The ironwork of the Woodward & Lothrop building was repainted in 2011, changing it from uniform army green to a mix of colors as lovely as a field of wildflowers. Standing out among grey, squat monoliths, the façade’s origin, stamped across metal, is the Snead & Co. Iron Works, all the way from Jersey City, NJ. Way back when, they specialized in the fascinating world of bookshelves for high-volume librarieslike Columbia University, the New York Public Library and even our own Library of Congress. Thank the stars a defunct  department store  commissioned Snead & Co. for this project at the turn of the 20th century. Fancy motifs and flourishes like flying birds, curling leaves and Greek-inspired reliefs of moaning faces wrap themselves around the building, pushing forward a classical grandeur despite housing both a Forever21 and a Metro entrance where the department store might have decorated their wares behind plate glass windows.