Charles M. Goodman

Who was Charles M. Goodman?

Charles M. Goodman was an American architect who made a name for his modern designs in suburban Washington, D.C. after World War II. While his work has a regional feel, he ignored the colonial revival look so popular in Virginia. Goodman was quoted in the 1968 survey book Architecture in Virginia as saying that he aimed to "get away from straight historical reproduction."

Goodman, who designed the original National Airport outside of Washington, D.C. and served as main architect of the Hollin Hills neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia, attended the Illinois Institute of Technology. He came to D.C. in 1934 to work as the designing architect in the Public Buildings Administration. He later served as head architect at the United States Treasury Department and the Air Transport Command. After World War II he worked closely with Robert C. Davenport designing and site planning most of the Hollin Hills, where his firm, Charles M. Goodman Associates, designed over 14 models of house.

Other projects included the 1964 Unitarian Church in Arlington, Virginia at 4444 Arlington Blvd. His residence, Goodman House, was built in 1954 at 514 Quaker Lane in Alexandria. In Reston, he designed a "cluster" of townhouses in the woods above Lake Anne known as Hickory Cluster. In the Southwest Waterfront Community of Washington, D.C. and just north of Fort McNair between N and O Streets and Delaware Avenue and 4th Street, SW, Goodman designed the glass and aluminum clad River Park Mutual Homes, which consists of two conjoined high-rise buildings and several clusters of flat and barrel-roof top townhouses. Reynolds Aluminum sponsored the development of River Park which explains the prominent use of aluminum in both its design and structure.