National Association of Broadcasters Building Threatened

The former headquarters of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) designed by architecture firm Mills, Petticord & Mills may undergo major exterior renovations. The NAB sold its 1968 building to Stream Realty Partners, which is considering replacing the existing envelop with a glass facade.

© Robert Lautman Photography, National Building Museum

Docomomo DC featured the NAB building on it 2017 tour:

Though not an example of brutalism, the NAB building is a contemporary of the period and illustrates the International Style. It addresses the diagonal axis of Connecticut Avenue with an arching façade that sets it back from the intersection. Its seven-story massing is broken up by a band of glass that wraps the building at the sixth floor. Light stone clads the two orthogonal sides and the vertical mullions on the primary curved façade. This curved façade appears as a uniform sheet of reflective glazing thanks to spandrel glass that matches the windows. A cast stone fountain with large pebble aggregate, designed by Loren Sage, occupies the plaza formed by the building’s setback. Mills, Petticord & Mills also designed the brutalist Gelman Library at George Washington University, less than a mile away.

Docomomo DC stopped outside the NAB building on its 2017 tour.