Central Heating Plant vs Omni Shoreham Hotel

Comparing the Central Heating Plant and the Omni Shoreham Hotel is interesting because they both stand in Washington DC, DC, and were completed within 4 years of each other, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

Both the Central Heating Plant and the Omni Shoreham Hotel were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Paul Philippe Cret and Joseph Henry Abel followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The Central Heating Plant is primarily industry, while the Omni Shoreham Hotel is primarily hotel.

The Omni Shoreham Hotel incorporates a 4-star hotel with 834 rooms. More information is available at the official website.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.