Whitten Building
- Freer Gallery of Art
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Sidney R. Yates Federal Building