The making of a prison presents a unique architectural situation－a building or massing of buildings which must accommodate and enforce a prescribed routine, incorporating most of the facets of human existence, while aspiring to correct deviant behavior within a hostile population. The physical presence of a prison is abhorrent to most of those who live and work within its proximity, although almost all would accede to the necessity of such facilities. The twentieth century trend has been to locate prisons in the countryside away from the urban areas that contribute heavily to their populations. These facilities function with varying degrees of success, but perhaps suffer most in rehabilitation of their urban charges; the rehabilitative process is stifled by isolating the prisoners from their families and the types of employment skills found in cities.

The urban prison rehabilitation center in downtown Washington D.C. will be a low security step between prison and freedom. The facility will aspire to reintegrate the prisoner into society by exposing him to marketable skills, allowing accessibility to family, and endowing him with greater responsibility for his actions. Architecturally, the project will seek to establish an understandable order and separation of functions by drawing from the context ideas of scale, form, and rhythm while maintaining the homogeneity of a single organism. This harmonizing of architecture and idea will hopefully initiate in its inhabitants a realization of the potentials of their minds and production.