Kennedy–Warren Apartment Building vs The Keystone Building

Comparing the Kennedy–Warren Apartment Building and the The Keystone Building is interesting because they both stand in Washington DC, DC, and were completed in the same year, 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 Kennedy–Warren Apartment Building reaches 0ft (m) with 11 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 Kennedy–Warren Apartment Building and the The Keystone Building 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 Joseph Younger and Robert O. Scholz followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The Kennedy–Warren Apartment Building is primarily residential, while the The Keystone Building is primarily education.

Originally, the The Keystone Building was designed for residential, but over time it was converted to education. The Kennedy–Warren Apartment Building by contrast has maintained its original role.

The Kennedy–Warren Apartment Building offers 425 residential units.

The Kennedy–Warren Apartment Building also provides 200 parking spaces.

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