Islamic Center of Washington DC

The biggest mosque in the city, the Islamic Center of Washington DC is well worth a visit. Don't forge to take your shoes off!

Image courtesy Flickr user moocatmoocat.

2551 Massachusetts Ave NW
District of Columbia

Bill and Hillary Clinton's House

A lovely brick Washingtonian house is really not news, but if you follow in our tour's footsteps you will pass the home of a certain 42nd President and a certain Secretary of State. You may even see Chelsea peeking out a window.

Photo by Rachael Grad.

3067 Whitehaven St NW
District of Columbia

Center for Hellenic Studies

Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies is tucked away back on Whitehaven St. NW and is a real gem. You can wander into the lovely grounds and reading rooms if you're not too obtrusive, and they do host public events as well. Presuming your appetite for the Aeneid is insatiable.

3100 Whitehaven St NW
District of Columbia

2Amy's Pizza

We finished the tour with a late lunch at 2Amy's Pizza, which by my lights is the best in Washington. And the fava bean crostini, don't forget to order the fava bean crostini!

Image courtesy Flickr user jeen-dee-ann-dree-uh.

3715 Macomb St NW
District of Columbia

Khalil Gibran Memorial

One of the oddest memorials in Washington is the one just across the street from the British Embassy dedicated to Lebanese new age writer Khalil Gibran. A deconstructed reflecting pool with quotes from his work and an alarming sculpture of his head, this memorial attests to the fact that DC is a much weirder city that its reputation suggests.

Photo by Rachael Grad.

3100 Massachusetts Ave NW
washington , District of Columbia

Dupont Circle

We started our tour at Dupont Circle because it's the closest Metro stop to Embassy Row.

Image courtesy Flickr user Loren Kahle.

Washington, District of Columbia

Embassy of Italy

The Embassy of Italy was opened in 2000 and was designed by Italian architect Piero Sartogo. Its thick walls are meant to suggest a Tuscan villa, though its geometric form is wholly modern. The atrium that divides the two buildings of the chancery is situated on a diagonal as a nod to the large diagonal boulevards that run through Pierre L'Enfant's city plan for Washington.

Photo by Rachael Grad.

3000 Whitehaven St NW
Washington, District of Columbia

Embassy of Denmark

The Royal Danish Embassy was the first modern embassy in Washington. Famed Danish architect Vilhelm Lauritzen designed it, and his American counterpart in getting it erected was Bauhaus guru Walter Gropius. An architectural dream team if I ever saw one. Much of the interior furniture was also done by modern Danes like Fin Juhl and Arne Jacobsen.

3200 Whitehaven St NW
Washington, District of Columbia

Embassy of Brazil

The Brazilian Embassy on Massachusetts Ave. NW has been closed for renovations to the ventilation system since last year. It's a strange one, a big black box, but certainly one of the bolder architectural statements on Embassy Row.

3006 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, District of Columbia

Embassy of Finland

The Embassy of Finland is one of my favorite in the city, an ivy-clad box backed up against Normanstone Park and across the street from the Naval Observatory. It was completed in 1994 and was designed by two of Finland's more prominent architects: Mikko Heikkinen and Markku Komonen of Heikkinen-Komonen Architects. Hardly necessary during sultry DC summers, but, in a nod to Finnish custom, there is a sauna downstairs.

Photo by Rachael Grad.

3301 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, District of Columbia

British Embassy

The British Embassy was the first signature embassy designed in Washington and the residence was done in the style of an English manor house by British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens in the late  1920s. Eric Bedford designed the chancery building next door in a kind of institutional modernist style that some liken to a mediocre university building. The Lutyens design is surely the more impressive of the two.

Photo by Rachael Grad.

3100 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, District of Columbia

Embassy of Switzerland

In my view the Swiss chancery building is no great shakes: Mies Van der Rohe meets an elementary school. But the new Ambassador's Residence on the same grounds is another story. Built in 2006 by a Swiss-American collaboration, Steven Holl was the American end, it's a wonderfully beautiful and highly sustainable building.

Washington, District of Columbia