It is a bit startling how quickly the facade of MITRE Building 4 is going up. The pre-cast panels that create the building skin have been piling up around the corner in the underused MITRE parking lot in preparation for installation.
With that pre-cast concept comes a very quick assembly time which turned the steel skeleton we saw only a couple of months ago into an apparently complete building. The reality is construction will continue for a good while longer even after the facade has been fully assembled, but the impact to pedestrians and the campus will be reduced as the operation shifts from exterior to interior.
That would certainly be a welcomed construction method for many residents who have been vocal about other projects in the area that are taking more a more traditional path to their tower construction.
The new building skirts the boundaries of brutalist and internationalist architecture. I was originally concerned that using the same building elevation pattern as the existing MITRE campus buildings, but repeating it several additional floors higher, could be bland and over powering.
I will say the building has exceeded my expectations. It is a pleasant deviation from the all glass towers that have been popping up everywhere in Tysons, and a bit of an homage to the concrete Silver Line that everyone loves to hate.
