In the mid-twentieth century, the Washington metropolitan area underwent a dramatic transformation, and D.C.-based architect Vlastimil Koubek was at its center. From the 1960s to 1980s, Koubek Architects completely reshaped the skylines of Washington, D.C., its suburbs, and Baltimore, and his buildings remain iconic structures in the area’s urban landscape.
Over the course of his career, over one hundred of Koubek’s designs were built, largely in the Modernist style. Notable projects of Koubek’s include the redevelopment of Rosslyn, Virginia, the renovation of the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., and the USF&G Building (now known as 100 Light Street) in downtown Baltimore, which remains the tallest building in Maryland 50 years on from its construction. After Vlastimil Koubek passed in 2003, his daughter Jana recognized her father’s significant impact on the region’s urban landscape and donated Koubek Architects’ business records to the National Building Museum in 2025.
The Museum continually considers how to represent the built environment in the confines of a physical museum space. This challenge is especially apparent in the case of the USF&G Building. As one of the first skyscrapers constructed using the then-revolutionary slipform method, it is a significant piece of architectural history. In slipform construction, concrete is poured into a continuously moving form that rises as each new layer sets, creating a seamless structure. Yet at 40 stories tall, the building itself cannot be displayed in a museum case. How, then, can the Museum represent a structure of this scale and others like it within its collections?
In response to this challenge, the Museum collects objects and records documenting the construction process, rather than the final, built product. These process representations can take many forms – scale models, architectural drawings, material samples – each of which offers different contexts and learning opportunities for the museum visitor. In the case of Koubek, his career and design process are represented in the Museum’s collections by his firm’s archive: 1,600 cubic feet of business records covering a 40-year career in architectural design.
The bulk of this archive is comprised of paper records, including floor plan sketches, engineering and environmental test results, intra-office memos, and correspondence between Koubek Architects and subcontractors at every stage of construction. It also includes more unexpected records, such as carpet samples (many of Koubek’s buildings were completed at the height of shag carpeting’s popularity), strips of weatherproofing rubber for window frames, paint swatches, and squares of metal to test wear on doorknobs and handles. Through these archives, every one of Koubek’s over one hundred projects is meticulously documented from inception to completion.
Written into the Museum’s Congressional charter is the mandate to “collect and disseminate information concerning the building arts, including the establishment of a national reference center for current and historic documents, publications, and research relating to the building arts.” Collecting archives, and preserving the construction process more broadly, make it possible to understand how buildings come into being, not just how they appear once completed.
The USF&G Building still stands, and a visitor can walk in today and observe the stone pavers in the lobby or the framing around the windows. However, the physical structure does not reveal the complex decision-making behind those features. Its construction relied on cutting-edge processes that required detailed data collection and close collaboration among engineering and construction teams. That history is not visible in the finished structure, but it is preserved and made accessible through the archive.
While the files are a record of Koubek Architects, they also serve as documentation of the firm’s many partners on construction projects: engineers, stone masons, interior designers, gallerists choosing art for office walls, and even “plant procurement” specialists contracted to find the perfect greenery to decorate common spaces. The sheer volume of the Koubek archive is a reminder of the number of individuals involved in the construction process, many of whose works are invisible in the completed structure. Many of the documents include intricate doodles and handwritten notes scrawled in the margins, with reminders to return phone calls to in-laws and make doctor’s appointments for children, providing the opportunity to engage with these individuals on a personal level decades after their involvement in the construction project.
The Koubek Architects archive serves as an important reminder: every building is not just a finished project, but the cumulative imprint of countless human hands, decisions, and lives embedded in the built environment itself.
This post was written by Danica Derriennic, a Spring 2026 National Building Museum collections intern. Danica graduated from the University of Maryland in Spring 2026 with a Master of Information and Library Sciences degree. To learn more about internships at the National Building Museum, click here.