The Architecture of Mott B. Schmidt

The Elizabeth Arden building is a unique example of Mott Schmidt's work, the only known multi-story office building designed by him, and his only known original design in Washington, D.C. 

The building's style is an unusual Georgian Revival translation of the tall office form. It is of brick construction with a limestone exterior facade characterized by a variety of window sizes and types within each of the building parts. For inspiration, Schmidt appears to have looked back to Renaissance-era and 18th century English precedent. The grouping of design elements, for instance, has the feel of a British church steeple. 

The principal facade, facing Connecticut Avenue, is divided into four vertical parts. The first part—the first story commercial space—is three bays wide with a central entrance and flanking show windows. The central entrance is arched and leads into a vestibule. It is flanked on either side by wide, non-projecting, show windows. The arched show windows consist of three large, plate-glass windows surmounted by wide fanlights. The fanlights are embellished with a delicate metal filigree design. The exterior surface at the first floor is rusticated up to the level of the spring line of the show windows' arch and is smooth above this to the second floor level. 

The second part of the vertical block consists of the slightly projecting, Tuscan-order colonnade that extends the full width of the second story of the building. The colonnade consists of paired columns and is supported by a heavy projecting cornice with mutules. Fixed- pane windows that reach the height of the colonnade alternate between the paired columns. These windows consist of 20 fixed panes with paired transom lights above. A simple metal railing runs outside of the colonnade. An entablature, also with mutules, runs above these windows.

The third part of the building includes the third and fourth stories. These stories present a planar facade with the smooth, unadorned limestone finish interrupted only by five window openings. The windows consist of seven panes—six smaller panes above a single, double-sized pane. Horizontal bands, including one inscribed with rosettes, mark the division between the fourth and fifth floors. 

The fourth part of the building includes the fifth and sixth-story levels. Here, the three center bays are emphasized with the whole creating an implied temple form. The central bays are recessed and are faced with a lighter color of limestone. On the fifth story, a narrow balcony with a metal railing projects slightly from these bays. The middle window of the three bays features a Classically inspired, stone architrave having a slightly darker shade of limestone. The windows on this floor are of the same size and type as those used on the third and fourth floors. 

The sixth-floor, slightly taller than the third, fourth, and fifth floors, has roundels on both of the outside bays and a Palladian window in the center recessed bays. The central arched window in the Palladian motif rises into the building's crowning pediment. A small, steeply set back, seventh-story (slightly higher than the top of the building's pediment) tops only the center section of the building. The east (rear) facade of the building is accessible only through an alley and is of a utilitarian design without ornamentation.

The only major alteration to the exterior of the building took place in the late 1970s or early 1980s. At that time, the building's windows were replaced, as were the railings on the second and fifth-floor balconies.

Text courtesy of the National Register of Historic Buildings.