Profile

Potomac Tower

Rosslyn, Virginia
Completed 1989

Lead Designer: James Ingo Freed

19-story investment office building with parking
 

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This project responds to downtown Washington and to the immediate building site in Rosslyn, Virginia — a satellite city developed in the 1960s to provide office space in close proximity to the nation's capital. Occupying a leftover triangular parcel along the river's edge, Potomac Tower not only fills a hole in Rosslyn's waterside profile, but gives definition, coherence and focus to its chaotic low-rise skyline.

To reduce apparent bulk, the 415,000-square-foot building was fragmented with varied materials, colors and shapes. Fourteen glazed office floors, each with panoramic views, curve along the riverfront atop a 5-story garage (disguised as offices in the building's concrete base). Twin lanterns terminate the mass while setback concrete wings project from behind and to either side of the central screen.

The intentional ambiguity that informs this design is based on the belief that buildings do not stand alone; they augment the city as the city augments them. The different components collectively change and enrich the tower's appearance from different vantage points, giving it a unique identity which, especially from a distance, may be read as separate buildings. Fragmentation also permitted the tower to engage its variously scaled neighbors while enhancing Rosslyn's skyline. Its gateway beacons anchor the bend in the river, adding sculptural masses and the illusion of greater urban depth.

Major Components

250,000 s/f offices on 14 floors of 11,000 –20,000 s/f; 2-story lobby; roof terraces; 165,000 s/f parking for 450 cars on 3 levels below ground and 5 above

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners services

Architectural  Design, Interior Design of public spaces; coordination with associate architect on construction documents and construction administration

Associate Architect

Clark, Tribble, Harris and Lee, Washington, D.C.

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