Westover
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Balfour
1900, George S. Cooper. 2000 16th St. NW
The Westover was the earliest fine quality apartment building to be erected at the foot of Meridian Hill, designed as a large Neo-Renaissance palace in what was then a fairly open and isolated location. At a cost of $100,000 for thirty-six apartments, the limestone and buff brick Westover was an expensive building, notable for its well-composed, but uninnovative, facades. Cooper, a local architect, divided its cubic mass into three horizontal zones, a standard Beaux-Arts solution to control visually the height of multiple-story structures. The lower part of the basement story is rock-faced limestone, but its upper walls as well as the entry story demarcated by tall arched windows are smooth limestone. Sculptural details include splayed limestone supports for the main facade's two oriel windows, numerous brackets, keystones, and an elaborate modillion cornice and deep frieze.
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