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Town Center Plaza

Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress

Town Center Plaza is one of a series of large-scale residential complexes designed by Pei for Zeckendorf in urban renewal initiatives in the 1950s and 60s, in this case the redevelopment of a blighted area in Southwest Washington, DC, in the backyard of the Capitol. The complex, which grew out of the master plan for the Urban Redevelopment of Southwest Washington, included a low-rise shopping spine and twin architectural concrete apartment buildings, each 9 stories high, positioned to save the trees that lined a former street.

Town Center Plaza received the Federal Housing Authority’s first Honor Award for Residential Design (1963).

 

Site plan / Courtesy of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

Design Team: I.M. Pei, Design Partner; Charles Sutton, Design Architect
Webb & Knapp Real Estate Development Corp.