The Keystone Building vs Central Heating Plant

Comparing the The Keystone Building and the Central Heating Plant is interesting because they both stand in Washington DC, DC, and were completed within 3 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.

The The Keystone Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 121ft (37m) with 12 floors above ground, while the Central Heating Plant reaches 0ft (m) with 6 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the The Keystone Building and the Central Heating Plant 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 Robert O. Scholz and Paul Philippe Cret followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The The Keystone Building is primarily education, while the Central Heating Plant is primarily industry.

Originally, the The Keystone Building was designed for residential, but over time it was converted to education. The Central Heating Plant by contrast has maintained its original role.

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