09/24/2026
The Kennedy Center....
"Is there any tile in there we should know about?"
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was designed by architect Edward Durell Stone (1902–1978).
By the mid-1950s, Stone had rejected the functionalism of the International Style of his early career and moved on to New Formalism, which, for Stone, featured symmetry, columns, white marble, and geometric motifs.
Completed in 1971, the original Kennedy Center bathrooms featured this circle-in-square pattern from floor to ceiling. This textured grid is a common design element in many of Stone's buildings. At the Kennedy Center, this treatment carries through to the exterior stone paving that surrounds the building today.
Over the decades since, all the public bathrooms have been renovated, leaving these original tiles in just a few locations.
Email from Tile Heritage Foundation When a building is in the news..... Whenever a building in the news is under threat, I find myself asking... "Is there any tile in there we should know about?"
