Hecht Company Warehouse, Art Deco warehouse in Ivy City, Washington D.C., United States.
The Hecht Company Warehouse is a former department store distribution building in the Ivy City neighborhood of Washington, D.C., designed in the Streamline Moderne style. It features a glass block facade, rounded corners, and a twelve-pointed star cupola that rises above the roofline.
The building opened in 1937 as the main warehouse for The Hecht Company, a regional department store chain, and was built with three railroad platforms for receiving and shipping freight. After the retail business ended, the structure was converted into a mixed-use development with apartments and shops.
The name on the facade is not painted or attached as a sign, but rather formed by the bricks themselves, which gives the building a restrained and deliberate identity. This kind of integrated lettering was a way for commercial buildings to assert a presence without looking like an advertisement.
The building sits in the Ivy City neighborhood and can be seen from the street, so the glass block facade and the star cupola are easy to take in without entering the property. Those who want to see the interior can visit during regular hours when the shops and businesses inside are open.
On the fifth floor, black bricks set into the glass block rows spell out 'The Hecht Co', a detail that most people walking by never notice. Using the building material itself as lettering was a rare approach even for that era of commercial design.
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