The Dupont Circle Building is a landmark
art deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
building on the south end of
Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle is a historic roundabout park and Neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Washington, D.C., located in Northwest (Washington, D.C.), Northwest D.C. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th St ...
in
Washington DC
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
. The entrance is on 1350
Connecticut Avenue
Connecticut Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., and suburban Montgomery County, Maryland. It is one of the diagonal avenues radiating from the White House, and the segment south of Florida Avenue wa ...
NW.
Overview
The building was designed by architect
Mihran Mesrobian
Mihran Mesrobian (; 10 May 1889 – 21 September 1975) was an Armenian-American architect whose career spanned over fifty years and in several countries. Having received an education in the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Academy of Fine Arts i ...
, originally as an apartment building, and completed in 1931. In 1942 it was converted to offices. By October 1944, it had become the head office of the
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA, pronounced ) was an international relief agency founded in November 1943 on the joint initiative of the United States, United Kingdom, USSR, and the Republic of China. Its purpose ...
, which would remain there until its end in the late 1940s. At that time the main entrance was numbered 1344 Connecticut Avenue NW, which was later changed to 1350.
The
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...
's guide to the architecture of Washington DC assesses the Dupont Circle Building's
bas-relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
ornament as "genius" and judges that in respect of the interplay between ornament and geometry, "it outdoes New York's famous
Flatiron Building
The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a 22-story, steel-framed triangular building at 175 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick P. Dinke ...
."
By 2023, the tip of the building facing Dupont Circle was the location of a
Krispy Kreme
Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain. Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans ch ...
store, and one of the building's main tenants was
the Gault Center.
See also
*
Hay–Adams Hotel
The Hay–Adams is an historic luxury hotel opened in 1928, located at 800 16th Street NW in Washington, D.C. It south-fronts on Lafayette Square across from the White House. It sits on the former site of connected 19th-century mansions, whi ...
*
The St. Regis Washington, D.C.
References
External links
*
{{WashingtonDC-struct-stub
Buildings and structures in Dupont Circle
Embassy Row