Charles M. Goodman

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Architect Charles M. Goodman was an architect who made a name for his modern designs in Northern Virginia after World War II. While his work has a regional feel, he ignored the colonial revival look so popular in Virginia. Goodman was quoted in the 1968 survey book Architecture in Virginia as saying that he aimed to "get away from straight historical reproduction." He designed the original National Airport outside of Washington, D.C. and served as main architect of the award-winning Hollin Hills neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia. Goodman attended the Illinois Institute of Technology and came to D.C. in 1934 to work as the designing architect in the Public Buildings Administration. He later served as head architect at the Treasury Department and the Air Transport Command. After World War II he worked closely with Robert C. Davenport designing and site planning most of the Hollin Hills, where his firm, Charles M. Goodman Associates, designed over 14 models of house. Other projects included the 1964 Unitarian Church in Arlington, Virginia at 4444 Arlington Blvd.

His residence, Goodman House, was built in 1954 at 514 Quaker Lane in Alexandria. In Reston, he designed a "cluster" of townhouses in the woods above Lake Anne known as Hickory Cluster.

[edit] External links

• Reston info link
• Hollin Hills Neighborhood site with National Register Info
• Houston House Apartments, Houston, 1966
• Heart of Glass article from Washington, DC City Paper 2003

Located in the Southwest Waterfront Community of Washington DC and just north of Fort McNair situated between N and O Streets and Delaware Avenue and 4th Street, SW, the River Park complex which consists of two separate but conjoined glass/metal high-rise apartment buildings and several clusters of townhouses was designed by architect Charles M. Goodman.

A plaque embedded into a brick wall separating the two glass/metal apartment structures reads as follows:

Sponsor: REYNOLDS METAL COMPANY

Architects & Land Planners: CHARLES M. GOODMAN ASSOCIATES

Contractor: STANDARD CONSTRUCTION COMPANY

1962

See plaque photo dated 13 December 2006 at http://www.flickr.com/photos/perspective/321352390/.

Visit River Park's website at http://www.RiverParkDC.org. View my recent blog posting which accesses other River Park photos at http://elvertbarnes-architectural.blogspot.com/2006/12/river-park-in-sw-wdc.html.

Elvert Barnes of Elvert Xavier Barnes Photography