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HUD pulls the color-and life-from a Martha Schwartz design at its Washington, D.C. headquarters.
Architecture hath no enemy like a politician, especially adventurous architecture, especially in Washington, where what gets built stands as a lasting metaphor for how power moves. Ask landscape architect Martha Schwartz: Everything was humming along nicely with her design for the plaza in front of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) headquarters-until one politician's ambitions almost put an end to it.
When Architecture first published Schwartz's scheme (January 1996, pages 94-95), it was shockingly fun, especially given the locale-Southwest Washington's severe, 1960s federal ghetto. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) hired...