Capitol Crossing

Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, an architectural practice located in Hamden, Connecticut, designed a large, ambitious, multi-phased development spanning three city blocks that is known as Capitol Crossing and is located in the heart of Washington D.C. The design idea builds on the 1791 original master plan for the US capital drawn up by Pierre L’Enfant, but extends it to cover 204,400 sq. m. The new city block has five different multi-story buildings, numerous shops and various ground-floor restaurants. Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo headed the team of architects behind the project, and they included new pedestrian areas with cycle paths that lead through the development.

The project is also about the large-scale regeneration of the city by creating new shop space, restaurants, bars, coffee houses, premium offices and luxury apartments that will drive up the living standard in this zone.

The focus is not only external though, with great consideration given to how each space will be used.

For example, the entrance lobbies at 200 Massachusetts Avenue and at 250 Massachusetts Avenue North are clad with 1,000 sq. m of Lasa marble. Two highly prized types of marble were chosen. The first was Lasa Bianco Ortles^®™, which comes from the Acqua Bianca quarry in the Lasa valley. It has quite a cold color, with nuances ranging from light blue to grey, and touches of graphite. The second was Lasa Bianco Nuvolato^®™, which has slightly grey streaks, not unlike clouds, and comes from the same quarry.

The use of Lasa marble was another piece in the puzzle of earning LEED Platinum, which is the highest sustainability certification in the United States from the US Green Building Council. Achieving this means this city block is the first in the whole of the capital to become an “eco-quarter”. Lasa marble from the Stelvio National Park is a perfect match for such an environmentally friendly vision because sustainability is central to every stage of the extraction process.

The project was carried out in partnership with Lorton Stone, which also undertook the installation and fitting.

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Courtesy of Lasa Marmo

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