Washington: an urban context that changes and runs

Presents: Gianni Brizzi

architect and urban planner

Curated by Maria Luisa Sylos Labini

The presentation opened with some introductory data on the demographic and socio-economic dimensions of the Washington metropolitan area and continued with the history, data and images of some buildings of great architectural interest, such as the Museum of African American Civilization, the new Reach Complex at the Kennedy Center, Midtown Center, and the United Therapeutic HQ.

In addition to the buildings we also discovered how some great urban interventions such as City Center, Central Rosslyn, The Wharf, Ballpark / Capitol South were born, and we learned about the transformation of places and their historical context. From a more general and broad perspective, the architect and urban planner Gianni Brizzi taught us to consider various aspects and concepts concerning the urban development of the metropolitan area in which we live.

At the end of the presentation, the members asked questions to our kind host. In the future, we hope to be able to propose a real eye-jogging to admire in person the places visited virtually during the event, perhaps accompanied by the explanations of our trusted architect.

Some notes on our host: Gianni Brizzi

Gianni is an urban planner who has landed in over 20 countries and four continents during his professional career. Over the past few years he has held executive responsibilities for the World Bank's activities in North Africa and the Middle East. Always and especially since he stopped working, Gianni is permanently traveling not only in the United States and Europe, but all over the world to discover new cities and learn about their urban fabrics and their buildings.

Architecture is his great passion.