The nation’s capital is mourning the loss of one of its preeminent architectural minds after reports that Arthur Cotton Moore passed away at his home on September 4th at the age of 87.

Moore is most often credited with the development of Washington Harbour and meticulous renovation of the Library of Congress's main Thomas Jefferson and John Adams buildings, in addition to the restoration of D.C.'s tallest residential tower, The Cairo, further renovations of the Phillips Collection and Old Post Office Building (which recently reopened as a Waldorf Astoria offshoot), and numerous commercial projects around the city. 

Moore was born in D.C. to fifth-generation Washingtonians and studied architecture at Princeton University before founding his own practice in 1965. Throughout his career, Moore became a champion of curvilinear “Industrial Baroque” challenges to the city’s box-like and staid vernacular architecture, an element he often decried as being “missing in modern design.”

Early projects such as the well-publicized Canal Square retrofit and Avon Place residences garnered award recognition from the AIA and Architectural Record, eventually leading to noteworthy commissions for the (now closed) Rizik's boutique and the private K-12 Madeira School, where he was able to inaugurate one of the area's first solar-powered buildings. 

Moore supplemented this practice with furniture making, painting, and literary pursuits, including his 2015 novel Interruption of the Cocktail Hour, 1998's The Power of Preservation, and the 2017 title Our Nation's Capital: Pro Bono Publico Ideas, wherein he proposed several speculative interventions at some of the city's most prominent public spaces.

Moore is survived by his wife Patricia, son Gregory; a sister, brother, and sole grandson. This legacy will also live on through his realized projects. “I find great excitement in actually seeing my squiggles on paper built,” he told The Washington Post in 1990. “The only true award in architecture is when hundreds of people make your buildings real.”