History

The Corcoran Gallery of Art, prominently cited at the intersection of 17th Street and New York Avenue, N.W., is listed on the DC Inventory of Historic Sites, the National Register of Historic Places, and is a National Historic Landmark. The first building at that site, constructed in 1897 according to a design by Ernest Flagg, received a sympathetic addition at the rear along E Street, 1925-1928, that was designed by Charles Adams Platt.

Almost since its inception at that location, the gallery has had plans to infill an adjacent plot of land that it owns along New York Avenue. In the 1980s, the firm of Hartman-Cox designed an historicist addition that was intended to be income-producing office space for the gallery. This scheme was never executed. In 2002, the Corcoran retained the firm of Gehry Partners to design an addition that would provide for more exhibit and classroom space. The proposed design, in a radical departure from the Washington’s usual Neoclassical architecture, was blatantly contemporary. The extremely expensive scheme – to be constructed of titanium - was never realized for lack of funding. Only six years later, and in dire need of funds to renovate the building, the Corcoran was back before the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) and the DC Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) with an application to, once again, build the Hartman-Cox speculative office building of twenty years earlier. Lack of agreement between the Corcoran and the prospective tenant, and possibly denial of the scheme by HPRB, resulted in yet another aborted attempt to develop Corcoran’s vacant plot of land.

Recent Developments

In 2010, the Corcoran signed an agreement with Carr Development to lease the plot of land for $1,000,000* year for 99 years**. Carr retained the Smith Group to design a speculative office building. In November 2010, the Smith Group went before the Commission of Fine Arts for approval of an all-glass building. CFA was accepting of the proposal for a contemporary building in counterpoint to the solid, masonry landmark but instructed the applicant to reduce the new building by two stories and to refine the building as viewed from the west.

In January 2011, the Corcoran went before CFA with a proposal only slightly altered from its original submission. This time, the CFA was more vocal in its disapproval of the design and instructed the applicant to not only reduce the size of the new building but also to simplify its design; to, in fact, “design a simple glass box.”  It’s anticipated that the Corcoran will not apply to the HPRB until it has received concept approval from CFA.

* This dollar amount was reported in a letter from the Corcoran to its supporting members.
** The duration of the lease was reported by a representative of the Corcoran during the November 2010 hearing before CFA.