Capitol Park Plaza and Twins
Developed as part of the Southwest Development Plan, the Capitol Park Towers was an early high-rise apartment.
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Capitol Park was the first and largest residential complex in the Southwest area, fashioned as a model planning project whose innovative combination of high-rise and low-rise buildings, arranged around a network of landscaped courts and walkways, represented a new prototype for residential Washington. Architect Chloethiel Woodard Smith, then a founding partner with Nicholas Satterlee in the architectural firm Satterlee and Smith Architects, helped plan Capitol Park as a community with a variety of housing types, consisting of 1339 rental units contained in five nine-story apartment buildings and 399 townhouses. Although built in stages, the complex was designed as a unified whole and is best known for its park-like atmosphere.
With landscape design by Dan Kiley, mosaics by Leo Lionni, and sculptures by Costantino Nivoli, Capitol Park exemplifies the integration of modern architecture, artwork, and landscape in a city with few notable examples of the style. In 1973, Capitol Park was subdivided into five separate developments, and Capitol Park Apartments (now known as Potomac Place) became the first high-rise building to be completed.
DC Inventory: July 10, 2014
