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Vlastimil Koubek (March 17, 1927 – February 15, 2003) was an American architect who designed more than 100 buildings, most of them in the Washington metropolitan area, and whose total value topped $2 billion. Most of his work is Modernist in style,Gunts, Edward. "Designer Believed: Koubek's Vision Brought Tower to Inner Harbor." Baltimore Sun. February 24, 2003. although he developed a few structures in other vernaculars. He created the site plan for the redevelopment of Rosslyn, Virginia, and his Ames Center anchored the area's economic recovery. He designed the World Building in Silver Spring, Maryland, which sparked redevelopment of that town's downtown; and the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C. In 1985, Washingtonian magazine called him one of 20 people "who in the past 20 years had the greatest impact on the way we live and who forever altered the look of Washington.""Architect Vlastimil Koubek Dies at 75." The Washington Post. February 18, 2003.Conconi, Chuck. "Personalities." The Washington Post. September 25, 1985. In 1988, The Washington Post newspaper said his Willard Hotel renovation was one of 28 projects in the area that made a signal contribution to the "feel" and look of Washington, D.C.Lewis, Roger K. "Critics Pick 28 Projects That Contribute to Area's 'Built Environment'." The Washington Post. March 12, 1988.
Because he and his father held strong Anti-communism beliefs, Koubek decided to flee Czechoslovakia after the Communist coup d'état of February 1948. He tried but failed to cross the border into the American Zone of Occupation of Allied-occupied Germany.Willmann, John B. "It's Happening in Real Estate." The Washington Post. February 3, 1968. A second attempt in July succeeded. In October 1948, Koubek emigrated to the United Kingdom, where he worked in a brickyard, as a Drafter for the city of Gloucester and county of Gloucestershire, a draftsman for the Ministry of Works, and announcer for the Czech language news service of the BBC. He met his future wife, Eva, in a bookstore in London. "In Memoriam," Zprávy SVU. #1, 2003, p. 7. Eva was born in Prague, the daughter of a Czech Army officer. Her brother, whom she later rescued, was imprisoned in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany during World War II.
The couple emigrated to the United States via Ellis Island on February 8, 1952, and initially lived in New York City. When they arrived they had $6 in their pockets.Donihi, Rosemary. "Emigre Nobility: 'We All Cling Together'." The New York Times. February 14, 1971. They married in New York City on August 9, 1952, with Eva (the only one with any funds) paying the $2 marriage license fee. He worked as a draftsman for the architectural firm of Emery Roth and Sons, the city's largest architectural firm and a noted designer of office buildings, for a year. In 1953, Koubek entered the United States Army, where he worked for the Army Exhibit Unit, which creates displays and presentations about Army history, organization, and culture for the public. Koubek and his wife became naturalized United States citizens, moved to Washington, D.C, and raised a daughter, Jana. He briefly worked for the D.C.-based Edward Weihe architectural firm.
The construction of the Ames Center and approval of a site plan for the area around it led to the wholesale economic and architectural redevelopment of Rosslyn,Donahue, William T. "SP #1 Minor Site Plan Amendment Request for a Comprehensive Sign Plan." County Board of Arlington, Virginia. September 16, 1999. Koubek also developed the site plan for the area bounded by Wilson Boulevard, North Arlington Ridge Road, 19th Street North, and North Kent Street. This included the London House and Normandy House apartment complexes. Although it also proposed constructing two apartment complexes in the center of the area, three office buildings were built. London House opened in January 1965."Luxury on the River." The Washington Post. January 16, 1965.
In March 1963, he created a design for 1050 31st Street NW, a spare, Federalist-style red brick building—the first such non-Modernist structure he designed."New Georgetown Building." The Washington Post. March 31, 1963. He had initially proposed in 1961 a building with an all-glass first floor and exposed stone upper floors, but the Commission of Fine Arts rejected his design as too modern.Schuette, Paul A. "Building Plan Becomes Career." The Washington Post. June 21, 1962. After redesigning his building along Federalist lines, the Commission approved the design. However, the D.C. zoning board refused to approve it because of the changes. The zoning board also was unhappy with the way Koubek intended to conceal the elevator and air conditioning equipment on the roof. After redesigning the rooftop, the building began construction in March 1963. The first major office building to be constructed on the Georgetown waterfront in 50 years,"New Georgetown Building." The Washington Post. October 19, 1963.
Construction began in April 1963 on his Brawner Building (888 17th Street NW), a 12-story office building on Farragut Square that incorporated dark bronze panels and solarized windows much as his 1234 19th Street building had.Willmann, John B. "Office Buildings Are Encircling Farragut Square." The Washington Post. April 20, 1963. By the late 1960s, it was one of his best-known designs. In January 1964, Koubek designed what was then the D.C. metropolitan region's tallest office building, the 19-story steel-and-black glass-clad Barlow Building (5454 Wisconsin Avenue)."Area's Tallest Office Building." The Washington Post. January 24, 1964. In August, the Freed family commissioned him to build the eight-story Chatham Apartments, the first high-rise, medium-income apartment building to be constructed among the two-story Georgian-style townhouses that comprised the Buckingham Historic District.Allie S. Freed was an automobile salesman who became a housing developer during the Great Depression. He was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's director of the Committee for Economic Recovery and Social Progress. Freed developed the Buckingham housing complex in 1938 after discussing housing needs with President Roosevelt. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) considered it a model of urban renewal, and it was only the second FHA-approved subsidized rental housing project in the D.C. area. See: Willmann, John B. "Things Are Happening at Buckingham." The Washington Post. August 22, 1964. His first major D.C. residential structure was a nine-story apartment building (now turned to ) at 1800 R Street NW, which opened in October 1964."New Apartment on R St." The Washington Post. October 17, 1964. In April 1965, construction began on the seven-story 1325 Massachusetts Avenue NW, a Modernist building with broad horizontal swaths of grey brick and glass."New Office for Thomas Circle." The Washington Post. April 17, 1965. (The structure was home to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in 2011.) Another major office building, 1200 17th Street, NW (at the time, the headquarters of the American Psychological Association), opened in October 1965."Psychological Association Headquarters." The Washington Post. October 16, 1965. It was a neo-Brutalist structure featuring repetitive polished concrete panels and deeply recessed rectangular windows and one of the first high-rise office buildings on the downtown business district portion of Connecticut Avenue. That same year his 18-story Ross Building (now known as Wytestone Plaza) in Richmond, Virginia opened—the first high-rise built in the city since 1928, and the first glass-curtain wall building constructed in the city. Koubek was also lead architect for and an investor in a syndicate ("Reservation Eleven Associates") which designed a new United States Department of Labor (DOL) building at 2nd Street NW and Constitution Avenue NW in 1966."Funds for New FBI, Labor Buildings Killed by House Appropriations Unit." The Washington Post. May 6, 1966. The group proposed an arrangement in which it would construct the building, lease it to the federal government for 30 years, and then donate it to the government. Congress, cutting back on construction funds and interested in the build/lease/donate proposal, refused to appropriate funds for the DOL structure. Eventually, however, Koubek's syndicate lost the commission. A new DOL building (jointly designed by the firms of Brooks, Barr, Graeber & White and Pitts, Mebane, Phelps & White) was completed in 1974. "Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site." National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. United States Department of the Interior. May 29, 2007. Koubek's D.C. area output slowed in the late 1960s. In February 1967, the Bureau of National Affairs (a privately held publisher of government news) commissioned him to design a six-story Modernist building at 1231 25th Street NW."BNA Building." The Washington Post. February 25, 1967. (This glass-and-white concrete neo-Brutalist building was stripped to its frame in 2007, four floors added, and joined to both an existing and a new structure to create luxury apartments.) In October 1967, construction began on his design for 1401 I Street NW, west of Franklin Square."Benjamin Franklin." The Washington Post. October 28, 1967. (The bland glass-and-steel box underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation in 1991. It was given a postmodern facade of finished grey concrete panels and brown granite, the center portion of the building on the south and east sides extended slightly outward to break up the flatness of the building, and twin giant six-story-high non-structural Doric order columns topped by a non-structural colonnade and entablature. The building is now called Franklin Tower.)Hilzenrath, David S. "Building In Defiance of the Bust." The Washington Post. December 31, 1990; "Franklin Tower." Washington Times. January 17, 2000. In December 1967, Koubek designed a new home for the Motion Picture Association of America at 1601 I Street NW, described as a "bronze-tinted glass box on stilts enclosed by a bold screen of tan concrete".Von Eckardt, Wolf. "MPA's New Quarters: A Glass Box on Stilts." The Washington Post. December 9, 1967. Another critic later called it "elegant" and as good as the work of I. M. Pei. Construction began in February 1968 on his building for One Dupont Circle NW, an eight-story office building with vertical concrete ribs over glass walls."One Dupont Circle." The Washington Post. February 3, 1968.
Meanwhile, Koubek was at work designing Bayfront Plaza, a $50 million "scaled-down Rockefeller Center" complex of hotels, apartment buildings, retail shops, and piers on the waterfront of St. Petersburg, Florida.Durant, John. "A Rebuilt St. Petersburg." The New York Times. November 6, 1966. Proposed in 1966, the project was significantly delayed by lawsuits from local citizens. Costs began to climb, interest rates on the proposed development loans soared, and the project was canceled in 1969."Downtown Dreamers." St. Petersburg Times. May 29, 1991. Koubek sued lawyer Hubert Caulfield and businessman Martin Roess, who led the legal challenges against Bayfront Plaza, for $7 million, claiming legal harassment and abuse of the judicial process.Masters, Kay. "Bayfront Plaza Lawsuit Settled." St. Petersburg Evening Independent. November 3, 1972. The Supreme Court of Florida eventually ruled in favor of the developers, but it was too late."Bayfront Plaza Lawsuit Is Settled Out of Court." St. Petersburg Times. November 4, 1972. The parties settled out of court in 1972 for an undisclosed sum, and Koubek said he was pleased with the settlement. A 23-story office building planned for downtown Roanoke, Virginia, in 1969 was never built."23-Story Building Planned for Roanoke." The Washington Post. January 9, 1969.
of Koubek's buildings for important clients began or completed construction in 1969. The Willoughby, at the time the largest apartment building in the D.C. metropolitan area, opened at 4515 Willard Avenue in Friendship Village, Maryland, in January."Willoughby Completed." The Washington Post. January 11, 1969. Koubek assisted former First Lady Mamie Eisenhower and developer William Zeckendorf in breaking ground in February for the West Building (475 L'Enfant Plaza SW; now United States Postal Service headquarters), at the largest private office building at the time in Washington."New L'Enfant Plaza Unit Underway." The Washington Post. February 19, 1969; "New Building to Be Largest." The Washington Post. May 17, 1969. Eight months later, his headquarters at 1133 15th Street NW for Fannie Mae (the secondary mortgage market packaging corporation) opened."FNMA Building to Be Dedicated." The Washington Post. October 11, 1969.
Ultimately, the New York City architecture firm of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates was hired to lead the hotel's rehabilitation and expansion. After this firm pulled out of the project, Koubek executed their concept, overseeing work until the hotel's reopening in 1986. Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. United States Department of the Interior. August 31, 2007.Forgey, Benjamin. "Willard Hotel: Well Worth the Wait." The Washington Post. August 9, 1986.Goldberger, Paul. "On Pennsylvania Avenue, A Restoration With Wit." The New York Times. September 22, 1986. Declaring the design worthy of "genuine architectural distinction," The Washington Post architectural critic Benjamin Forgey noted that Koubek was responsible for adding the giant ocular windows in the office complex, the marble office entryway with its marble canopy and columns, and the restructuring of the diagonal courtyard between the original hotel and the office additions. Forgey concluded that "...a lot of the details, such as the exquisite storefronts or the sequence of pilasters, entablatures and cornices in the same elongated courtyard, are a treat to the eye." Critic Paul Goldberger, writing for The New York Times in 1986, declared the renovation ingenious. In 1988, the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects gave its 1988 Award for Excellence to Koubek for the Willard Hotel design and renovation.
Koubek also helped co-design Metropolitan Square, a 12-story hotel and office building complex that occupies the entire block between F and G Streets NW and 14th and 15th Streets NW (due east across the street from the Treasury Building). In November 1977, developer Oliver T. Carr proposed tearing down the entire block occupied by the Beaux-Arts Keith-Albee Building and Metropolitan National Bank Building, and the 180-year-old Rhodes Tavern.McCombs, Paul and Oman, Anne H. "$40 Million Mall Is Planned." The Washington Post. November 12, 1977. A years-long legal and political battle ensued as historic preservationists fought to keep all three buildings. Carr eventually agreed to retain the facades of the two Beaux-Arts buildings facing G and 15th Streets.Oman, Anne H. "Downtown Mall: Talks Begin on Status of Landmarks." The Washington Post. April 13, 1978; "Court Order Temporarily Halts Demolition of Albee-Keith Facade." The Washington Post. April 24, 1979; Wheeler, Linda. "Solomon-Like Court Order Is Slicing District's Historic Keith-Albee Building." The Washington Post. June 15, 1979; Oman, Anne H. "Developer Has New Plan For Historic Buildings." The Washington Post. August 2, 1979. The battle to save the entire Rhodes' Tavern, however, lasted into 1983 and involved a citywide ballot initiative and an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.Eisen, Jack. "Developer Denied Right to Demolish Historic Building." The Washington Post. December 22, 1979; Bowman, LaBarbara. "Fight to Save Tavern Site Moves to Hill." The Washington Post. December 1, 1982; Perl, Peter. "Panel Approves Rhodes Demolition, Calls for Delay Pending Vote in Fall." The Washington Post. May 11, 1983; Kamen, Al. "Judge Orders Demolition Delayed On Pennsylvania Avenue Buildings." The Washington Post. August 30, 1983; Pichirallo, Joe. "Rhodes Tavern Initiative Carries 91 Percent of City's 137 Precincts." The Washington Post. November 10, 1983; Sargent, Edward D. "Barry Names 7 to Rhodes Tavern Panel." The Washington Post. June 8, 1984; Bruske, Ed. "Court Ruling Blocks Demolition of Rhodes Tavern." The Washington Post. June 30, 1984; Barker, Karlyn. "Appeal to Save Rhodes Tavern Turned Down." The Washington Post. September 7, 1984; Barker, Karlyn. "Demolition Of Rhodes Tavern Starts." The Washington Post. September 11, 1984. Citizens Committee to Save Historic Rhodes Tavern Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University. Retrieved November 15, 2014. To preserve the facades, Carr hired Koubek and the New York City firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and charged them with designing ground-floor retail entrances and two upper floors which would reflect but not mimic the Beaux-Arts style of the retained facades which building a more modern structure behind them.Bredemeier, Kenneth. "Plan for High-Rise Where Tavern Stood To Mix Old and New." The Washington Post. September 12, 1984. Construction on the new building began in 1980.
In late 1977, Koubek also completed the Camden Yards Sports Complex master site plan, which laid out projected baseball and football stadiums, museums, restaurants, and retail shopping buildings to revitalize the economically depressed Camden Yards area of downtown Baltimore."Camden Yards Master Plan Due." Baltimore Sun. December 11, 1977. In September 1978, Koubek was commissioned to design an addition to the American Security Bank operations center at 635 Massachusetts Avenue NW."Addition Started At Bank's Center." The Washington Post. September 23, 1978. (National Public Radio purchased the building in 1992 but sold the black-glass and travertine marble structure to Boston Properties in 2008. After the broadcaster's new building at 1111 North Capitol Street was completed in 2013, Boston Properties tore down 635 Massachusetts Avenue. A Class A office building will be erected in its place by 2015.)O'Connell, Jonathan. "Boston Properties Buys NPR Headquarters." Washington Business Journal. September 30, 2008.Page, Walter; Bevans, Connor. "Demand for the modern leads to knocking down older office buildings". The Washington Post, July 28, 2013. Also, in 1978, Koubek's 22-story Virginia Electric and Power Company headquarters in Richmond also opened. (It is now known as One James River Plaza.) In March 1979, Koubek agreed to design the interior renovations to the East Capitol Street Car Barn, an 83-year-old tram barn at 14th and East Capitol Streets NE listed on the National Register of Historic Places, turning the old industrial site into a $10 million apartment and condominium complex.Oman, Anne H. "Trolley Barn Housing Complex Approved." The Washington Post. March 29, 1979. The renovation was called "striking".Evelyn, Dickson, and Ackerman, 2008, p. 32. Koubek also participated in the redevelopment of Vermont Avenue NW. In June 1979, as buildings were razed across the street for the construction of 1090 Vermont Avenue, he was commissioned by the D.C. chapter of the American Medical Association to build a Modernist 12-story office building at 1100 Vermont Avenue NW.Willmann, John B. "Local AMA to Build New Headquarters." The Washington Post. June 21, 1979. A month later, construction began on Koubek's Spring Valley Center, a luxury shopping, restaurant, and office building located at 4801 Massachusetts Avenue NW (on the site of the old Apex Theater).Willmann, John B. "Office, Retail Center Begun On Apex Site." The Washington Post. July 4, 1979. The six-story post-Modernist brick structure was not well received. In 1998, one critic noted that it is "a structure easy to dislike. Clad in brick and encircled by horizontal window bands, it [is] volumetrically and dimensionally out of scale with its more domestically scaled neighbors. Unrelieved planar walls and minimalist detailing made it even less charming."Lewis, Roger K. "Jumble of Old and New at AU Ruins Campus Face Lift." The Washington Post. October 17, 1998. (The structure was sold to American University's Washington College of Law in 1994 after a lengthy legal battle and turned into classrooms and professors' offices.)Nuckols, Melanie. "Permits Now Only Obstacle to Construction at Spring Valley Center." American University Eagle. September 4, 1994.
Some of his last projects were the renovations to the 13-story, Beaux-Arts Hamilton Crowne Plaza in 1992 (1001 14th Street NW),"A Well-Suited Site Downtown." Washington Times. August 2, 1992. the 29-story, post-Modernist 100 Harborview Drive condominiums in Baltimore in 1993,"Architects Have Gone Back to the Drawing Board." Baltimore Sun. December 26, 1993. and Baltimore's 33-story, post-Modernist Water Tower (414 Water Street) condominiums in 2000 (in association with Sasaki Associates).Cohn, Meredith. "Harbor View Offices Planned." Baltimore Sun. August 19, 2000.
Koubek was a nationally known authority on how to draft construction documents for commercial buildings. He became a multi-millionaire through his architectural work and investments.Beale, Betty. "Roosevelt Sons Set Aside Differences For Centennial." Birmingham Times Daily. October 20, 1984.
Vlastimil Koubek's marriage to Eva Koubek ended in divorce. He married Peggy Koubek in 1984. Vlastimil Koubek died of cancer on February 15, 2003, at his home in Arlington, Virginia.
Koubek defended his work from criticisms that it was boxlike, sterile, repetitive, and dull. "Good architecture ... has to fit the fabric of the city and be functional inside and make economic sense. The most wonderful building in the world is not going to get built if it will not make money." Others defended his work as well. Oliver T. Carr, chairman of the giant real estate developer CarrAmerica, said, "He was good. He was different from so many architects of that time. His buildings had clean architectural lines, and yet they were functional and practical and offered good work space. For that period of time, he was a perfect fit."
Koubek did not like mixing older, smaller buildings with his designs. "There is no place for big buildings next to little buildings," he told The Washington Post in 1979. He was also critical of Federalist architecture. He once scathingly noted, "I think that on Georgetown architecture I'd rather not comment at all. You may quote me on that. I wish you would."
Among Koubek's most notable buildings are:
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