A lot of D.C.’s charm comes from its historic landmarks. Places like the Old City Hall in Penn Quarter or the Manhattan Laundry Building near Greater U Street remind residents that D.C. is a city rich in history. According to a Curbed D.C. report, the District has now welcomed its newest historic landmark: Georgetown’s West Heating Plant.

The D.C. Preservation League recently nominated this landmark for designation, and the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) approved the nomination. This comes a little over two years after the HPRB first decided not to designate the building as a historic landmark. It looks like the board has changed its mind since.

The West Heating Plant, located at 2900 K St., was designed by consulting architect William Dewey Foster. It was constructed in 1948 to supplement the Central Heating Plant and provide steam heat to the city’s federal buildings.

Photo of West Heating Plant by Mr.TinDC

That same year, the Washington Post published an article that described the building as the “most modern heating plant of its kind in the country.”

The D.C. Preservation League also praised the plant for its modern appearance as well as its understated streamlined facades of buff-colored brick. The league’s nomination discussed the building’s significance in D.C. “It was crucial to the federal government’s planning of the nation’s capital, especially the expansion of agency headquarters in the Northwest Rectangle and elsewhere.”

While the West Heating Plant remains historically significant, its function could begin to change. In September, the Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2E gave support to The Levy Group, a developer in D.C. with a plan to redevelop the structure into a residential complex with a public park. The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) also approved the project, but the plan hit a roadblock when the Old Georgetown Board rejected the redevelopment concept.