From the FBI headquarters to the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C. has a love/hate relationship with Brutalism

Our nation’s capital went on a building spree in the 1960s, resulting in a rash of monolithic concrete buildings that people love to hate.

In the 1960s, the expansion and creation of agencies and departments in Washington, D.C. required new headquarters and workspaces for the growing federal bureaucracy. In a bid to elevate these new national developments, a 1962 policy statement called the “Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture,” advocated for an approach that elevated the best of contemporary architecture. At the time, that contemporary style tended to be Brutalism, a style best known for its blocky, concrete-clad structures with repeating grids and recessed windows.