This is a fairly conventional architectural composition, emphasizing the curved facade. To get a high resolution capture of the wide structure, this was made as a stitched composite of two captures with the Rodenstock 32mm/4.0 HR Digaron-W lens. The Phase One back was shifted left and right by about 12mm.
By using shift movements at a fixed perspective, the two captures can be stitched directly together into a panorama without needing to transform the frame geometry (as you would when panning).
The Washington Hilton was designed by architect William Tabler and completed in 1965. It is notable not only for its distinctive brutalist architecture and curved facade, but also for the prominent events hosted there. The hotel is or has been home to the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, the National Prayer Breakfast, the Shmoocon conference, and the 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, among other things.
It has extensive back-of-house facilities to host events with VIPs
Mid-Century Modernist architecture, and Brutalism in particular, is easy to criticize as being superficially lifeless and uninteresting, but at its best (and with the right eye) these buildings can be seen as sculptures in the landscape. I don't always appreciate them, but I'm trying to give them the best chance I can.
@mattblaze I find a lot of value in looking at them specifically in the context of the post WWII period (which admittedly makes more sense in Europe than the US) and how they break with more expensively ornate design that didn’t really serve the population in the preceding era. Basically using bunker tech to actually make useful buildings at scale.
@fernwoodsson What's interesting to me is that while they are simple and inexpensive, they don't always strictly follow the "form follows function" ethic of the time. There's often quite a bit of flourish.
@fernwoodsson@mattblaze There was a Brutalist building in the neighborhood I grew up in, and as a kid I always when they'd finish it. Years later, I read in a guidebook that covered that area that it was the only architecturally interesting building around…
“The @iitgn campus has this interestingly "abbreviated brutalist" look, with lots of concrete but interspersed with brick. It's an interesting effect. Here's a lovely colonnade in the morning sun.”
For anyone who cares, my understanding is that the assassination attempt was not at that main entrance shown, but at the smaller entrance around the right side.
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