A Profile of Vlastimil Koubek:

Vlastimil Koubek was one of Washington, D.C.'s most influential architects in the modern era.  His commercial and residential work is most noted for advancing clean-lined “International Style” design to a city of columns and cornices. He was the lead architect (partnering with I.M. Pei) for L'Enfant Plaza's East Building.  Koubek’s signature style is also seen in the former headquarters of the American Automobile Association overlooking the Beltway; the International Square complex on 19^th and K; The IFC Headquarters on Washington Circle (partnering with Michael Graves); and Baltimore’s tallest building, Legg Mason Tower, at the edge of the Inner Harbor.

In 1985, Washingtonian magazine named Mr. Koubek one of 20 notable Washingtonians “who in the past 20 years had the greatest impact on the way we live and who forever altered the look of Washington.”

Mr. Koubek immigrated to the United States from his native Czechoslovakia in 1952 and served two years in the U.S. Army. He studied architecture in the (now) Czech Republic and after working briefly for a New York architectural firm, opened his own architectural practice, Koubek Architects in Washington, D.C. in 1957.  Mr. Koubek died of cancer on Feb. 15, 2003 at his home in Arlington, Virginia.

One of Mr. Koubek's early commissions as lead architect / architect of record was the design of The Hyde Park in 1972. He was hired by the Freed family, owners of Buckingham at the time. The Freeds spun-off a sizable block of the red brick low-rises to erect the Hyde Park as luxury rental apartments.  Koubek envisioned twin towers separated by an elevated park over the garage. Inspired by his European roots, Mr. Koubek innovatively combined retail, office and residential (now heralded as “mixed-use”) in the Hyde Park’s street-level footprint.  In light of Arlington’s booming application of smart growth structures employing mixed-use functions and green roofs, Vlastimil Koubek’s Hyde Park, back in 1972, forecast Arlington’s urban identity and laid a cornerstone for what was to become Ballston.    

After the Hyde Park tower opened, the D.C. real estate market turned soft and the Freeds never erected Koubek’s second tower, to be located on the current site of Harris-Teeter.  As a solo tower with a parking garage, the Hyde Park was converted to condominiums in 1980.   In 1994, the condominium association replaced the membrane of the garage roof to protect the structure below and the formal modernist plaza laid out by Koubek was replaced with a gently undulating lawn and winding brick paths between varieties of evergreens and flowering trees.

Another important building by Vlastimil Koubek from the 1970s era is the headquarters of the Motion Picture Association of America, on the corner of 16th and I Streets, next door to the Hay-Adams Hotel.  Now known as the Valenti Building, the Hyde Park’s sibling at the center of one of Washington's “power” locations shares some similar exterior details, such as large bronze-toned casement windows and adjunct green plazas.   

To help put Mr. Koubek’s accomplishments as an architect in context, he was invited in 1989 by the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation (PADC) to join the competition for the buildings that would complete the Federal Triangle. Submissions were received from seven architect / developer partnerships, and the team of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners was ultimately selected.

The National Building Museum recently acquired six of the seven models that were submitted for the PADC competition as a unique case study of how the design was chosen for this site and of how each of seven eminent architects proposed to meet the same criteria. In addition to Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, participants were Harry Weese and Associates; Kohn Pederson Fox Associates; Hellmuth Obata and Kassabaum; Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; and the team of Michael Graves and Vlastimil Koubek.

To be honored by the National Building Museum puts Vlastimil Koubek in the pages of history.  And by dint of age, architect, stylish design and prescient functionality, the Hyde Park Condominium is destined to become a historically significant building.  By some measures, it already is one.