3600 Centre

Architect: Baskervill and Son
Date: 1956
Address: 3600 West Broad St

Known as the Traveler’s Building to many, the ship-like structure that towers over I-195 was originally home to the Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company in 1958 and afterwards hosted various office tenants, including Traveler’s Insurance. The building served primarily as offices for the Virginia Department of Taxation before being recently purchased by the PMC Realty Group. Since 2011, the building’s upper six stories have been converted into apartments with the lower floors retaining commercial office and retail tenants.

A strong block at the end of West Broad’s collection of small art deco flourishes, the 3600 Centre takes on a more pared down aesthetic, with clear volumes adorned not with ornamentation but massive text or signage. Bronze-coated storefront frames on the ground floor are recessed under an aluminum overhang that flares around the corners. This shadowed baseline visually lifts the large, light gray mass above it, broken by an asymmetrical two story projection in the central portion. The overall effect draws a common ground between the sharpness of mid-century modernism, accentuated formal organization of Art Deco and pure efficiency of industrial buildings in the vicinity.

While intended as suburban offices and currently surrounded by little else, the 3600 Centre addresses a density beyond its years and clearly defines an urban street edge as well as any other building on Broad Street. It is by no means a graceful structure, but nonetheless an important character in Scott’s Addition. Its reuse as apartments is a promising step towards other development nearby, which would soften the dramatic impact the building holds today.

M.F.A.

Photographs by D.OK.