Electric Avenue

Point of View

Architecture: KTGY
Founded in 1991, KTGY is an award-winning firm of architects, designers, and planners that realize new possibilities through inspired design. Their work, from architecture and interior design to branded environments and urban design, is based on a people-centric storytelling and design process that creates memorable experiences nationwide. Guided by their mission to bring innovative design to all people and places, KTGY partners with clients to envision spaces that make a positive impact on people and their communities. ktgy.com

“KTGY designed the Vermeer facade using traditional materials composed in unconventional ways. The skin uses only three materials—brick, metal panels, and glazing— arranged in stacked sets of three levels each. However, the stacks of windows in the field of brick oscillate and are interrupted by dancing bay projections, while the forms clad in metal panels twist like toy blocks. The resulting composition simultaneously suggests a sense of both whimsy and refinement, or sophisticated irreverence.”

Design Highlights:
At 13 stories, Vermeer on Potomac Avenue in Washington DC, is a new landmark in the Washington DC neighborhood of Buzzard’s Point. KTGY’s architects sculpted the facade to be energetic and engaging. From the retail corner, looking up, the mass of the residential floors seems to shift and rotate, with cantilevers every three floors. These site and massing considerations warranted the close attention of KTGY designers, yielding more than 70 unique floor plans, each fine-tuning the relationship between people and their building.

Deep stepbacks give the structure an italic W shape, with private landscaped courtyards protected by the height of the building. Like a stadium crowd rising and falling, the building shifts in a flow of distinct but coordinated movements that complement the nearby Audi Field, offering an infusion of unique design elements that enliven and enrich this developing neighborhood.