Federal Triangle
Encyclopedia
The Federal Triangle is a triangular
area in Washington, D.C.
formed by 15th Street NW, Constitution Avenue NW
, Pennsylvania Avenue NW
, and E Street NW. Federal Triangle is occupied by 10 large city and federal office buildings, all of which are part of the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site
. Seven of the buildings in Federal Triangle were built by the U.S. federal government in the early and mid 1930s as part of a coordinated construction plan that has been called "one of the greatest building projects ever undertaken", and all seven are architecturally historic. The Federal Triangle
Washington Metro
station serves Federal Triangle and the surrounding area.
first used the term "Federal Triangle" (with both words capitalized) in 1935. The New York Times first used the term in 1936, although the paper's capitalization of both words did not become standardized until 1939. Definitions of the area also varied at first. Early news reports believed the eastern apex of Federal Triangle extended as far east and south as the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial
in front of the United States Capitol
. But almost all reports referred to Pennsylvania Avenue NW and 15th Street NW as the Triangle's northern and western boundaries.
The Senate Park Commission (also known as the "McMillan Commission") was formed by the United States Congress
in 1900 to reconcile competing visions for the development of Washington, D.C.
and especially the National Mall
and nearby areas. The Commission's plan for development, the McMillan Plan
, proposed the razing of all residences and other buildings on Lafayette Square and building tall, Neoclassical
government office buildings with facades of white marble
around the park to house executive branch offices. While the demolition of some nearby buildings occurred (notably the Hay-Adams Houses, Corcoran House, and a portion of the Decatur House
grounds), the rapid expansion in the size and number of executive branch agencies in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s made the McMillan Plan's development of Lafayette Square impractical.
Congressional and local support for the redevelopment of Lafayette Square waned significantly. Over the next few years, the President and Congress established several new agencies to supervise the approval, design, and construction of new buildings in the District of Columbia: The Commission of Fine Arts
in 1910 (to approve the design of new structures), the Public Buildings Commission in 1916 (to make recommendations regarding the housing of federal agencies and offices), and the National Capital Parks and Planning Commission
in 1924 (to oversee planning for the District). In the mid-1910s, Congress appropriated and the government spent $7 million to acquire land on Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 14th and 15th Streets NW and several blocks south. But no demolition or construction was conducted, and the government merely collected rent from the tenants in the area. In 1924, the Public Buildings Commission recommended that a new series of federal office buildings be built near the White House
. The plan called for a complex of buildings to be built at "Murder Bay"—a muddy, flood-prone, malaria-ridden, poverty-stricken region lacking in paved roads, sewer system, and running water and almost exclusively home to numerous brothel
s and an extensive criminal underclass.
Federal Triangle (as the area would be renamed) had its genesis in 1926. An attempt to provide $50 million to fund, among other things, a national archives building and develop federal offices along Pennsylvania Avenue NW was proposed in 1925. The effort saw success in 1926 with the passage by the United States Congress
of the Public Buildings Act
, which authorized the construction not only of the Federal Triangle complex of buildings but also a new U.S. Supreme Court
building opposite the United States Capitol
, a major extension of the U.S. Government Printing Office
building on North Capitol Street
, and significant widening of B Street NW on the north side of the National Mall (eventually renamed Constitution Avenue
). However, appropriations were to be made annually, leaving control of the project firmly in Congressional hands. Congress appropriated
$50 million ($10 million a year for five years) for construction of these projects in 1927, with half the funds to be spent solely on Federal Triangle. A second appropriation bill provided $25 million for buying up all additional privately-held land in Federal Triangle. On June 5, 1926, the Treasury Department, which had been given authority over the implementation of the building program, announced the Federal Triangle projects (among others) which would move forward and their anticipated cost:
Treasury officials said the Archives building was their top priority, followed by the Internal Revenue building, two Department of Agriculture
projects, and the Commerce building last. At that time, no provision was made to construct a new building for the Department of Justice and no sites were named for construction of the three announced buildings. Preliminary plans for the Commerce building were presented to the Commission on Fine Arts and Public Building Commission in mid-June. On July 7, the Treasury Department and Commission of Fine Arts announced sites and sizes for the three previously-announced structures. The Department of Commerce building would contain 1 million square feet (93,000 square metres) of office space and be sited on the south side of B Street NW (now Constitution Avenue NW) on the National Mall. The Internal Revenue building would contain 650,000 square feet (60,450 square metres) of office space and take up two whole city blocks between 10th and 12th Streets NW and B and C Streets NW (cutting off 11th Street NW). The National Archives would contain 2.3 million square feet (213,900 square metres) of office space, and take up one city block between 12th and 13th Streets NW and B and C Streets NW (cutting off the last block of Ohio Avenue NW). The government owned three of the four plots needed for the Internal Revenue site, but none of the land beneath the proposed Archives building. Purchasing both sites, officials estimated, would cost $700,00 each. Treasury officials also proposed at this time adding a Justice building on Pennsylvania Avenue between 14th and 15th Streets NW, and a Labor building (facing 15th Street) between 14th and 15th Streets NW and D Street NW and Ohio Avenue NW. Preliminary plans for these buildings were expected to be presented in three months.
The purchase of land delayed the construction program considerably over the next several years. Center Market, designed by architect
Adolf Cluss
and built in 1872, was the largest of the District of Columbia's markets, serving tens of thousands of people a day at a time when general store
s and greengrocer
s were uncommon in the city. It was also a hub for transportation in the District of Columbia, as the city's trolley
lines converged there. At the time it was built, it was the largest food market in the United States—with space for more than a thousand vendors, the city's first cold-storage
vaults, its own ice storage facility, and its own artesian
well
. Center Market, however, occupied two blocks between 7th and 9th Streets NW on the north side of B Street NW. As early as August 1926, planners recognized that relocating Center Market and purchasing land from owners eagerly seeking inflated prices from the federal government would delay the Federal Triangle project significantly. Early negotiations with private landowners in the area collapsed early on when owners demanded exorbitant prices for their properties, and the city and federal government began condemnation
proceedings in late August 1926 against owners on B Street NW between 10th and 13th Streets. Federal legislation authorizing expanded, faster condemnation powers for the Federal Triangle areas was sought in November 1926, and passed a month later. Condemnation (under the old eminent domain law) of the final block necessary for the Internal Revenue building began in January 1927. The Commission of Fine Arts placed a ban on all non-federal construction in the area in February 1927. The relocation of Center Market began in July 1927. The final lot for the Internal Revenue site was not condemned and purchased until October 1927. Negotiations for the privately-owned land at the Archives site began in late November 1927. Funds were furnished in February 1928 to buy the Southern Railway building at the southeast corner of 13th Street NW and Pennsvylania Avenue NW, which already housed a number of federal agencies (it was purchased in 1929). After six months, D.C. city officials finally began to consider a new location for Center Market. The new 1926 federal condemnation law was first used in October 1929 to condemn a set of parcels on the south side of D Street NW between 13th and 13½ Streets NW. A second set of parcels (Pennsylvania Avenue NW and B, 12th, and 13th Streets NW) was condemned under the new law in December 1930. The first land for the National Archives (later the Justice Department) building site was not acquired until July 1930 even though the site had been selected for development in November 1926. Center Market was not relocated until early 1931, more than four years after the process began. Additional land for the Justice and Post Office buildings was condemned in March and December 1931. Another major effort had to be made to condemn and remove railroad tracks from Federal Triangle, which had converged on the Center Market site. Although the Treasury Department had ordered the tracks lifted by April 1, 1931, this effort did not begin in earnest until early 1931. Negotiations over the price of the land and equipment broke down in February 1931, and the tracks had still not been removed by January 1932. Delay occurred in obtaining the Post Office land as well. Several parcels of land were not condemned until July 1, 1931—a single day before demolition on adjacent parcels of land began. The land for the Apex Building site was finally obtained through condemnation in July 1931.
The initial Federal Triangle building plan was significantly revised by the Public Buildings Commission in November 1926. President Calvin Coolidge
refused in September to permit the Commerce building to be placed on the Mall. A few weeks later, the Commission of Fine Arts decided that the Commerce building should be relocated to 14th and 15th Streets NW, extending from D Street NW to B Street NW (cutting off Ohio Avenue NW and C Street NW). The National Capital Parks and Planning Commission established a committee (composed of William Adams Delano
, Milton Bennett Medary
, and Frederick Law Olmsted
) to study the street plan in the Federal Triangle area and recommend appropriate closures or alterations (if any). While the Public Buildings Commission studied the Commerce site (and even considered halving the size of the building so that two structures could be built along 15th Street), plans for the Archives building were approved and a contract signed for razing of the Internal Revenue site. After these deliberations, the Public Buildings Commission announced on November 17, 1926, that several new buildings would be added and new sites for proposed buildings announced, including:
The Public Buildings Commission also announced it would build an 1,800-car parking lot next to the Department of Commerce building, and would proceed with construction of the Commerce and Archives first (as they were the top priority). Three months later, the estimates for construction of the Commerce building was increased to $16 million from $10 million and for the Internal Revenue building to $10.5 million from $2.5 million. Work on the Commerce building site was expected to begin by March 31, 1927. Government officials, other experts, and the press believed that the demolition of the District Building and Old Post Office Pavilion and the closure of many streets in the area would occur.
Work on all buildings was postponed in May 1927. On May 6, an ad hoc committee composed of Olmsted; Medary; Charles Moore, chair of the Commission on Fine Arts; and Louis E. Simon, Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury, recommended relocating the Justice building from 15th Street NW to a lot further east so that traffic congestion at 15th and Pennsylvania might be alleviated. This ad hoc committee met again three days later to not only consider the Justice building relocation but also to consider a plan to create a single building ringing Federal Triangle rather than six to eight individual structures. The Public Buildings Commission considered the same plan on May 16. The Commission on Fine Arts approved relocating the Justice building the following day. However, disagreements among the three planning bodies proved so fundamental that a new Board of Architectural Consultants was created on May 19, 1927, to advise the groups on the development of Federal Triangle. The Board consisted of the Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury (Louis E. Simon) and six private architects, including Louis Ayres, Edward H. Bennett
, Arthur Brown, Jr., William Adams Delano
, Milton Bennett Medary
, and John Russell Pope
. The Board of Architectural Consultants first met on May 23, at which time it considered a plan to create a single building ringing Federal Triangle rather than six to eight individual structures. As the Board of Architectural Consultants began its deliberations, the Commission on Fine Arts approved a plan to locate the Justice building on the north side of B Street NW between 7th and 9th Streets NW (where Center Market stood). About two weeks later, the Public Buildings Commission approved the single structure plan. This plan envisioned a central plaza (defined by 13th, 14th, B, and D Streets NW) surrounded by a traffic circle
, with the buildings lining the exterior of the traffic circle. Few streets would be closed; rather, arches would connect each building to its neighbors (with only 12th Street NW remaining unbridged).
The final design of Federal Triangle began to come together in June 1927. The Board of Architectural Consultants approved the construction of the Commerce and Internal Revenue structures as stand-alone buildings on the sites last proposed in late June. In July, the Board proposed eight buildings, sited as follows:
The Board did not address the future of the District Building, Old Post Office Pavilion, or Southern Railway Building, but had tentatively agreed to continue with the "Louvre plan" of a ring of buildings joined by arches.
The first design contract for any of the buildings in Federal Triangle was statutorily required by Congress in 1926 as part of the Public Buildings Act. A new headquarters for the Department of Commerce had been proposed in 1912 and a contract for the design work awarded to the architectural firm of York and Sawyer
. Although this building was never built, Congress honored the contract and named the firm again as the Commerce building's designer. By March 1927, government officials had already decided that the Commerce building should be 1,000 feet (305 metres) long—making it the then-largest building in the District of Columbia. The May 1927 work moratorium, however, put these plans on hold. In September 1927, the design of the Internal Revenue building was handed over to Louis Simon at the Treasury Department, and the Commission of Fine Arts met to discuss proposed plans for both the Commerce and Internal Revenue buildings. At the same time, the Commission received bids on demolition of existing structures in the Triangle.
After review by the Board of Architectural Consultants, the Public Buildings Commission gave final design approval on November 1, 1927, to the Commerce and Internal Revenue buildings. The previous sizes of both buildings was reaffirmed, as was the "Louvre plan" for a unified ring of buildings surrounding a traffic circle and plaza. The Commission on Fine Arts adopted a requirement that the planned Federal Triangle buildings have a "uniform appearance" and height (six stories), limiting the Board's deliberations. Secretary Mellon imposed a requirement that all the buildings be built in the Neoclassical architectural style. By mid-December 1927, the design of the Archives building had been approved, and the Board of Architectural Consultants was meeting again to study once more the general layout of the Federal Triangle.
By March 1928, newspapers had reported that the Commerce and Internal Revenue buildings would be constructed first, followed by the Archives, then Justice, and then a newly-added Post Office building. Plans continued for the demolition of the District Building and Southern Railway headquarters (although the latter would be the last to be razed, as it would be used as temporary office space for displaced federal workers). Although the Commerce building plans (a 1051 feet (320.3 m)-long building with 1000000 square feet (92,903 m²) of office space, the largest office building in the world) had stabilized by March 1928, some designers suggested that both 15th and 14th Streets NW be submerged in tunnels beneath the structure. About the same time, the Internal Revenue building's square footage was reduced by almost a quarter to 500,000 square feet (46,500 square metres). In July, Congress appropriated $210,000 for design work for the Independent Offices, Interstate Commerce, Justice, and Labor buildings, and Secretary Mellon altered the work schedule yet again to focus on these structures. The Board of Architectural Consultants met to consider ways in which the construction program might be sped up, and devised plans to have four approved buildings (Commerce, Internal Revenue, Justice and Labor) completed by 1932. By October 1928, the Board of Architectural Consultants had agreed with prior decisions that no office building should be constructed on the National Mall, and that this space should be reserved for museums.
Plans for the eastern apex of Federal Triangle, however, were complicated by an ongoing effort to create a George Washington Memorial. A George Washington Memorial Association was organized in 1898 to establish in the District of Columbia a university bearing Washington's name. Efforts to do so were unsuccessful, but in 1904 the Association signed an agreement with D.C.-based Columbian University
to change its name to George Washington University and build a large memorial hall on the university's campus. Plans for the memorial hall did not move forward, however, so the Association joined with the Smithsonian Institution
to build a similar structure on the former site of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad's Pennsylvania Station. A design competition was held in 1914, and architects chosen. The cornerstone was laid in 1921, and some of the foundation and a marble stairway built on a plot of land across B Street NW (where the National Gallery of Art
sits today) in 1924. In 1929, even as the Federal Triangle project was moving forward, the George Washington Memorial Association was conducting fund-raising for the construction of the building at the proposed National Archives site. Press reports, however, indicated that the building had already been displaced from the Apex building site. The fund-raising effort eventually failed, and the foundation and stairs were razed in 1937 to make way for the National Gallery of Art.
Two major changes to the complex came in early 1930. The Board and other planning groups had long agreed to site the Justice Department building on the block bounded by 7th, 9th, and B Streets NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. But this plan changed in March 1930. Architect John Russell Pope made a proposal to have the Justice and Archives switch sites so that the Justice building would have more space. Although the change would entail major design alterations in both buildings, Secretary Mellon favored the idea. The Commission on Fine Arts approved the plan, and Mellon met with the Board of Architectural Consultants in late March 1930 to discuss the idea. Although this initial meeting left the issue unresolved, the Board later agreed to Mellon's wishes in April and the two buildings switched plots. At the end of April, President Hoover asked Congress to appropriate $10.3 million (the most yet) to build a new Post Office Department building between 12th and 13th Streets NW, from Pennsylvania Avenue NW south to C Street NW.
Architectural models of the proposed Federal Triangle development were unveiled in late April 1929. Design work on the Independent Offices, Justice, and Labor buildings also began at that time. After these models were unveiled, however, the Board once more made changes to the Federal Triangle construction plan to reflect the March and April changes made by Hoover and Mellon. Now only seven large structures were planned, and assigned to the following Board members for design:
Parking and traffic issues proved immensely vexing for the planners of Federal Triangle. The original L'Enfant Plan setting out the streets of the District of Columbia still existed in the Federal Triangle area. Both C Street NW and D Street NW still ran from 15th Street NW to 15th Street NE. Ohio Avenue NW ran in a northwest-southeast line from the intersection of D and 15th Streets NW to the intersection of B and 12th Streets NW (soon to be renamed as Constitution Avenue NW and 12th Street NW). Louisiana Avenue NW still ran in a southwest-northeast direction from 10th and B Streets NW to 7th and D Streets NW (along what is currently the diagonal portion Indiana Avenue NW). The McMillan Plan was developed before the widespread use of the automobile, and now the Board of Architectural Consultants had to decide how to accommodate the "horseless carriage" while also making Federal Triangle pedestrian-friendly. The Board began studying traffic issues in late 1927. A major study of parking needs and solutions was conducted in 1931, and traffic and parking patterns assessed again after the Department of Commerce building opened in early 1932. To achieve some of the traffic and parking goals, the east-west streets and diagonal avenues were eliminated, leaving only the north-south streets through the area, and 12th and 9th Streets NW were submerged in tunnels beneath the National Mall. In the first major change to the Board's "final" plans, the Grand Plaza was abandoned in favor of a parking lot. The Board considered a number of other solutions to the need to accommodate the more than 7,500 cars expected to arrive every day (including an underground bus terminal and underground parking garage under the Grand Plaza), but in the end only approved a small number of underground parking spaces beneath the Apex Building.
-Tuileries Palace
complex in France
and the concentration of government buildings in Whitehall
in the United Kingdom
. But planning for the complex was also deeply influenced by the City Beautiful movement
and the idea of creating a civic center
to achieve efficiency in administration as well as reinforce the public's perception of government as authoritative and permanent. For the architectural style of the buildings, the Board relied heavily on the McMillan Plan's recommendation of the Neoclassical style. Both the Board and Treasury Secretary
Andrew W. Mellon
rejected the Modern
style then heavily in vogue. Rather than a mass of tall, imposing buildings, two unifying open spaces (intended for ceremonial use, and under discussion by the Board at least by March 1928) would be utilized. The first would be a Circular Plaza (inspired by the Place Vendôme
) bisected by 12th Street NW, and which would require the demolition of the Old Post Office Pavilion
. The second would be a rectangular Grand Plaza on the east side of 14th Street NW between the proposed Department of Commerce
building (west side of 14th Street NW) and the proposed Post Office Department
building (east side of 13th Street NW). The construction of the Grand Plaza would have required the demolition of the District Building
.
The Board received significant input from the Commission of Fine Arts (which strongly advocated implementation of the McMillan Plan), National Capital Parks and Planning Commission, and the Washington Board of Trade
. One guiding principle for the project was that office space for at least 25,000 federal workers must be included. Another was that, although the buildings would be modern steel frame structures, they would each be the same height and faced with limestone
. The National Capital Parks and Planning Commission had the least influence over the overall design of the project, primarily because it had only recently been formed.
Although the Board unveiled its proposed design for the project in 1929, the design still lacked a unifying architectural look. Subsequently, John Russell Pope was asked in September 1929 to bring a more uniform style to the buildings. Nonetheless, within this more uniform approach, a variety of styles could be used, and were: Italian Renaissance
for the Department of Commerce building, Corinthian
for the National Archives
building, and Ionic
for the Post Office Department. Meanwhile, the Board worked with sculptors, painters, and others to design more than 100 statues, fountains, bronze doors, murals, plaques, and panels (both interior and exterior) throughout the complex. Modern architectural styles were not completely ignored in the design effort, however; most of the doors and grillwork throughout the Federal Triangle complex were Art Deco
in style.
The cornerstone of the first building to be constructed, the Internal Revenue building, was laid by Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon on May 25, 1929. While digging its foundation, workers uncovered a dock which was at least 100 years old. Indiana
limestone was used for the facing, and Tennessee
marble for the columns. The sites of the all the Triangle buildings had been established in their revised positions by May 1929, with two exceptions: The positions of the Justice and Archives buildings remained as originally planned (with Justice in the east), and the apex space remained unalloted. President (and former Commerce Secretary) Herbert Hoover laid the cornerstone of the Commerce building on June 10, 1929, using the same trowel
President George Washington
had used to lay the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol. The construction contract for the Commerce building (set at $13.567 million) had been signed in March, and the contract for its limestone facade—according to at least one newspaper account, the largest stone contract in world history—was awarded in April. By now, the cost of the Commerce building had risen to $17.5 million. Due to the formerly marsh
y condition of the soil and several submerged streams nearby, more than 18,000 pilings
had to be set to construct the Commerce building. Water pressure from the submerged Tiber Creek made it too difficult to drive the piles. So a deep-sea diver
descended into the underground Tiber Creek and drilled a hole 20 feet (6.1 metres) deep into the earth. A hose was inserted into the hole, and water pumped from the earth until the water table dropped and the driving of the piles could be accomplished. The October 1929 stock market crash
and subsequent Great Depression
led newly-elected President Herbert Hoover
to increase spending on existing public works as a means of stimulating the economy. No funds had been authorized yet for the Archives, Independent Offices, Justice, or Labor buildings, and Hoover secured an additional $2.5 million a year for 10 years from Congress for this purpose. Work on the Justice and Independent Offices/Labor buildings now proceeded.
Treasury officials hoped to have the Post Office building under construction and ground broken for the Justice building by December 1930. But a major design change and funding choices were made in 1930. Pope convinced the Commission on Fine Arts to switch the positions of the Department of Justice and National Archives, giving the Justice building more space. Congress also amended the Public Buildings Act to permit private (not just federally-employed) architects to bid on design contracts, and agreed to fund the construction of the Justice, Labor/ICC, National Archives, and Post Office buildings.
1931 saw much of the Federal Triangle project near completion. In March 1931, Congress appropriated $3 million to begin construction of the Apex Building, the last structure to be funded. Demolition began on the site the following November. The Internal Revenue building was completed and occupied in June. It was finished a year ahead of schedule, and contained more than 672,000 square feet (62.5 square metres) of office space (3.4 percent more than originally planned). But work had yet to begin on the Justice, Labor, or Post Office buildings. Work on the ICC building finally began in April 1931 when the two blocks for the site began to be razed, and 13th Street NW was permanently blocked off at this time. The first work on the Post Office site began in July with demolition as well. Demolition of existing structures on the Archives site ended in August 1931, and ground was finally broken on September 5. Meanwhile, razing of the ICC/Labor site was also completed by the first of September, and excavation work began shortly thereafter.
In 1932, the Commerce building opened and construction began on three additional buildings at Federal Triangle. The Department of Commerce building opened on January 4, 1932. The finished building had 1,605,066 square feet (148,271.1 square metres) of office space (more than 60 percent larger than originally planned), and its foundation was more than three feet thick in places in order to withstand the hydraulic pressure put on it by the submerged Tiber Creek
. Water from the Tiber was utilized as an air conditioning system, to cool the building. July saw the construction contract for the $7.67 million Justice Department building signed. Although some funds for Federal Triangle projects had not been appropriated yet, work still went ahead using funds from other projects which were behind schedule. On September 26, 1932, the 143rd anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Postal Service, President Hoover laid the cornerstone of the Post Office Department building (although the foundation had already been laid, and the steel superstructure of the building was already three stories high). Once again, Hoover used the trowel which George Washington had used to lay the Capitol's cornerstone. Congress had appropriated $10.3 million for the new structure, which was designed to accommodate more than 3,000 workers. Its eight stories would be laid on a granite foundation and the sides clad in limestone. On December 1, 1932, the contract for construction of the limestone National Archives building (whose estimated construction cost was $5.284 million) was awarded to the George A. Fuller Company
(which had constructed the New York Times Building
and the Flatiron Building
). Hoover laid two cornerstones on December 15 for the Labor/ICC building, the third building to begin construction that year. Workers who were Freemasons
assisted the President in laying the cornerstones. Hoover personally oversaw the dedication of the cornerstone at the Labor end of the building. His words were broadcast over loudspeaker to the workers at the ICC end of the structure, who placed the ICC cornerstone simultaneously at the President's instruction (becoming the first time in Washington history that a single person dedicated two cornerstones at the same time). William Green
, President of the American Federation of Labor
, attended the laying of the cornerstone for the Labor building. Once more, Hoover used the trowel used by Washington to lay the cornerstone of the Capitol. Two weeks later, on December 30, the concrete foundation of the Archives building was poured.
Two days before George Washington's birthday, President Hoover laid the cornerstone of the National Archives building on February 20, 1933. The structure's cost was set at $8.75 million. Just three days later, he laid the cornerstone of the Department of Justice building with a trowel made from wood and cooper nails from the USS Constitution
. Chief Justice
Charles Evans Hughes
, Associate Justice
Harlan Fiske Stone, Associate Justice Owen Roberts, Associate Justice James Clark McReynolds
, Solicitor General Thomas D. Thacher
, and Attorney General
William D. Mitchell
all attended the ceremony. Five months later, a small fire at the Post Office construction site was extinguished by a security guard before it could do any damage. Late in 1933, the northern addition to the Internal Revenue building (the land had been condemned in December 1930) began to rise.
Only one building remained to be constructed under the new administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
. By December 1933, the President was preparing his proposal to Congress for full funding of the Apex Building construction project. But the Apex Building itself almost was not built, as Pope and others argued that it tended to hide the planned National Archives building. Still others thought the site should be used for the proposed Jefferson Memorial
. Through Roosevelt's personal intervention, the building was saved—but nearly all its external ornamentation was stripped, and plans for a terraced fountain nearby eliminated (although a small fountain was built in what eventually became known as Patrick Henry Park). Construction of the building was re-approved on January 18, 1934. The building's final cost was estimated at just over $12 million.
In 1934, one building began construction and another finished. The Apex Building site began to be cleared in April. The Post Office building was occupied on May 6, and Postmaster General
James Farley
dedicated the Post Office Department building on June 11, 1934. Its final cost was $10.83 million, about half a million dollars over budget. Construction in the rest of the Triangle, however, seemed stalled. Although some structures had been razed on the site, no appropriation had been made for the Apex Building. The government had also cleared land northeast of the Internal Revenue building (as planners considered adding yet another building to the Triangle), but Congress was increasingly opposed to demolishing either the Old Post Office or the District Building. City officials considered selling the District Building to the federal government as a means of raising cash to building a new city hall, but federal officials balked at the idea. President Roosevelt dedicated the newly-opened Department of Justice building on October 25, 1934. Chief Justice Hughes, all the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, Attorney General Homer Stille Cummings
, and a large number of foreign ambassadors also attended the dedication. The $11 million structure had more than 550,000 square feet (51,200 square metres) of office space. By November 1934, the addition to the Internal Revenue building was nearing completion, and government officials were contemplating the razing of the District Building, Old Post Office Pavilion, and Southern Railway Building.
The Labor/ICC and Archives buildings were opened in 1935. Numerous strikes (see below) had delayed the opening of the building for almost a year. In April 1934, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins asked for additional (if minor) design changes. Pressing needs for office space meant that a portion of the ICC building was occupied before the structure was finished. Minor alterations were made to the Labor building (such as creating a private rather than shared bathroom for the female Secretary) in January 1935. Secretary of Labor
Frances Perkins
dedicated the two buildings at a ceremony in the Departmental Auditorium on February 26, 1935, attended by AFL President William Green. The Labor building's final cost was $4.5 million and the ICC portion of the structure cost $4.45 million. The two buildings were connected by the 2,000-seat Departmental Auditorium (renamed the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium
in 1987). Meanwhile, construction forged ahead on the Archives building. Already considered too small to hold all the materials in its possession, a proposal had been made to add another story to the building. This proposal was rejected in March 1935. The National Archives building was occupied in November 1935, but had no formal dedication. Although the Archives structure had been one of the top priorities of almost all planners, it was one of the last buildings to be opened. Archives staff began moving into the building in November 1935, and the exhibition rotunda was opened to the public in November 1936. Records were not transferred in large numbers to the building until April 1937.
The Apex Building was the last to be constructed and dedicated. A major impetus for the building's construction came in June 1935, when the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) headquarters at C Street NW and 21st Street NW was razed to make way for the Federal Reserve Board Building
. The FTC petitioned the Commission on Fine Arts to permit it to occupy the Apex Building. Testing for the foundation began in September 1936, and was completed shortly thereafter. With design work long completed and President Roosevelt expressing his wish that the structure be built, a $3.1 million contract for the building was signed on December 29, 1936. Using the George Washington trowel, President Roosevelt laid the cornerstone for the building on July 12, 1937. The building's $3.665 million cost was paid for out of Public Works Administration
funds, and officials estimated it would be ready for occupation by January 1, 1938. Demolition of the old foundation for the unbuilt Washington Memorial occurred in July 1937, and much of the Apex Building's steel superstructure was rising by then as well. The great depth of the building's foundation meant that the crane operator lifting the steel beams into place was out of sight in the basement, and a series of telephone links from observers on the street relayed instructions to him. By December 1937, the building was two months ahead of schedule.
One of the most important aspects of the new building was the group of massive sculptures to be installed on either side of the structure. A jury of four nationally-known sculptors (Paul Manship
, Adolph Alexander Weinman
, Lee Lawrie
, and William E. Parsons) selected the artist in January 1938. The winner was Michael Lantz, an award-winning instructor in sculpting then employed by the Works Progress Administration
. The Apex Building had no dedication. The Commission and staff moved into the 125,000 square foot (11,625 square metres) building on April 21, 1938.
Artwork, exterior details, landscaping, and other finishing touches on the construction of Federal Triangle occupied the period from 1938 to 1947. Landscaping issues of the Grand Plaza and Circular Plaza were considered in January 1934. To protect the Federal Triangle from flooding by the Potomac River (as had happened in 1871), the north and west grounds of the Washington Monument
were raised in the summer of 1938 by about six feet (two metres) in order to form a dike against any future floodwaters. The final art installation in the complex was the Oscar Straus Memorial Fountain
, designs for which were first considered in December 1933. Plans for the memorial were brought before President Roosevelt for his approval the same month. Discussion continued into 1934. The Federal Triangle project was considered complete with the installation of the Straus Memorial in 1947.
But the Great Plaza was never built. Instead, the area was turned into a parking lot.
veterans, their families, and their supporters occupied the recently-condemned assemblage of buildings at the Federal Triangle site as part of the Bonus March
on the capital to win better veterans' benefits.
On July 28, 1932, President Hoover ordered General Douglas MacArthur
to remove the "Bonus Army" from the site. At 4:45 p.m., MacArthur led 1,200 infantry, 1,200 cavalry, and six battle tanks (commanded by Major George S. Patton
) to Federal Triangle to remove the Bonus Army. More than 20,000 civil service workers (leaving their offices for the day) watched as the U.S. Army attacked its own veterans. Patton personally led a cavalry charge (with sabers drawn) into the mass of homeless people, and several hundred rounds of vomit gas
were launched at the marchers. A Bonus marcher was killed on the site of the Apex Building. The Federal Triangle site was cleared and these members of the Bonus Army marched to Anacostia—where, at 10:14 p.m., MacArthur led a second attack on the 43,000 protesters and burned their camp to the ground.
Labor-management troubles occurred throughout construction of the initial seven buildings in the Federal Triangle complex in the 1920s and 1930s. Much of Washington, D.C.'s, construction workforce was unionized
many years before the project began. All the building contractors employed by the federal government signed three-year contracts with the major labor unions representing their workers in September 1929, in the hope that this would eliminate any disruptions during the building program. But this hope proved false.
The first problem occurred in July 1930, when the lathe
rs union struck
to win a $2 per day (16.7 percent) pay increase, halting work for a short period of time on the Archives, Interstate Commerce, Justice, Labor, and Post Office sites. A second strike occurred in late summer 1931 over a new federal wage law. The Davis-Bacon Act
was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Hoover on March 3, 1931. On August 4, 1931, painters working on the Internal Revenue building struck, arguing that out-of-town workers were being imported into the city to work on the building and being paid $5-to-$7 a day rather than the prevailing local wage rate of $11 a day. Both the Treasury and Labor Departments stepped in to arbitrate the strike. The dispute was settled a few days later when the Labor Department found that the contractor had paid the correct wages, and that no workers were being paid overtime.
The construction project's labor troubles worsened in 1933. With the Depression deepening, contractors were pressing for a 27.3 percent wage cut with their unions, particularly the carpenters' union
. On January 6, 1933, a fire swept through the upper floors of the unfinished ICC building. The fire was ruled arson
and a "disgruntled carpenter" was suspected. Two weeks later, the operating engineers
and steamfitters
unions engaged in a jurisdictional strike
against one another, stopping work at the Post Office construction site, but the AFL intervened and arbitrated a solution to the dispute. The earlier wage dispute, however, had not been resolved, and by February a general strike among all unionized workers at the Federal Triangle complex seemed likely. Employers said they would fire all unionized workers if a strike occurred and replace them with strikebreaker
s. The two sides agreed to let the Treasury Department arbitrate their dispute, and on February 13 the government ruled in favor of the unions—averting a job action. The employers went to court, and in April 1933 the carpenters agreed to the 27.3 pecent wage cut.
The second major wage dispute of 1933 broke out in May. On May 26, more than 500 members of the plasterers' union
struck to prevent a $2 (14.3 percent) pay cut, halting all work on the seven active Federal Triangle constructions sites. The employers and the American Institute of Architects
both argued that the higher wage would inhibit economic recovery in the construction industry. To prove their point, the employers locked out
the workers; the strike collapsed, and plasterers went back to work on July 22.
August 1933 saw the eruption of a series of labor-management disputes and inter-union squabbles that put construction of the Federal Triangle complex on hold for several months. The first event was when the Journeyman Stonecutters Association of North America
walked out on a jurisdictional strike against the iron workers' union
on August 21, idling 225 men working on the Post Office building. The dispute was over which union would ride with crane operators to coordinate the movement of loads with workers on the ground. The strike lasted at least until September 7, with both sides seeking a decision from the American Federation of Labor. Then on September 1, 75 carpenters walked off the job in a jurisdictional dispute with the iron worker's union. This dispute, which occurred at the Labor/ICC building, was over which workers would be permitted to install decorative enclosures around radiators. With work on the Labor/ICC buildings already two months behind schedule due to the earlier labor disputes, the employers threatened to stop all work if the carpenters' union struck and throw another 1,000 men out of work. The employers shut down on September 15. Twenty security guards were stationed at the Labor/ICC building to prevent vandalism. On September 18, a third jurisdictional strike occurred when the boilermakers' union
walked off the job at the Federal Triangle central heating plant to protest the use of iron workers in the erection of smokestacks for the facility. Construction of the smokestacks continued, but construction of the boilers was halted. A fourth jurisdictional strike erupted on September 20, when 80 members of the bricklayers' union
walked off the job at the heating plant to protest the use of laborers
to caulk windows, stone, and roof tiles. Although the bricklayers remained on the job for the moment, government officials feared that sympathy strike
s would occur, stopping work at all seven construction sites. The carpenters rejected a call for the government to arbitrate the strike, and the employers asked for Senator
Robert F. Wagner
(a proponent of organized labor) to help settle the disputes. On September 26, the AFL ruled that the smokestack work properly belonged to the iron workers, and ordered the boilermakers back to work. But the carpenters' union initiated a new protest, arguing that the installation of pulley linings in elevators belonged to them and not to the elevator constructors' union
. And the Washington Building and Construction Trades Council threatened to call a general strike of all construction workers if the bricklayers were not pulled off the job installing boiler insulation and the asbestos workers' union allowed to do the job instead. Senator Wagner also said on Sept. 28 that he believed a resolution to the carpenters/iron workers dispute (which had led to the layoff of 1,000 workers at the Labor/ICC building) could be reached. But the boilermakers did not return to work, leaving 450 workers laid off. Meanwhile, government officials said that the caulking, insulation, and pulley work disputes would be resolved soon, and would not in any case cause further distruptions at construction sites. Another major work disruption threatened the Federal Triangle complex when the iron workers' union demanded that contractors initiate two four-hour shifts per day rather than one eight-hour shift per day in order to spread work among more men. When contractors balked, the union struck at the Post Office and Justice building sites. That strike lasted two days before about half of the employers capitulated. But it continued for the remaining employers at the Justice and Post Office buildings. Finally, on October 11, 1933, frustrated and angry Labor Department officials said that unless the jurisdictional disputes were ended quickly, the government would seek authorization from Congress in January to force the unions back to work and resolve the disputes itself. The threat worked: On October 13, all parties to all jurisdictional disputes agreed to return to work while continuing to seek resolution to their problems via other channels. Federal officials excoriated the carpenters' union for holding up a $40,000-a-week payroll for four weeks over an $800 job. Eleven days later, the iron workers' union agreed to return to the eight-hour shift.
The labor peace was short-lived. Four unions refused to do work on the Post Office conveyor belt
system in mid-November, and the dispute over elevators spread to the Labor/ICC building in February 1934 (delaying the building's opening indefinitely). On February 14, 1934, 225 carpenters engaged in a jurisdictional strike against the cement finishers' union
at the Labor/ICC building over the installation of tile flooring. The dispute was elevated to AFL President William Green, Green awarded the job to the cement finishers on March 17. But just three weeks later, the plasterers' union led a jurisdictional strike against the stonecutters' union at the Labor/ICC building because the stonecutters were installing acoustical marble columns. Contractors, angry at the repeated inter-union squabbles, announced they would no longer employ reduced-hour shifts or give pay raises. The carpenters' union called for a general strike of all unions at the Labor/ICC building on May 25, a strike which spread to the city's ice cream plants. That secondary strike ended June 4. But the general construction strike began to spread to other federal projects throughout the city, leading to an increasing number of calls for the strike to be settled by arbitration. As the work stoppage spread, the carpenters' union's contract with the construction companies expired on May 30. The employers declared on June 12 that they would no longer adhere to any closed shop
agreements with the carpenters, and instead would impose the open shop
and employ any carpenter (union or non-union) in order to finish the work on existing construction projects. The construction unions declared they would pull every worker off every job if non-union construction laborers were hired, and the D.C Metropolitan Police Department made preparations to patrol streets and job sites to prevent any violence from erupting. Non-union workers were hired, and the carpenters' union struck all job sites throughout the city amidst fears that the carpenters might strike all federal construction projects nationwide. Three union members were injured on June 13 as picketers clashed with security guards hired by the employers. But the strike did not spread to the other unions, and the Washington Building and Construction Trades Council and D.C. Commissioner
George E. Allen attempted to mediate an end to the strike. The carpenters rejected the arbitration attempt, and bands of roving picketers moving among construction sites led to traffic tie-ups, frightened citizens, and rumors of violence. The "open shop strike" ended on June 20, 1934, when the carpenters agreed to a new contract providing for a five-day, 40-hour work week and $1.25 an hour in pay. But no agreement was made regarding the open shop. The plasterers' union ended their strike in June 1934, and went to local district court to resolve the jurisdictional dispute.
The final labor dispute to affect the Federal Triangle complex construction was a jurisdictional strike over the installation of library shelving at the National Archives building in November 1935.
(GSA) developed a plan save the Old Post Office Pavilion, and the National Capitol Planning Commission agreed to the project. An $18 million renovation began in 1977. The renovation was completed in 1983 to highly positive reviews. In the late 1980s, plans were laid to double the size of the Old Post Office Pavilion's retail space to 75,000 square feet (6,975 square metres) in order to attract more shoppers to the building. Utilizing the provisions of the Public Buildings Cooperative Use Act of 1976, the retail space expansion was financed and completed in 1992. Despite the federal government's intention to demolish the Southern Railway Building and construct a federal office building on the site to complete the Federal Triangle complex, the building stood until 1971. It was demolished in that year, and turned into a parking lot.
As many critics had anticipated during Federal Triangle's construction in the 1930s, parking issues grew much worse due to the development's existence. In the late 1950s, a proposal was made to build a commuter and long-distance bus terminal at Federal Triangle as well as a large office building on the space of the parking lot, but the $60 million it would take to build the terminal was never provided. The parking issue became so vexing that the Eisenhower administration
ordered its own parking study in 1959. There were several attempts to remove the parking lot in the interior of Federal Triangle and build the long-planned Great Plaza. The first such move came in 1955, when the Commission of Fine Arts asked the federal government to build the plaza, but nothing came of the proposal. A second effort was made in 1972, with the goal of building the Great Plaza in time for the national bicentennial in 1976, but the required $36.7 million in federal funds were not forthcoming. The parking lot was leased to a private company in 1979.
Several other outstanding issues regarding Federal Triangle's development were also raised, and occasionally resolved, in the next half-century. The closure and elimination of Ohio and Louisiana Avenues NW led each state's representatives to seek to rename other streets in the District of Columbia after those states. Ohio Drive NW came into existence in 1949, after Congress passed legislation authorizing the name change of the drive along the Tidal Basin. Another issue remaining from Federal Triangle's development regarded the condemnation of railway tracks in the area. The Mount Vernon, Alexandria and Washington Railway argued that it had not been properly compensated for the loss of its tracks in the area, and in 1943 sought federal relief.
Some improvements were made to Federal Triangle, however. A new cooling plant was built in 1960. Beginning in 1970, all the buildings were floodlit at night in order to reduce the level of crime in the area. In 1972, the Federal Triangle
Washington Metro
station was approved at Federal Triangle, and the station on Metro's Blue
and Orange
lines opened on July 1, 1977. Major heating, cooling, and electrical upgrades were made to the Archives, ICC, and Labor buildings and the Departmental Auditorium in 1984. After the terrorist bombing
of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
in Oklahoma City
on April 19, 1995 (which killed 168 people), security at Federal Triangle was tightened measurably and many of the pedestrian areas and buildings restricted to federal employees or those with official business. A major renovation for the Labor, ICC, and Post Office buildings was conducted in 1998.
Plans for construction of an office building on the Federal Triangle parking lot site finally found support in 1986. The Federal City Council, a private civic organization which had been promoting the construction of a $200 million international trade center in the District of Columbia, advocated construction of its proposed building at Federal Triangle. Reagan administration
officials favored the plan, and in October 1986 the proposal received the backing of the General Services Administration. The idea received support from Democrats
in Congress as well, especially from Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
, a former Kennedy administration aide who had long championed completion of the Federal Triangle. There was some opposition to the idea from planning officials and others, who were dismayed at the loss of parking in the downtown area and who feared that the trade center's proposed 1,300 to 2,600 underground parking slots would not be built due to poor soil conditions. A bill was passed (almost unanimously) by Congress on August 7, 1987, to provide $362 million for the construction of an "International Cultural and Trade Center" on the parking lot at Federal Triangle. The plan was to provide office space for both the Justice and State
departments. The legislation also provided that although the U.S. government would finance the building, a private developer would construct it. The federal government would lease space from the private developer for 30 years, after which ownership of the building would revert to the government. The bill also required the building to be financially self-supporting within two years of its completion. The rental prices throughout the lease's term would remain stable. It was only the fifth time the government had signed a "lease-to-own" agreement. With 1.4 millon square feet (130,200 square metres) of office space and 500,000 square feet (46,500 square metres) of space for trade center activities, the planned trade center would be larger than any other federally owned building except for The Pentagon
. The bill also required that the trade center be "designed in harmony with historical and government buildings in the vicinity, ... reflect the symbolic importance and historic character of Pennsylvania Avenue and the Nation's Capital, and ... represent the dignity and stability of the Federal Government." A nine-member panel was established to approve any plans, and included the Secretaries of State, Agriculture
, and Commerce; the Mayor of the District of Columbia; and five members of the public. The building was expected to be completed in 1992. President Ronald Reagan
signed the Federal Triangle Development Act into law on August 22, 1987.
Preliminary design specifications required that the final building be no taller than the existing Federal Triangle structures, be constructed of similar materials, emphasize pedestrian traffic, and have a "sympathetic" architectural style. An architectural model by the firms of Notter Finegold & Alexander
, Mariani & Associates, and Bryant & Bryant depicted a building with a long, uninterrupted facade along 14th Street NW and two colonnaded hemicycles on the east side (matching the Post Office Department building's hemicycle). The preliminary design specs were criticized for not more clearly specifying the architectural style, for bringing another 10,000 new workers to Federal Triangle each day, and for reducing the required number of parking spaces by 30 percent to just 1,300. The five public members of the design committee were named on April 6, 1988, and were former Senator Charles H. Percy
, chair; Harry McPherson
, president of the Federal City Council; Donald A. Brown, chair of the Federal City Council's International Center Task Force; Michael R. Garder, a member of the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation; and Judah C. Sommer, a local attorney. Groundbreaking on the now-$350 million building was scheduled for 1989, and completion in 1993. Disagreements broke out in mid-1988 over which federal agencies should take up residence in the structure, and whether they should be trade- or foreign-policy related. Seven designs were submitted in June 1989, each incorporating a base-middle-crown structure and enclosed in traditional materials (limestone facade, vertical glass windows, terra-cotta roof tiles). Each design incorporated a new home for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
(a Smithsonian Institution
entity), an outdoor memorial to President Woodrow Wilson
, and exhibition and retail space.
Construction began in mid-1989. Contractors estimated the cost of the building at between $550 million and $800 million, far higher than the anticipated $350 million original price tag. The design committee picked the $738.3 million design submitted by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
in October 1989. A consortium led by New York developer William Zeckendorf, Jr. was chosen to build and operate the building and lease it to the government. One of the firms which had lost this contract subsequently challenged the bidding process.
Significant cost increases led to the project being mothballed by the George H. W. Bush
administration. The General Services Administration refused to sign the draft lease, arguing that the building's rental costs were too high and would cost (rather than save) the government $18 million to $24 million a year. Although Pei Cobb Freed agreed to investigate design changes to make the project less costly, at least one member of Congress declared the project dead. In September 1990, the architectural team made changes which cut $82 million from the cost of the building (including the elimination of two theaters, scaling down the reception hall, using plaster rather than stone, substituting aluminum for bronze in the trim, and reducing the size of interior doors), reducing the price tag to $656 million. Delta Partnership, a development consortium led by New York developer William Zeckendorf, Jr., was chosen to operate the building and lease it to the government. Another design change came in January 1991, when the number of parking spaces rose by 12.6 percent to 2,500 spaces. But the changes did not resolve the controversies enveloping the project. Design committee member Donald A. Brown quit the committee in late 1991, complaining that the Bush administration was meddling in the project's design. Two days later, Eleanor Holmes Norton
, D.C.'s delegate to Congress, repeated these charges. On January 19, 1992, even as the foundation for the trade center was being dug, the GSA said the building would not achieve financial self-sufficiency. A separate report commissioned by the Bush administration reached similar conclusions. On January 25, 1992, the Bush administration cancelled the international trade center construction project. Days later, a United States district court
ruled that Delta Partnership had been chosen in violation of federal contracting guidelines, although the court also refused to overturn the award after finding no bias in the award process. Construction experts decried the decision, saying that the building's costs could balloon to more than $1.2 billion if construction were resumed at a later time.
The decision to cancel the building was reversed on December 2, 1993, by the Clinton administration
. Although the building was originally designed to be a major tourist destination and provide a boost to economic development in the downtown area, the building was repurposed to be a simple office building. Rather than a mix of federal and private renters, federal agencies were now scheduled to occupy 80 percent of the office space. By January 1995, the structure was two years behind schedule. By September 1995, a tentative occupancy date of December 1996 had been set. The building was named for former President Ronald Reagan in October 1995. There were still occasional design glitches. For example, the GSA approved two major sculptures for the Woodrow Wilson Plaza in 1994, abruptly ordered a halt to work on the sculptures in June 1996, and then ordered work to proceed again in July 1996. Construction slipped further, and by January 1997 occupancy was scheduled for the following summer. Construction continued to fall behind schedule, with completion not expected until summer 1998. Nonetheless, federal officials planned to move more than 480 Environmental Protection Agency employees into the building in July 1997. By this time, security concerns had led to several additional design changes (including a reduction in the number of parking spaces to just 1,900), and the cost of the structure had risen to $738 million.
The Ronald Reagan Building opened on May 5, 1998. President Bill Clinton and former First Lady Nancy Reagan
dedicated the building. Three large pieces of artwork were included in the building. The first, by sculptor and D.C. native Stephen Robin, is a gigantic rose with stem and a lily, both made out of cast aluminum and lying on stone pedestals. The second, by African American
D.C. native Martin Puryear
, is a Minimalist
tower of brown welded metal titled "Bearing Witness" which stands in Woodrow Wilson Plaza. The third, located inside the building's atrium, is a multi-story neon installation by Keith Sonnier
titled "Route Zenith." The structure's final cost was $818 million.
in New York City
came close. It "remains one of the most important design and construction projects" in American history.
The original seven buildings won critical praise for their beauty from the news media when they first opened. The Washington Post said the Internal Revenue building was "a credit to any city" and declared the "marble work to be among the most beautiful in the United States." At its dedication, the New York Times called the Department of Justice building "one of the most beautiful public buildings in the world". But praise was most heavily lavished on the Commerce building. It was not only the largest office building in the world, but the "greatest of office buildings" and one which represented the aspirations of the nation. It had "dignity without severity", one report said, and was "a magnificent architectural end". It had the "world's most extensive and impressive applications of bronze", "embellished with a wealth of detail, delicately modeled, carefully tooled, finely chased and exactingly finished." Even the interior decorating scheme was highly noted for its "fine architectural effect".
But younger architects in the 1930s criticized the style and size of the buildings at Federal Triangle for being "elitist, pretentious, and anachronistic". Architecture critic William Harlan Hale
strongly criticized the Neoclassical style for being unimaginative and anti-democratic: "New Deal indeed! What was there new, or modern, or imaginative, or efficient, or economical in trying to give modern Washington the character of Imperial Rome? What was there either aesthetic or intelligent in cloaking the offices of a modern democracy as the temple of a classic tyrant, the gallery of a Renaissance prince, or the palace of a French monarch? ...we have learned quite a lot about the principles of modern architecture, just as we have learned a lot about some other things; and today, after so short a time, it looks it looks pretty much like a relic out of the dim past." By the 1940s, some critics said the buildings were too reminiscent of Nazi
and Soviet
architecture.
Initial assessments of the Ronald Reagan Building's design were overwhelmingly positive. Washington Post critic Benjamin Forgey highly praised the Pei Cobb Freed design when it was first made public. Forgey found the final building even more praiseworthy, finding it full of "character and extraordinary potential," "brilliant," "vital," "welcoming," "clever" and "dynamic." Forgey particularly praised the bold stroke of the building's diagonal structure (which extends from the rotunda at the north end of Woodrow Wilson Plaza to the juncture of 13th Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW) and the conical atrium on the building's east side. Federal employees working in the building gave it "rave reviews" and at its dedication was one of the most sought-after places to work in the city. But six months later, another Washington Post reporter declared the Ronald Reagan building "much too large," "confusing" to get around in, "awkwardly configured," and with "dismal views". The facade, the critic felt, was "relentlessly austere" and represented "a lost opportunity to lighten the Federal Triangle's imperial, ponderous architectural spirit."
These buildings are contributing structures to the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site
.
Triangle
A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted ....
area in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
formed by 15th Street NW, Constitution Avenue NW
Constitution Avenue
In Washington, D.C., Constitution Avenue is a major east-west street running just north of the United States Capitol in the city's Northwest and Northeast quadrants...
, Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D.C. that joins the White House and the United States Capitol. Called "America's Main Street", it is the location of official parades and processions, as well as protest marches...
, and E Street NW. Federal Triangle is occupied by 10 large city and federal office buildings, all of which are part of the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site
Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site
Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site is a National Historic Site in the city of Washington, D.C. Established on September 30, 1965, the site is roughly bounded by Constitution Avenue, 15th Street NW, F Street NW, and 3rd Street NW...
. Seven of the buildings in Federal Triangle were built by the U.S. federal government in the early and mid 1930s as part of a coordinated construction plan that has been called "one of the greatest building projects ever undertaken", and all seven are architecturally historic. The Federal Triangle
Federal Triangle (Washington Metro)
Federal Triangle is an island platformed Washington Metro station in Downtown Washington, D.C., United States. The station was opened on July 1, 1977, and is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority . Providing service for both the Blue and Orange Lines, the station's entrance...
Washington Metro
Washington Metro
The Washington Metro, commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C., United States, and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...
station serves Federal Triangle and the surrounding area.
Federal Triangle name
The name "Federal Triangle" appears to have been a journalistic invention. The press made reference to a "Pennsylvania Avenue Triangle" as early as November 18, 1916, and use of this name continued as late as June 1929, but it was more common for the news media to refer to the area as "the Triangle" by 1927. This name was in use by 1928, even by government officials, and still used as of late 1934. The Associated PressAssociated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
first used the term "Federal Triangle" (with both words capitalized) in 1935. The New York Times first used the term in 1936, although the paper's capitalization of both words did not become standardized until 1939. Definitions of the area also varied at first. Early news reports believed the eastern apex of Federal Triangle extended as far east and south as the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial
Ulysses S. Grant Memorial
The Ulysses S. Grant Memorial is a presidential memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring American Civil War general and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant...
in front of the United States Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
. But almost all reports referred to Pennsylvania Avenue NW and 15th Street NW as the Triangle's northern and western boundaries.
Genesis and design
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
in 1900 to reconcile competing visions for the development of Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and especially the National Mall
National Mall
The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Mall is a unit of the National Park Service , and is administered by the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit...
and nearby areas. The Commission's plan for development, the McMillan Plan
McMillan Plan
The McMillan Plan was an architectural plan for the development of Washington, D.C., formulated in 1902 by the Senate Park Improvement Commission of the District of Columbia which had been formed by Congress the previous year.-United States Park Commission:...
, proposed the razing of all residences and other buildings on Lafayette Square and building tall, Neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
government office buildings with facades of white marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
around the park to house executive branch offices. While the demolition of some nearby buildings occurred (notably the Hay-Adams Houses, Corcoran House, and a portion of the Decatur House
Decatur House
Decatur House is a historic home in Washington, D.C., named after its first owner and occupant Stephen Decatur. The house is located northwest of Lafayette Square, at the southwest corner of Jackson Place and H Street, near the White House...
grounds), the rapid expansion in the size and number of executive branch agencies in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s made the McMillan Plan's development of Lafayette Square impractical.
Congressional and local support for the redevelopment of Lafayette Square waned significantly. Over the next few years, the President and Congress established several new agencies to supervise the approval, design, and construction of new buildings in the District of Columbia: The Commission of Fine Arts
United States Commission of Fine Arts
The United States Commission of Fine Arts , established in 1910 by an act of Congress, is an advisory agency of the Federal government.The CFA is mandated to review and provide advice on "matters of design and aesthetics", involving federal projects and planning in Washington, D.C...
in 1910 (to approve the design of new structures), the Public Buildings Commission in 1916 (to make recommendations regarding the housing of federal agencies and offices), and the National Capital Parks and Planning Commission
National Capital Planning Commission
The National Capital Planning Commission is a U.S. government agency that provides planning guidance for Washington, D.C. and the surrounding National Capital Region...
in 1924 (to oversee planning for the District). In the mid-1910s, Congress appropriated and the government spent $7 million to acquire land on Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 14th and 15th Streets NW and several blocks south. But no demolition or construction was conducted, and the government merely collected rent from the tenants in the area. In 1924, the Public Buildings Commission recommended that a new series of federal office buildings be built near the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. The plan called for a complex of buildings to be built at "Murder Bay"—a muddy, flood-prone, malaria-ridden, poverty-stricken region lacking in paved roads, sewer system, and running water and almost exclusively home to numerous brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
s and an extensive criminal underclass.
Federal Triangle (as the area would be renamed) had its genesis in 1926. An attempt to provide $50 million to fund, among other things, a national archives building and develop federal offices along Pennsylvania Avenue NW was proposed in 1925. The effort saw success in 1926 with the passage by the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
of the Public Buildings Act
Public Buildings Act
The Public Buildings Act of 1926, also known as the Elliot-Fernald Act, was a statute which governed the construction of federal buildings throughout the United States, and authorized funding for this construction. Its primary sponsor in the House of Representatives was Representative Richard N...
, which authorized the construction not only of the Federal Triangle complex of buildings but also a new U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
building opposite the United States Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
, a major extension of the U.S. Government Printing Office
United States Government Printing Office
The United States Government Printing Office is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States federal government. The office prints documents produced by and for the federal government, including the Supreme Court, the Congress, the Executive Office of the President, executive...
building on North Capitol Street
North Capitol Street
North Capitol Street is a street in Washington, D.C. that separates the Northwest and Northeast quadrants of the city. The street begins at D Street due north of the United States Capitol and continues northward 4½ miles to Nicholson Street where it is interrupted by Fort Slocum Park and the...
, and significant widening of B Street NW on the north side of the National Mall (eventually renamed Constitution Avenue
Constitution Avenue
In Washington, D.C., Constitution Avenue is a major east-west street running just north of the United States Capitol in the city's Northwest and Northeast quadrants...
). However, appropriations were to be made annually, leaving control of the project firmly in Congressional hands. Congress appropriated
Appropriation (law)
In law and government, appropriation is the act of setting apart something for its application to a particular usage, to the exclusion of all other uses....
$50 million ($10 million a year for five years) for construction of these projects in 1927, with half the funds to be spent solely on Federal Triangle. A second appropriation bill provided $25 million for buying up all additional privately-held land in Federal Triangle. On June 5, 1926, the Treasury Department, which had been given authority over the implementation of the building program, announced the Federal Triangle projects (among others) which would move forward and their anticipated cost:
- A national archives building, with total cost of land and construction to be $6.9 million ($1 million appropriated in fiscal 1927).
- A new Internal Revenue BureauInternal Revenue ServiceThe Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
building, with total cost of land and construction to be $7.95 million ($1.7 million appropriated in fiscal 1927). - A new Department of Commerce building, with total cost of construction to be $10 million ($600,000 appropriated in fiscal 1927).
Treasury officials said the Archives building was their top priority, followed by the Internal Revenue building, two Department of Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
projects, and the Commerce building last. At that time, no provision was made to construct a new building for the Department of Justice and no sites were named for construction of the three announced buildings. Preliminary plans for the Commerce building were presented to the Commission on Fine Arts and Public Building Commission in mid-June. On July 7, the Treasury Department and Commission of Fine Arts announced sites and sizes for the three previously-announced structures. The Department of Commerce building would contain 1 million square feet (93,000 square metres) of office space and be sited on the south side of B Street NW (now Constitution Avenue NW) on the National Mall. The Internal Revenue building would contain 650,000 square feet (60,450 square metres) of office space and take up two whole city blocks between 10th and 12th Streets NW and B and C Streets NW (cutting off 11th Street NW). The National Archives would contain 2.3 million square feet (213,900 square metres) of office space, and take up one city block between 12th and 13th Streets NW and B and C Streets NW (cutting off the last block of Ohio Avenue NW). The government owned three of the four plots needed for the Internal Revenue site, but none of the land beneath the proposed Archives building. Purchasing both sites, officials estimated, would cost $700,00 each. Treasury officials also proposed at this time adding a Justice building on Pennsylvania Avenue between 14th and 15th Streets NW, and a Labor building (facing 15th Street) between 14th and 15th Streets NW and D Street NW and Ohio Avenue NW. Preliminary plans for these buildings were expected to be presented in three months.
The purchase of land delayed the construction program considerably over the next several years. Center Market, designed by architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Adolf Cluss
Adolf Cluss
Adolf Cluss was a German-born American immigrant who became one of the most important architects in Washington, D.C., in the late 19th century, responsible for the design of numerous schools and other notable public buildings in the capital.He was born in 1825 in Heilbronn in the Kingdom of...
and built in 1872, was the largest of the District of Columbia's markets, serving tens of thousands of people a day at a time when general store
General store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
s and greengrocer
Greengrocer
A greengrocer or fruiterer is a retail trader in fruit and vegetables; that is, in green groceries. Greengrocer is primarily a British and Australian term, and greengrocers' shops were once common in suburbs, towns and villages...
s were uncommon in the city. It was also a hub for transportation in the District of Columbia, as the city's trolley
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
lines converged there. At the time it was built, it was the largest food market in the United States—with space for more than a thousand vendors, the city's first cold-storage
Refrigeration
Refrigeration is a process in which work is done to move heat from one location to another. This work is traditionally done by mechanical work, but can also be done by magnetism, laser or other means...
vaults, its own ice storage facility, and its own artesian
Artesian aquifer
An artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer containing groundwater under positive pressure. This causes the water level in a well to rise to a point where hydrostatic equilibrium has been reached. This type of well is called an artesian well...
well
Water well
A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
. Center Market, however, occupied two blocks between 7th and 9th Streets NW on the north side of B Street NW. As early as August 1926, planners recognized that relocating Center Market and purchasing land from owners eagerly seeking inflated prices from the federal government would delay the Federal Triangle project significantly. Early negotiations with private landowners in the area collapsed early on when owners demanded exorbitant prices for their properties, and the city and federal government began condemnation
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
proceedings in late August 1926 against owners on B Street NW between 10th and 13th Streets. Federal legislation authorizing expanded, faster condemnation powers for the Federal Triangle areas was sought in November 1926, and passed a month later. Condemnation (under the old eminent domain law) of the final block necessary for the Internal Revenue building began in January 1927. The Commission of Fine Arts placed a ban on all non-federal construction in the area in February 1927. The relocation of Center Market began in July 1927. The final lot for the Internal Revenue site was not condemned and purchased until October 1927. Negotiations for the privately-owned land at the Archives site began in late November 1927. Funds were furnished in February 1928 to buy the Southern Railway building at the southeast corner of 13th Street NW and Pennsvylania Avenue NW, which already housed a number of federal agencies (it was purchased in 1929). After six months, D.C. city officials finally began to consider a new location for Center Market. The new 1926 federal condemnation law was first used in October 1929 to condemn a set of parcels on the south side of D Street NW between 13th and 13½ Streets NW. A second set of parcels (Pennsylvania Avenue NW and B, 12th, and 13th Streets NW) was condemned under the new law in December 1930. The first land for the National Archives (later the Justice Department) building site was not acquired until July 1930 even though the site had been selected for development in November 1926. Center Market was not relocated until early 1931, more than four years after the process began. Additional land for the Justice and Post Office buildings was condemned in March and December 1931. Another major effort had to be made to condemn and remove railroad tracks from Federal Triangle, which had converged on the Center Market site. Although the Treasury Department had ordered the tracks lifted by April 1, 1931, this effort did not begin in earnest until early 1931. Negotiations over the price of the land and equipment broke down in February 1931, and the tracks had still not been removed by January 1932. Delay occurred in obtaining the Post Office land as well. Several parcels of land were not condemned until July 1, 1931—a single day before demolition on adjacent parcels of land began. The land for the Apex Building site was finally obtained through condemnation in July 1931.
The initial Federal Triangle building plan was significantly revised by the Public Buildings Commission in November 1926. President Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
refused in September to permit the Commerce building to be placed on the Mall. A few weeks later, the Commission of Fine Arts decided that the Commerce building should be relocated to 14th and 15th Streets NW, extending from D Street NW to B Street NW (cutting off Ohio Avenue NW and C Street NW). The National Capital Parks and Planning Commission established a committee (composed of William Adams Delano
William Adams Delano
William Adams Delano , an American architect, was a partner with Chester Holmes Aldrich in the firm of Delano & Aldrich. The firm worked in the Beaux-Arts tradition for elite clients in New York City, Long Island and elsewhere, building townhouses, country houses, clubs, banks and buildings for...
, Milton Bennett Medary
Milton Bennett Medary
Milton Bennett Medary, Jr. was an American architect from Philadelphia, practicing in the firm Zantzinger, Borie and Medary from 1910 until his death....
, and Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
) to study the street plan in the Federal Triangle area and recommend appropriate closures or alterations (if any). While the Public Buildings Commission studied the Commerce site (and even considered halving the size of the building so that two structures could be built along 15th Street), plans for the Archives building were approved and a contract signed for razing of the Internal Revenue site. After these deliberations, the Public Buildings Commission announced on November 17, 1926, that several new buildings would be added and new sites for proposed buildings announced, including:
- A new Department of Justice building, to be located between Pennsylvania Avenue NW and D Street NW, and 14th and 15th Streets NW.
- A new "General Supply" building, to be located between 14th and 13th Streets NW between D and C Streets NW.
- A new Independent Offices building, to be located between 12th and 13th Streets NW and B and C Streets NW (cutting off the last block of Ohio Avenue NW; this was the original proposed site of the National Archives in June 1926).
- A new Department of Labor building, to be located between 13th and 14th Streets NW and B and C Streets NW.
- A new General Accounting OfficeGovernment Accountability OfficeThe Government Accountability Office is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress. It is located in the legislative branch of the United States government.-History:...
building, to be located between 9th and 10th Streets NW and B and C Streets NW. - Moving the Department of Commerce site from the National Mall to between 14th and 15th Streets NW between C and B Streets NW.
- Moving the National Archives site northward to between 12th and 13th Streets NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW and C Streets NW (cutting off D Street NW).
- Retaining the previously announced site of the Internal Revenue building.
The Public Buildings Commission also announced it would build an 1,800-car parking lot next to the Department of Commerce building, and would proceed with construction of the Commerce and Archives first (as they were the top priority). Three months later, the estimates for construction of the Commerce building was increased to $16 million from $10 million and for the Internal Revenue building to $10.5 million from $2.5 million. Work on the Commerce building site was expected to begin by March 31, 1927. Government officials, other experts, and the press believed that the demolition of the District Building and Old Post Office Pavilion and the closure of many streets in the area would occur.
Work on all buildings was postponed in May 1927. On May 6, an ad hoc committee composed of Olmsted; Medary; Charles Moore, chair of the Commission on Fine Arts; and Louis E. Simon, Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury, recommended relocating the Justice building from 15th Street NW to a lot further east so that traffic congestion at 15th and Pennsylvania might be alleviated. This ad hoc committee met again three days later to not only consider the Justice building relocation but also to consider a plan to create a single building ringing Federal Triangle rather than six to eight individual structures. The Public Buildings Commission considered the same plan on May 16. The Commission on Fine Arts approved relocating the Justice building the following day. However, disagreements among the three planning bodies proved so fundamental that a new Board of Architectural Consultants was created on May 19, 1927, to advise the groups on the development of Federal Triangle. The Board consisted of the Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury (Louis E. Simon) and six private architects, including Louis Ayres, Edward H. Bennett
Edward H. Bennett
Edward Herbert Bennett was an architect and city planner best known for his co-authorship of the 1909 Plan of Chicago.-Biography:Bennett was born in Bristol, England in 1874, and later moved to San Francisco with his family...
, Arthur Brown, Jr., William Adams Delano
William Adams Delano
William Adams Delano , an American architect, was a partner with Chester Holmes Aldrich in the firm of Delano & Aldrich. The firm worked in the Beaux-Arts tradition for elite clients in New York City, Long Island and elsewhere, building townhouses, country houses, clubs, banks and buildings for...
, Milton Bennett Medary
Milton Bennett Medary
Milton Bennett Medary, Jr. was an American architect from Philadelphia, practicing in the firm Zantzinger, Borie and Medary from 1910 until his death....
, and John Russell Pope
John Russell Pope
John Russell Pope was an architect most known for his designs of the National Archives and Records Administration building , the Jefferson Memorial and the West Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.-Biography:Pope was born in New York in 1874, the son of a successful...
. The Board of Architectural Consultants first met on May 23, at which time it considered a plan to create a single building ringing Federal Triangle rather than six to eight individual structures. As the Board of Architectural Consultants began its deliberations, the Commission on Fine Arts approved a plan to locate the Justice building on the north side of B Street NW between 7th and 9th Streets NW (where Center Market stood). About two weeks later, the Public Buildings Commission approved the single structure plan. This plan envisioned a central plaza (defined by 13th, 14th, B, and D Streets NW) surrounded by a traffic circle
Traffic circle
A traffic circle or rotary is a type of circular intersection in which traffic must travel in one direction around a central island. In some countries, traffic entering the circle has the right-of-way and drivers in the circle must yield. In many other countries, traffic entering the circle must...
, with the buildings lining the exterior of the traffic circle. Few streets would be closed; rather, arches would connect each building to its neighbors (with only 12th Street NW remaining unbridged).
The final design of Federal Triangle began to come together in June 1927. The Board of Architectural Consultants approved the construction of the Commerce and Internal Revenue structures as stand-alone buildings on the sites last proposed in late June. In July, the Board proposed eight buildings, sited as follows:
- Archives (surrounded by Interstate Commerce on the north, east, and south)
- Commerce (west side of 15th Street NW between B and D Streets NW)
- General Accounting (13th, 14th, B, and C Streets NW)
- Independent Offices (6th, 7th, and B Streets NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW)
- Internal Revenue (B, 10th, 12th, and C Streets NW)
- Interstate Commerce (9th, 10th, and B Streets NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW)
- Justice (7th, 9th, and B Streets NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW)
- Labor (B, 13th, 14th, and C Streets NW)
The Board did not address the future of the District Building, Old Post Office Pavilion, or Southern Railway Building, but had tentatively agreed to continue with the "Louvre plan" of a ring of buildings joined by arches.
The first design contract for any of the buildings in Federal Triangle was statutorily required by Congress in 1926 as part of the Public Buildings Act. A new headquarters for the Department of Commerce had been proposed in 1912 and a contract for the design work awarded to the architectural firm of York and Sawyer
York and Sawyer
The architectural firm of York and Sawyer produced many outstanding structures, exemplary of Beaux-Arts architecture as it was practiced in the United States. The partners Edward York and Philip Sawyer had both trained in the office of McKim, Mead, and White...
. Although this building was never built, Congress honored the contract and named the firm again as the Commerce building's designer. By March 1927, government officials had already decided that the Commerce building should be 1,000 feet (305 metres) long—making it the then-largest building in the District of Columbia. The May 1927 work moratorium, however, put these plans on hold. In September 1927, the design of the Internal Revenue building was handed over to Louis Simon at the Treasury Department, and the Commission of Fine Arts met to discuss proposed plans for both the Commerce and Internal Revenue buildings. At the same time, the Commission received bids on demolition of existing structures in the Triangle.
After review by the Board of Architectural Consultants, the Public Buildings Commission gave final design approval on November 1, 1927, to the Commerce and Internal Revenue buildings. The previous sizes of both buildings was reaffirmed, as was the "Louvre plan" for a unified ring of buildings surrounding a traffic circle and plaza. The Commission on Fine Arts adopted a requirement that the planned Federal Triangle buildings have a "uniform appearance" and height (six stories), limiting the Board's deliberations. Secretary Mellon imposed a requirement that all the buildings be built in the Neoclassical architectural style. By mid-December 1927, the design of the Archives building had been approved, and the Board of Architectural Consultants was meeting again to study once more the general layout of the Federal Triangle.
By March 1928, newspapers had reported that the Commerce and Internal Revenue buildings would be constructed first, followed by the Archives, then Justice, and then a newly-added Post Office building. Plans continued for the demolition of the District Building and Southern Railway headquarters (although the latter would be the last to be razed, as it would be used as temporary office space for displaced federal workers). Although the Commerce building plans (a 1051 feet (320.3 m)-long building with 1000000 square feet (92,903 m²) of office space, the largest office building in the world) had stabilized by March 1928, some designers suggested that both 15th and 14th Streets NW be submerged in tunnels beneath the structure. About the same time, the Internal Revenue building's square footage was reduced by almost a quarter to 500,000 square feet (46,500 square metres). In July, Congress appropriated $210,000 for design work for the Independent Offices, Interstate Commerce, Justice, and Labor buildings, and Secretary Mellon altered the work schedule yet again to focus on these structures. The Board of Architectural Consultants met to consider ways in which the construction program might be sped up, and devised plans to have four approved buildings (Commerce, Internal Revenue, Justice and Labor) completed by 1932. By October 1928, the Board of Architectural Consultants had agreed with prior decisions that no office building should be constructed on the National Mall, and that this space should be reserved for museums.
Plans for the eastern apex of Federal Triangle, however, were complicated by an ongoing effort to create a George Washington Memorial. A George Washington Memorial Association was organized in 1898 to establish in the District of Columbia a university bearing Washington's name. Efforts to do so were unsuccessful, but in 1904 the Association signed an agreement with D.C.-based Columbian University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
to change its name to George Washington University and build a large memorial hall on the university's campus. Plans for the memorial hall did not move forward, however, so the Association joined with the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
to build a similar structure on the former site of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad's Pennsylvania Station. A design competition was held in 1914, and architects chosen. The cornerstone was laid in 1921, and some of the foundation and a marble stairway built on a plot of land across B Street NW (where the National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
sits today) in 1924. In 1929, even as the Federal Triangle project was moving forward, the George Washington Memorial Association was conducting fund-raising for the construction of the building at the proposed National Archives site. Press reports, however, indicated that the building had already been displaced from the Apex building site. The fund-raising effort eventually failed, and the foundation and stairs were razed in 1937 to make way for the National Gallery of Art.
Two major changes to the complex came in early 1930. The Board and other planning groups had long agreed to site the Justice Department building on the block bounded by 7th, 9th, and B Streets NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. But this plan changed in March 1930. Architect John Russell Pope made a proposal to have the Justice and Archives switch sites so that the Justice building would have more space. Although the change would entail major design alterations in both buildings, Secretary Mellon favored the idea. The Commission on Fine Arts approved the plan, and Mellon met with the Board of Architectural Consultants in late March 1930 to discuss the idea. Although this initial meeting left the issue unresolved, the Board later agreed to Mellon's wishes in April and the two buildings switched plots. At the end of April, President Hoover asked Congress to appropriate $10.3 million (the most yet) to build a new Post Office Department building between 12th and 13th Streets NW, from Pennsylvania Avenue NW south to C Street NW.
Architectural models of the proposed Federal Triangle development were unveiled in late April 1929. Design work on the Independent Offices, Justice, and Labor buildings also began at that time. After these models were unveiled, however, the Board once more made changes to the Federal Triangle construction plan to reflect the March and April changes made by Hoover and Mellon. Now only seven large structures were planned, and assigned to the following Board members for design:
- Apex Building (formerly the Independent Offices building, and now assigned to house the United States Coast GuardUnited States Coast GuardThe United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
) - Bennett - Commerce Department building - Ayers (of the firm York and SawyerYork and SawyerThe architectural firm of York and Sawyer produced many outstanding structures, exemplary of Beaux-Arts architecture as it was practiced in the United States. The partners Edward York and Philip Sawyer had both trained in the office of McKim, Mead, and White...
) - Internal Revenue Service building - Simon
- Justice Department building - Medary
- Labor Department/Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) building, and Departmental Auditorium - Brown
- National Archives building - Pope
- Post Office Department building - Delano
Parking and traffic issues proved immensely vexing for the planners of Federal Triangle. The original L'Enfant Plan setting out the streets of the District of Columbia still existed in the Federal Triangle area. Both C Street NW and D Street NW still ran from 15th Street NW to 15th Street NE. Ohio Avenue NW ran in a northwest-southeast line from the intersection of D and 15th Streets NW to the intersection of B and 12th Streets NW (soon to be renamed as Constitution Avenue NW and 12th Street NW). Louisiana Avenue NW still ran in a southwest-northeast direction from 10th and B Streets NW to 7th and D Streets NW (along what is currently the diagonal portion Indiana Avenue NW). The McMillan Plan was developed before the widespread use of the automobile, and now the Board of Architectural Consultants had to decide how to accommodate the "horseless carriage" while also making Federal Triangle pedestrian-friendly. The Board began studying traffic issues in late 1927. A major study of parking needs and solutions was conducted in 1931, and traffic and parking patterns assessed again after the Department of Commerce building opened in early 1932. To achieve some of the traffic and parking goals, the east-west streets and diagonal avenues were eliminated, leaving only the north-south streets through the area, and 12th and 9th Streets NW were submerged in tunnels beneath the National Mall. In the first major change to the Board's "final" plans, the Grand Plaza was abandoned in favor of a parking lot. The Board considered a number of other solutions to the need to accommodate the more than 7,500 cars expected to arrive every day (including an underground bus terminal and underground parking garage under the Grand Plaza), but in the end only approved a small number of underground parking spaces beneath the Apex Building.
Design influences
The design of Federal Triangle was significantly influenced by the LouvreLouvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
-Tuileries Palace
Tuileries Palace
The Tuileries Palace was a royal palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine until 1871, when it was destroyed in the upheaval during the suppression of the Paris Commune...
complex in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and the concentration of government buildings in Whitehall
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. But planning for the complex was also deeply influenced by the City Beautiful movement
City Beautiful movement
The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy concerning North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago,...
and the idea of creating a civic center
Civic center
A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building...
to achieve efficiency in administration as well as reinforce the public's perception of government as authoritative and permanent. For the architectural style of the buildings, the Board relied heavily on the McMillan Plan's recommendation of the Neoclassical style. Both the Board and Treasury Secretary
United States Secretary of the Treasury
The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...
Andrew W. Mellon
Andrew W. Mellon
Andrew William Mellon was an American banker, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector and Secretary of the Treasury from March 4, 1921 until February 12, 1932.-Early life:...
rejected the Modern
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
style then heavily in vogue. Rather than a mass of tall, imposing buildings, two unifying open spaces (intended for ceremonial use, and under discussion by the Board at least by March 1928) would be utilized. The first would be a Circular Plaza (inspired by the Place Vendôme
Place Vendôme
Place Vendôme is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It is the starting point of the Rue de la Paix. Its regular architecture by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and pedimented screens canted across the...
) bisected by 12th Street NW, and which would require the demolition of the Old Post Office Pavilion
Old Post Office Pavilion
The Old Post Office Pavilion, also known as Old Post Office and Clock Tower and officially renamed the Nancy Hanks Center in 1983, is a building of the United States federal government. Built in 1892-99, it is located at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue , NW, in Washington, D.C...
. The second would be a rectangular Grand Plaza on the east side of 14th Street NW between the proposed Department of Commerce
United States Department of Commerce
The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...
building (west side of 14th Street NW) and the proposed Post Office Department
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
building (east side of 13th Street NW). The construction of the Grand Plaza would have required the demolition of the District Building
John A. Wilson Building
The John A. Wilson Building, popularly known simply as the Wilson Building or the JAWB, houses the offices and chambers of the Mayor and Council of the District of Columbia. Originally called the District Building, it was renamed in 1994 to commemorate former Council Chair John A. Wilson...
.
The Board received significant input from the Commission of Fine Arts (which strongly advocated implementation of the McMillan Plan), National Capital Parks and Planning Commission, and the Washington Board of Trade
Greater Washington Board of Trade
The Greater Washington Board of Trade is a network of business and non-profit leaders in Washington, D.C.Since its creation in 1889, the Greater Washington Board of Trade has provided advocacy, research, and programs for the area's business community...
. One guiding principle for the project was that office space for at least 25,000 federal workers must be included. Another was that, although the buildings would be modern steel frame structures, they would each be the same height and faced with limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
. The National Capital Parks and Planning Commission had the least influence over the overall design of the project, primarily because it had only recently been formed.
Although the Board unveiled its proposed design for the project in 1929, the design still lacked a unifying architectural look. Subsequently, John Russell Pope was asked in September 1929 to bring a more uniform style to the buildings. Nonetheless, within this more uniform approach, a variety of styles could be used, and were: Italian Renaissance
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...
for the Department of Commerce building, Corinthian
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...
for the National Archives
National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents, which comprise the National Archives...
building, and Ionic
Ionic order
The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...
for the Post Office Department. Meanwhile, the Board worked with sculptors, painters, and others to design more than 100 statues, fountains, bronze doors, murals, plaques, and panels (both interior and exterior) throughout the complex. Modern architectural styles were not completely ignored in the design effort, however; most of the doors and grillwork throughout the Federal Triangle complex were Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
in style.
Construction of original seven buildings
The Treasury Department signed a contract for razing of existing buildings at the Internal Revenue site in October 1926. The size of the Commerce building was set at 1000 feet (304.8 m) long in March 1927, and survey work at the site began on March 31, 1927 (even though final plans for the project were still unclear). Work on all buildings was postponed in May 1927. Work began again in September 1927 when demolition work on the Commerce and Internal Revenue sites began again. Excavation of both sites began on November 21, 1927. Additional demolition contracts were awarded for both sites in April 1928, and foundation work for the Internal Revenue building began in June 1928. Due to the soft nature of the ground, 8,000 pilings were driven into the earth to support the foundation. Work on Internal Revenue's superstructure began on March 8.The cornerstone of the first building to be constructed, the Internal Revenue building, was laid by Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon on May 25, 1929. While digging its foundation, workers uncovered a dock which was at least 100 years old. Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
limestone was used for the facing, and Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
marble for the columns. The sites of the all the Triangle buildings had been established in their revised positions by May 1929, with two exceptions: The positions of the Justice and Archives buildings remained as originally planned (with Justice in the east), and the apex space remained unalloted. President (and former Commerce Secretary) Herbert Hoover laid the cornerstone of the Commerce building on June 10, 1929, using the same trowel
Trowel
A trowel is one of several similar hand tools used for digging, smoothing, or otherwise moving around small amounts of viscous or particulate material.-Hand tools:...
President George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
had used to lay the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol. The construction contract for the Commerce building (set at $13.567 million) had been signed in March, and the contract for its limestone facade—according to at least one newspaper account, the largest stone contract in world history—was awarded in April. By now, the cost of the Commerce building had risen to $17.5 million. Due to the formerly marsh
Marsh
In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....
y condition of the soil and several submerged streams nearby, more than 18,000 pilings
Deep foundation
A deep foundation is a type of foundation distinguished from shallow foundations by the depth they are embedded into the ground. There are many reasons a geotechnical engineer would recommend a deep foundation over a shallow foundation, but some of the common reasons are very large design loads, a...
had to be set to construct the Commerce building. Water pressure from the submerged Tiber Creek made it too difficult to drive the piles. So a deep-sea diver
Surface supplied diving
Surface supplied diving refers to divers using equipment supplied with breathing gas using a diver's umbilical from the surface, either from the shore or from a diving support vessel sometimes indirectly via a diving bell...
descended into the underground Tiber Creek and drilled a hole 20 feet (6.1 metres) deep into the earth. A hose was inserted into the hole, and water pumped from the earth until the water table dropped and the driving of the piles could be accomplished. The October 1929 stock market crash
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...
and subsequent Great Depression
Great Depression in the United States
The Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement...
led newly-elected President Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
to increase spending on existing public works as a means of stimulating the economy. No funds had been authorized yet for the Archives, Independent Offices, Justice, or Labor buildings, and Hoover secured an additional $2.5 million a year for 10 years from Congress for this purpose. Work on the Justice and Independent Offices/Labor buildings now proceeded.
Treasury officials hoped to have the Post Office building under construction and ground broken for the Justice building by December 1930. But a major design change and funding choices were made in 1930. Pope convinced the Commission on Fine Arts to switch the positions of the Department of Justice and National Archives, giving the Justice building more space. Congress also amended the Public Buildings Act to permit private (not just federally-employed) architects to bid on design contracts, and agreed to fund the construction of the Justice, Labor/ICC, National Archives, and Post Office buildings.
1931 saw much of the Federal Triangle project near completion. In March 1931, Congress appropriated $3 million to begin construction of the Apex Building, the last structure to be funded. Demolition began on the site the following November. The Internal Revenue building was completed and occupied in June. It was finished a year ahead of schedule, and contained more than 672,000 square feet (62.5 square metres) of office space (3.4 percent more than originally planned). But work had yet to begin on the Justice, Labor, or Post Office buildings. Work on the ICC building finally began in April 1931 when the two blocks for the site began to be razed, and 13th Street NW was permanently blocked off at this time. The first work on the Post Office site began in July with demolition as well. Demolition of existing structures on the Archives site ended in August 1931, and ground was finally broken on September 5. Meanwhile, razing of the ICC/Labor site was also completed by the first of September, and excavation work began shortly thereafter.
In 1932, the Commerce building opened and construction began on three additional buildings at Federal Triangle. The Department of Commerce building opened on January 4, 1932. The finished building had 1,605,066 square feet (148,271.1 square metres) of office space (more than 60 percent larger than originally planned), and its foundation was more than three feet thick in places in order to withstand the hydraulic pressure put on it by the submerged Tiber Creek
Tiber Creek
Tiber Creek or Tyber Creek was a tributary of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.Originally known as Goose Creek, it was renamed after Rome's Tiber River as the lands southeast of then Georgetown, Maryland, were selected for the City of Washington, the new capital of the United States...
. Water from the Tiber was utilized as an air conditioning system, to cool the building. July saw the construction contract for the $7.67 million Justice Department building signed. Although some funds for Federal Triangle projects had not been appropriated yet, work still went ahead using funds from other projects which were behind schedule. On September 26, 1932, the 143rd anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Postal Service, President Hoover laid the cornerstone of the Post Office Department building (although the foundation had already been laid, and the steel superstructure of the building was already three stories high). Once again, Hoover used the trowel which George Washington had used to lay the Capitol's cornerstone. Congress had appropriated $10.3 million for the new structure, which was designed to accommodate more than 3,000 workers. Its eight stories would be laid on a granite foundation and the sides clad in limestone. On December 1, 1932, the contract for construction of the limestone National Archives building (whose estimated construction cost was $5.284 million) was awarded to the George A. Fuller Company
George A. Fuller
George A. Fuller was an architect often credited as being the "inventor" of modern skyscrapers and the modern contracting system.-Early life and career:Fuller was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, near Worcester...
(which had constructed the New York Times Building
The Times Square Building
The Times Square Building, formerly known as The New York Times Building, is an 18-story building at 229 West 43rd Street in Times Square, New York City, that was the headquarters of The New York Times from 1913 through 2007....
and the Flatiron Building
Flatiron Building
The Flatiron Building, or Fuller Building, as it was originally called, is located at 175 Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, New York City and is considered to be a groundbreaking skyscraper. Upon completion in 1902 it was one of the tallest buildings in the city and the only skyscraper...
). Hoover laid two cornerstones on December 15 for the Labor/ICC building, the third building to begin construction that year. Workers who were Freemasons
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
assisted the President in laying the cornerstones. Hoover personally oversaw the dedication of the cornerstone at the Labor end of the building. His words were broadcast over loudspeaker to the workers at the ICC end of the structure, who placed the ICC cornerstone simultaneously at the President's instruction (becoming the first time in Washington history that a single person dedicated two cornerstones at the same time). William Green
William Green (labor leader)
William Green was an American trade union leader. Green is best remembered for serving as the President of the American Federation of Labor from 1924 to 1952.-Early years:...
, President of the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
, attended the laying of the cornerstone for the Labor building. Once more, Hoover used the trowel used by Washington to lay the cornerstone of the Capitol. Two weeks later, on December 30, the concrete foundation of the Archives building was poured.
Two days before George Washington's birthday, President Hoover laid the cornerstone of the National Archives building on February 20, 1933. The structure's cost was set at $8.75 million. Just three days later, he laid the cornerstone of the Department of Justice building with a trowel made from wood and cooper nails from the USS Constitution
USS Constitution
USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. Named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America, she is the world's oldest floating commissioned naval vessel...
. Chief Justice
Chief Justice of the United States
The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...
Charles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. was an American statesman, lawyer and Republican politician from New York. He served as the 36th Governor of New York , Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , United States Secretary of State , a judge on the Court of International Justice , and...
, Associate Justice
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States...
Harlan Fiske Stone, Associate Justice Owen Roberts, Associate Justice James Clark McReynolds
James Clark McReynolds
James Clark McReynolds was an American lawyer and judge who served as United States Attorney General under President Woodrow Wilson and as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court...
, Solicitor General Thomas D. Thacher
Thomas D. Thacher
Thomas Day Thacher was a lawyer and judge in New York City.Thacher was born in Tenafly, New Jersey and was the oldest of four children of Thomas Thacher, a prominent New York lawyer, and Sarah McCulloh Thacher...
, and Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
William D. Mitchell
William D. Mitchell
William DeWitt Mitchell was appointed to the position of U.S. Solicitor General by Calvin Coolidge on June 4, 1925, which he held until he was appointed to the position of U.S. Attorney General for the entirety of Herbert Hoover's Presidency.Born in Winona, Minnesota to William B...
all attended the ceremony. Five months later, a small fire at the Post Office construction site was extinguished by a security guard before it could do any damage. Late in 1933, the northern addition to the Internal Revenue building (the land had been condemned in December 1930) began to rise.
Only one building remained to be constructed under the new administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
. By December 1933, the President was preparing his proposal to Congress for full funding of the Apex Building construction project. But the Apex Building itself almost was not built, as Pope and others argued that it tended to hide the planned National Archives building. Still others thought the site should be used for the proposed Jefferson Memorial
Jefferson Memorial
The Thomas Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial in Washington, D.C. that is dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, an American Founding Father and the third President of the United States....
. Through Roosevelt's personal intervention, the building was saved—but nearly all its external ornamentation was stripped, and plans for a terraced fountain nearby eliminated (although a small fountain was built in what eventually became known as Patrick Henry Park). Construction of the building was re-approved on January 18, 1934. The building's final cost was estimated at just over $12 million.
In 1934, one building began construction and another finished. The Apex Building site began to be cleared in April. The Post Office building was occupied on May 6, and Postmaster General
United States Postmaster General
The United States Postmaster General is the Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service. The office, in one form or another, is older than both the United States Constitution and the United States Declaration of Independence...
James Farley
James Farley
James Aloysius Farley was the first Irish Catholic politician in American history to achieve success on a national level, serving as Chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and as Postmaster General simultaneously under the first two...
dedicated the Post Office Department building on June 11, 1934. Its final cost was $10.83 million, about half a million dollars over budget. Construction in the rest of the Triangle, however, seemed stalled. Although some structures had been razed on the site, no appropriation had been made for the Apex Building. The government had also cleared land northeast of the Internal Revenue building (as planners considered adding yet another building to the Triangle), but Congress was increasingly opposed to demolishing either the Old Post Office or the District Building. City officials considered selling the District Building to the federal government as a means of raising cash to building a new city hall, but federal officials balked at the idea. President Roosevelt dedicated the newly-opened Department of Justice building on October 25, 1934. Chief Justice Hughes, all the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, Attorney General Homer Stille Cummings
Homer Stille Cummings
Homer Stille Cummings was a U.S. political figure who was United States Attorney General from 1933 to 1939. He also was elected mayor of Stamford, Connecticut, three times before, founding the legal firm of Cummings & Lockwood in 1909...
, and a large number of foreign ambassadors also attended the dedication. The $11 million structure had more than 550,000 square feet (51,200 square metres) of office space. By November 1934, the addition to the Internal Revenue building was nearing completion, and government officials were contemplating the razing of the District Building, Old Post Office Pavilion, and Southern Railway Building.
The Labor/ICC and Archives buildings were opened in 1935. Numerous strikes (see below) had delayed the opening of the building for almost a year. In April 1934, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins asked for additional (if minor) design changes. Pressing needs for office space meant that a portion of the ICC building was occupied before the structure was finished. Minor alterations were made to the Labor building (such as creating a private rather than shared bathroom for the female Secretary) in January 1935. Secretary of Labor
United States Secretary of Labor
The United States Secretary of Labor is the head of the Department of Labor who exercises control over the department and enforces and suggests laws involving unions, the workplace, and all other issues involving any form of business-person controversies....
Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins , born Fannie Coralie Perkins, was the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition...
dedicated the two buildings at a ceremony in the Departmental Auditorium on February 26, 1935, attended by AFL President William Green. The Labor building's final cost was $4.5 million and the ICC portion of the structure cost $4.45 million. The two buildings were connected by the 2,000-seat Departmental Auditorium (renamed the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium
Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium
The Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium is a, 750-seat historic Neoclassical auditorium located at 1301 Constitution Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. The auditorium, which connects the two wings of the United States Environmental Protection Agency building, is owned by the U.S...
in 1987). Meanwhile, construction forged ahead on the Archives building. Already considered too small to hold all the materials in its possession, a proposal had been made to add another story to the building. This proposal was rejected in March 1935. The National Archives building was occupied in November 1935, but had no formal dedication. Although the Archives structure had been one of the top priorities of almost all planners, it was one of the last buildings to be opened. Archives staff began moving into the building in November 1935, and the exhibition rotunda was opened to the public in November 1936. Records were not transferred in large numbers to the building until April 1937.
The Apex Building was the last to be constructed and dedicated. A major impetus for the building's construction came in June 1935, when the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) headquarters at C Street NW and 21st Street NW was razed to make way for the Federal Reserve Board Building
Eccles Building
The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building houses the main offices of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. It is located at 20th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., in Washington, D.C. The building, designed in the stripped-down classical style, was designed by Paul...
. The FTC petitioned the Commission on Fine Arts to permit it to occupy the Apex Building. Testing for the foundation began in September 1936, and was completed shortly thereafter. With design work long completed and President Roosevelt expressing his wish that the structure be built, a $3.1 million contract for the building was signed on December 29, 1936. Using the George Washington trowel, President Roosevelt laid the cornerstone for the building on July 12, 1937. The building's $3.665 million cost was paid for out of Public Works Administration
Public Works Administration
The Public Works Administration , part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression...
funds, and officials estimated it would be ready for occupation by January 1, 1938. Demolition of the old foundation for the unbuilt Washington Memorial occurred in July 1937, and much of the Apex Building's steel superstructure was rising by then as well. The great depth of the building's foundation meant that the crane operator lifting the steel beams into place was out of sight in the basement, and a series of telephone links from observers on the street relayed instructions to him. By December 1937, the building was two months ahead of schedule.
One of the most important aspects of the new building was the group of massive sculptures to be installed on either side of the structure. A jury of four nationally-known sculptors (Paul Manship
Paul Manship
Paul Howard Manship was an American sculptor.-Life:Manship began his art studies at the St. Paul School of Art in Minnesota. From there he moved to Philadelphia and continued his education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts...
, Adolph Alexander Weinman
Adolph Alexander Weinman
Adolph Alexander Weinman was an American sculptor, born in Karlsruhe, Germany.- Biography :Weinman arrived in the United States at the age of 10. At the age of 15, he attended evening classes at Cooper Union and later studied at the Art Students League of New York with sculptors Augustus St....
, Lee Lawrie
Lee Lawrie
Lee Oscar Lawrie was one of the United States' foremost architectural sculptors and a key figure in the American art scene preceding World War II...
, and William E. Parsons) selected the artist in January 1938. The winner was Michael Lantz, an award-winning instructor in sculpting then employed by the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
. The Apex Building had no dedication. The Commission and staff moved into the 125,000 square foot (11,625 square metres) building on April 21, 1938.
Artwork, exterior details, landscaping, and other finishing touches on the construction of Federal Triangle occupied the period from 1938 to 1947. Landscaping issues of the Grand Plaza and Circular Plaza were considered in January 1934. To protect the Federal Triangle from flooding by the Potomac River (as had happened in 1871), the north and west grounds of the Washington Monument
Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington...
were raised in the summer of 1938 by about six feet (two metres) in order to form a dike against any future floodwaters. The final art installation in the complex was the Oscar Straus Memorial Fountain
Oscar Straus Memorial
The Oscar S. Straus Memorial in Washington, D.C., commemorates the accomplishments of the first Jew to serve in the cabinet of a U.S. president. Oscar Solomon Straus served as Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President Theodore Roosevelt from 1906 to 1909...
, designs for which were first considered in December 1933. Plans for the memorial were brought before President Roosevelt for his approval the same month. Discussion continued into 1934. The Federal Triangle project was considered complete with the installation of the Straus Memorial in 1947.
But the Great Plaza was never built. Instead, the area was turned into a parking lot.
Federal Triangle and the Bonus Army
In June 1932, thousands of homeless World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
veterans, their families, and their supporters occupied the recently-condemned assemblage of buildings at the Federal Triangle site as part of the Bonus March
Bonus Army
The Bonus Army was the popular name of an assemblage of some 43,000 marchers—17,000 World War I veterans, their families, and affiliated groups—who gathered in Washington, D.C., in the spring and summer of 1932 to demand immediate cash-payment redemption of their service certificates...
on the capital to win better veterans' benefits.
On July 28, 1932, President Hoover ordered General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
to remove the "Bonus Army" from the site. At 4:45 p.m., MacArthur led 1,200 infantry, 1,200 cavalry, and six battle tanks (commanded by Major George S. Patton
George S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
) to Federal Triangle to remove the Bonus Army. More than 20,000 civil service workers (leaving their offices for the day) watched as the U.S. Army attacked its own veterans. Patton personally led a cavalry charge (with sabers drawn) into the mass of homeless people, and several hundred rounds of vomit gas
Adamsite
Adamsite or DM is an organic compound; technically, an arsenical diphenylaminechlorarsine, that can be used as a riot control agent. DM belongs to the group of chemical warfare agents known as vomiting agents or sneeze gases...
were launched at the marchers. A Bonus marcher was killed on the site of the Apex Building. The Federal Triangle site was cleared and these members of the Bonus Army marched to Anacostia—where, at 10:14 p.m., MacArthur led a second attack on the 43,000 protesters and burned their camp to the ground.
Labor issues during 1930s construction
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
many years before the project began. All the building contractors employed by the federal government signed three-year contracts with the major labor unions representing their workers in September 1929, in the hope that this would eliminate any disruptions during the building program. But this hope proved false.
The first problem occurred in July 1930, when the lathe
Lathe
A lathe is a machine tool which rotates the workpiece on its axis to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, or deformation with tools that are applied to the workpiece to create an object which has symmetry about an axis of rotation.Lathes are used in woodturning,...
rs union struck
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
to win a $2 per day (16.7 percent) pay increase, halting work for a short period of time on the Archives, Interstate Commerce, Justice, Labor, and Post Office sites. A second strike occurred in late summer 1931 over a new federal wage law. The Davis-Bacon Act
Davis-Bacon Act
The Davis–Bacon Act of 1931 is a United States federal law which established the requirement for paying prevailing wages on public works projects...
was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Hoover on March 3, 1931. On August 4, 1931, painters working on the Internal Revenue building struck, arguing that out-of-town workers were being imported into the city to work on the building and being paid $5-to-$7 a day rather than the prevailing local wage rate of $11 a day. Both the Treasury and Labor Departments stepped in to arbitrate the strike. The dispute was settled a few days later when the Labor Department found that the contractor had paid the correct wages, and that no workers were being paid overtime.
The construction project's labor troubles worsened in 1933. With the Depression deepening, contractors were pressing for a 27.3 percent wage cut with their unions, particularly the carpenters' union
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America is one of the largest building trades union in the United States. One of the unions that formed the American Federation of Labor in 1886, it left the AFL-CIO in 2001.-Early years:...
. On January 6, 1933, a fire swept through the upper floors of the unfinished ICC building. The fire was ruled arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
and a "disgruntled carpenter" was suspected. Two weeks later, the operating engineers
International Union of Operating Engineers
The International Union of Operating Engineers is a trade union within the AFL-CIO representing primarily construction workers who work as heavy equipment operators, mechanics, surveyors, and stationary engineers who maintain heating and other systems in buildings and industrial complexes, in the...
and steamfitters
United Association
The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing, Pipefitting and Sprinkler Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, commonly known as the United Association is a trade union of journeymen and apprentices of the plumbing, pipefitting, and sprinkler fitting industry of...
unions engaged in a jurisdictional strike
Jurisdictional strike
Labor unions use the term jurisdiction to refer to their claims to represent workers who perform a certain type of work and the right of their members to perform such work...
against one another, stopping work at the Post Office construction site, but the AFL intervened and arbitrated a solution to the dispute. The earlier wage dispute, however, had not been resolved, and by February a general strike among all unionized workers at the Federal Triangle complex seemed likely. Employers said they would fire all unionized workers if a strike occurred and replace them with strikebreaker
Strikebreaker
A strikebreaker is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who are not employed by the company prior to the trade union dispute, but rather hired prior to or during the strike to keep the organisation running...
s. The two sides agreed to let the Treasury Department arbitrate their dispute, and on February 13 the government ruled in favor of the unions—averting a job action. The employers went to court, and in April 1933 the carpenters agreed to the 27.3 pecent wage cut.
The second major wage dispute of 1933 broke out in May. On May 26, more than 500 members of the plasterers' union
Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association
The Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association of the United States and Canada is a trade union of plasterers and cement masons in the construction industry in the United States and Canada. Members of the union finish interior walls and ceilings of buildings and apply...
struck to prevent a $2 (14.3 percent) pay cut, halting all work on the seven active Federal Triangle constructions sites. The employers and the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
both argued that the higher wage would inhibit economic recovery in the construction industry. To prove their point, the employers locked out
Lockout (industry)
A lockout is a work stoppage in which an employer prevents employees from working. This is different from a strike, in which employees refuse to work.- Causes :...
the workers; the strike collapsed, and plasterers went back to work on July 22.
August 1933 saw the eruption of a series of labor-management disputes and inter-union squabbles that put construction of the Federal Triangle complex on hold for several months. The first event was when the Journeyman Stonecutters Association of North America
Laborers' International Union of North America
The Laborers' International Union of North America is an American and Canadian labor union formed in 1903. As of March 31, 2010, they have about 632,000 members, members, about 80,000 of which are in Canada.The current general president is Terence M...
walked out on a jurisdictional strike against the iron workers' union
International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers
The International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers is a union in the United States and Canada, which represents primarily construction workers, as well as shipbuilding and metal fabrication employees.-Origins:...
on August 21, idling 225 men working on the Post Office building. The dispute was over which union would ride with crane operators to coordinate the movement of loads with workers on the ground. The strike lasted at least until September 7, with both sides seeking a decision from the American Federation of Labor. Then on September 1, 75 carpenters walked off the job in a jurisdictional dispute with the iron worker's union. This dispute, which occurred at the Labor/ICC building, was over which workers would be permitted to install decorative enclosures around radiators. With work on the Labor/ICC buildings already two months behind schedule due to the earlier labor disputes, the employers threatened to stop all work if the carpenters' union struck and throw another 1,000 men out of work. The employers shut down on September 15. Twenty security guards were stationed at the Labor/ICC building to prevent vandalism. On September 18, a third jurisdictional strike occurred when the boilermakers' union
United Association
The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing, Pipefitting and Sprinkler Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, commonly known as the United Association is a trade union of journeymen and apprentices of the plumbing, pipefitting, and sprinkler fitting industry of...
walked off the job at the Federal Triangle central heating plant to protest the use of iron workers in the erection of smokestacks for the facility. Construction of the smokestacks continued, but construction of the boilers was halted. A fourth jurisdictional strike erupted on September 20, when 80 members of the bricklayers' union
International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers
The International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers is a labor union in the United States and Canada which represents bricklayers, pointers/cleaners/caulkers, stone and marble masons, cement masons, plasterers, tilesetters, terrazzo and mosaic workers...
walked off the job at the heating plant to protest the use of laborers
Laborers' International Union of North America
The Laborers' International Union of North America is an American and Canadian labor union formed in 1903. As of March 31, 2010, they have about 632,000 members, members, about 80,000 of which are in Canada.The current general president is Terence M...
to caulk windows, stone, and roof tiles. Although the bricklayers remained on the job for the moment, government officials feared that sympathy strike
Sympathy strike
Secondary action is industrial action by a trade union in support of a strike initiated by workers in another, separate enterprise...
s would occur, stopping work at all seven construction sites. The carpenters rejected a call for the government to arbitrate the strike, and the employers asked for Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Robert F. Wagner
Robert F. Wagner
Robert Ferdinand Wagner I was an American politician. He was a Democratic U.S. Senator from New York from 1927 to 1949.-Origin and early life:...
(a proponent of organized labor) to help settle the disputes. On September 26, the AFL ruled that the smokestack work properly belonged to the iron workers, and ordered the boilermakers back to work. But the carpenters' union initiated a new protest, arguing that the installation of pulley linings in elevators belonged to them and not to the elevator constructors' union
International Union of Elevator Constructors
The International Union of Elevator Constructors is a trade union in the United States and Canada of individuals who construct, modernize, repair, and service elevators, escalators, moving walkways, and other conveyances...
. And the Washington Building and Construction Trades Council threatened to call a general strike of all construction workers if the bricklayers were not pulled off the job installing boiler insulation and the asbestos workers' union allowed to do the job instead. Senator Wagner also said on Sept. 28 that he believed a resolution to the carpenters/iron workers dispute (which had led to the layoff of 1,000 workers at the Labor/ICC building) could be reached. But the boilermakers did not return to work, leaving 450 workers laid off. Meanwhile, government officials said that the caulking, insulation, and pulley work disputes would be resolved soon, and would not in any case cause further distruptions at construction sites. Another major work disruption threatened the Federal Triangle complex when the iron workers' union demanded that contractors initiate two four-hour shifts per day rather than one eight-hour shift per day in order to spread work among more men. When contractors balked, the union struck at the Post Office and Justice building sites. That strike lasted two days before about half of the employers capitulated. But it continued for the remaining employers at the Justice and Post Office buildings. Finally, on October 11, 1933, frustrated and angry Labor Department officials said that unless the jurisdictional disputes were ended quickly, the government would seek authorization from Congress in January to force the unions back to work and resolve the disputes itself. The threat worked: On October 13, all parties to all jurisdictional disputes agreed to return to work while continuing to seek resolution to their problems via other channels. Federal officials excoriated the carpenters' union for holding up a $40,000-a-week payroll for four weeks over an $800 job. Eleven days later, the iron workers' union agreed to return to the eight-hour shift.
The labor peace was short-lived. Four unions refused to do work on the Post Office conveyor belt
Conveyor belt
A conveyor belt consists of two or more pulleys, with a continuous loop of material - the conveyor belt - that rotates about them. One or both of the pulleys are powered, moving the belt and the material on the belt forward. The powered pulley is called the drive pulley while the unpowered pulley...
system in mid-November, and the dispute over elevators spread to the Labor/ICC building in February 1934 (delaying the building's opening indefinitely). On February 14, 1934, 225 carpenters engaged in a jurisdictional strike against the cement finishers' union
Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association
The Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association of the United States and Canada is a trade union of plasterers and cement masons in the construction industry in the United States and Canada. Members of the union finish interior walls and ceilings of buildings and apply...
at the Labor/ICC building over the installation of tile flooring. The dispute was elevated to AFL President William Green, Green awarded the job to the cement finishers on March 17. But just three weeks later, the plasterers' union led a jurisdictional strike against the stonecutters' union at the Labor/ICC building because the stonecutters were installing acoustical marble columns. Contractors, angry at the repeated inter-union squabbles, announced they would no longer employ reduced-hour shifts or give pay raises. The carpenters' union called for a general strike of all unions at the Labor/ICC building on May 25, a strike which spread to the city's ice cream plants. That secondary strike ended June 4. But the general construction strike began to spread to other federal projects throughout the city, leading to an increasing number of calls for the strike to be settled by arbitration. As the work stoppage spread, the carpenters' union's contract with the construction companies expired on May 30. The employers declared on June 12 that they would no longer adhere to any closed shop
Closed shop
A closed shop is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to hire union members only, and employees must remain members of the union at all times in order to remain employed....
agreements with the carpenters, and instead would impose the open shop
Open shop
An open shop is a place of employment at which one is not required to join or financially support a union as a condition of hiring or continued employment...
and employ any carpenter (union or non-union) in order to finish the work on existing construction projects. The construction unions declared they would pull every worker off every job if non-union construction laborers were hired, and the D.C Metropolitan Police Department made preparations to patrol streets and job sites to prevent any violence from erupting. Non-union workers were hired, and the carpenters' union struck all job sites throughout the city amidst fears that the carpenters might strike all federal construction projects nationwide. Three union members were injured on June 13 as picketers clashed with security guards hired by the employers. But the strike did not spread to the other unions, and the Washington Building and Construction Trades Council and D.C. Commissioner
District of Columbia home rule
District of Columbia home rule is a term to describe the various means by which residents of the District of Columbia are able to govern their local affairs...
George E. Allen attempted to mediate an end to the strike. The carpenters rejected the arbitration attempt, and bands of roving picketers moving among construction sites led to traffic tie-ups, frightened citizens, and rumors of violence. The "open shop strike" ended on June 20, 1934, when the carpenters agreed to a new contract providing for a five-day, 40-hour work week and $1.25 an hour in pay. But no agreement was made regarding the open shop. The plasterers' union ended their strike in June 1934, and went to local district court to resolve the jurisdictional dispute.
The final labor dispute to affect the Federal Triangle complex construction was a jurisdictional strike over the installation of library shelving at the National Archives building in November 1935.
Federal Triangle's first half-century
The continuing existence of the District Building, Old Post Office Pavilion, and Southern Railway building as well as parking issues became points of contention during Federal Triangle's first 50 years. District of Columbia officials said in 1958 that they were willing to have the District Building torn down and Federal Triangle "finished" (if the city was properly compensated), but a lack of federal funds defeated the move. In 1995, the D.C. and federal governments signed an agreement in which the federal government would construct a new top floor and renovate the building (at a cost of $47 million) in return for a 20-year lease on 130,000 square feet (12,090 square metres) of space in the structure. Plans were developed in 1970 to demolish most of the Old Post Office Pavilion (leaving only the bell tower). But opposition to the plan emerged, and the following year plans were made to restore the building instead. In 1973, the General Services AdministrationGeneral Services Administration
The General Services Administration is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. The GSA supplies products and communications for U.S...
(GSA) developed a plan save the Old Post Office Pavilion, and the National Capitol Planning Commission agreed to the project. An $18 million renovation began in 1977. The renovation was completed in 1983 to highly positive reviews. In the late 1980s, plans were laid to double the size of the Old Post Office Pavilion's retail space to 75,000 square feet (6,975 square metres) in order to attract more shoppers to the building. Utilizing the provisions of the Public Buildings Cooperative Use Act of 1976, the retail space expansion was financed and completed in 1992. Despite the federal government's intention to demolish the Southern Railway Building and construct a federal office building on the site to complete the Federal Triangle complex, the building stood until 1971. It was demolished in that year, and turned into a parking lot.
As many critics had anticipated during Federal Triangle's construction in the 1930s, parking issues grew much worse due to the development's existence. In the late 1950s, a proposal was made to build a commuter and long-distance bus terminal at Federal Triangle as well as a large office building on the space of the parking lot, but the $60 million it would take to build the terminal was never provided. The parking issue became so vexing that the Eisenhower administration
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
ordered its own parking study in 1959. There were several attempts to remove the parking lot in the interior of Federal Triangle and build the long-planned Great Plaza. The first such move came in 1955, when the Commission of Fine Arts asked the federal government to build the plaza, but nothing came of the proposal. A second effort was made in 1972, with the goal of building the Great Plaza in time for the national bicentennial in 1976, but the required $36.7 million in federal funds were not forthcoming. The parking lot was leased to a private company in 1979.
Some improvements were made to Federal Triangle, however. A new cooling plant was built in 1960. Beginning in 1970, all the buildings were floodlit at night in order to reduce the level of crime in the area. In 1972, the Federal Triangle
Federal Triangle (Washington Metro)
Federal Triangle is an island platformed Washington Metro station in Downtown Washington, D.C., United States. The station was opened on July 1, 1977, and is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority . Providing service for both the Blue and Orange Lines, the station's entrance...
Washington Metro
Washington Metro
The Washington Metro, commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C., United States, and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...
station was approved at Federal Triangle, and the station on Metro's Blue
Blue Line (Washington Metro)
The Blue Line of the Washington Metro in the United States consists of 27 rapid transit stations from Franconia–Springfield to Largo Town Center. It has stations in Fairfax County, Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Prince George's County, Maryland...
and Orange
Orange Line (Washington Metro)
The Orange Line of the Washington Metro consists of 26 rapid transit stations from Vienna to New Carrollton. It has stations in Fairfax County and Arlington, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Prince George's County, Maryland. Half of the line's stations are shared with the Blue Line, and over...
lines opened on July 1, 1977. Major heating, cooling, and electrical upgrades were made to the Archives, ICC, and Labor buildings and the Departmental Auditorium in 1984. After the terrorist bombing
Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19...
of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was a United States Federal Government complex located at 200 N.W. 5th Street in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. The building was the target of the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995, which killed 168 people, including 19 children...
in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
on April 19, 1995 (which killed 168 people), security at Federal Triangle was tightened measurably and many of the pedestrian areas and buildings restricted to federal employees or those with official business. A major renovation for the Labor, ICC, and Post Office buildings was conducted in 1998.
Ronald Reagan Building construction
Even as parking and traffic issues continued to cause controversy at Federal Triangle in the 1960s and 1970s, efforts were under way to remove the parking lot and "finish" Federal Triangle by building a large office building on the site. The first effort came in 1972, when the Nixon administration proposed building a $126 million office building on the lot in time for the national bicentennial in 1976. But this proposal was never seriously contemplated or funded. One outcome of the Nixon proposal, however, was "the Weese Plan." The Nixon administration commissioned the architecture planning firm of Harry Weese & Associates to come up with a master plan for the continued development of Federal Triangle. The Master Plan (which became known as "the Weese Plan") did not only propose a massive new federal office building on the parking lots of the Triangle. It also proposed a new series of pedestrian paths throughout the complex, titled "Federal Walk." Federal Walk would not only be a network of sidewalks designed to showcase the architecture of Federal Triangle; it also included destinations such as spots for tourists to wait for tours of the interiors of each building, outdoor art, places for rest and contemplation, and even cafes and restaurants. Federal Walk was gradually implemented in piecemeal fashion over the next 15 years, although it still remained incomplete as of 1997. GSA held a competition in 1982 to select a design for a 10-story office building to replace the parking lot, but planning bodies refused to approve the plan.Plans for construction of an office building on the Federal Triangle parking lot site finally found support in 1986. The Federal City Council, a private civic organization which had been promoting the construction of a $200 million international trade center in the District of Columbia, advocated construction of its proposed building at Federal Triangle. Reagan administration
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
officials favored the plan, and in October 1986 the proposal received the backing of the General Services Administration. The idea received support from Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
in Congress as well, especially from Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Daniel Patrick "Pat" Moynihan was an American politician and sociologist. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the United States Senate for New York in 1976, and was re-elected three times . He declined to run for re-election in 2000...
, a former Kennedy administration aide who had long championed completion of the Federal Triangle. There was some opposition to the idea from planning officials and others, who were dismayed at the loss of parking in the downtown area and who feared that the trade center's proposed 1,300 to 2,600 underground parking slots would not be built due to poor soil conditions. A bill was passed (almost unanimously) by Congress on August 7, 1987, to provide $362 million for the construction of an "International Cultural and Trade Center" on the parking lot at Federal Triangle. The plan was to provide office space for both the Justice and State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
departments. The legislation also provided that although the U.S. government would finance the building, a private developer would construct it. The federal government would lease space from the private developer for 30 years, after which ownership of the building would revert to the government. The bill also required the building to be financially self-supporting within two years of its completion. The rental prices throughout the lease's term would remain stable. It was only the fifth time the government had signed a "lease-to-own" agreement. With 1.4 millon square feet (130,200 square metres) of office space and 500,000 square feet (46,500 square metres) of space for trade center activities, the planned trade center would be larger than any other federally owned building except for The Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
. The bill also required that the trade center be "designed in harmony with historical and government buildings in the vicinity, ... reflect the symbolic importance and historic character of Pennsylvania Avenue and the Nation's Capital, and ... represent the dignity and stability of the Federal Government." A nine-member panel was established to approve any plans, and included the Secretaries of State, Agriculture
United States Secretary of Agriculture
The United States Secretary of Agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture. The current secretary is Tom Vilsack, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on 20 January 2009. The position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other...
, and Commerce; the Mayor of the District of Columbia; and five members of the public. The building was expected to be completed in 1992. President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
signed the Federal Triangle Development Act into law on August 22, 1987.
Preliminary design specifications required that the final building be no taller than the existing Federal Triangle structures, be constructed of similar materials, emphasize pedestrian traffic, and have a "sympathetic" architectural style. An architectural model by the firms of Notter Finegold & Alexander
Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc
Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc is an architecture firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. It was established in 1962. Previous firm names include J. Timothy Anderson and Associates, Anderson Notter Associates, Anderson Notter Finegold, Inc., and Notter Finegold + Alexander Inc.The firm is...
, Mariani & Associates, and Bryant & Bryant depicted a building with a long, uninterrupted facade along 14th Street NW and two colonnaded hemicycles on the east side (matching the Post Office Department building's hemicycle). The preliminary design specs were criticized for not more clearly specifying the architectural style, for bringing another 10,000 new workers to Federal Triangle each day, and for reducing the required number of parking spaces by 30 percent to just 1,300. The five public members of the design committee were named on April 6, 1988, and were former Senator Charles H. Percy
Charles H. Percy
Charles Harting "Chuck" Percy was president of the Bell & Howell Corporation from 1949 to 1964. He was elected United States Senator from Illinois in 1966, re-elected through his term ending in 1985; he concentrated on business and foreign relations...
, chair; Harry McPherson
Harry McPherson
Harry C. McPherson, Jr. served as counsel and special counsel to President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969 and was Johnson’s chief speechwriter from 1966 to 1969. McPherson’s A Political Education, 1972, is a classic insider’s view of Washington and an essential source for...
, president of the Federal City Council; Donald A. Brown, chair of the Federal City Council's International Center Task Force; Michael R. Garder, a member of the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation; and Judah C. Sommer, a local attorney. Groundbreaking on the now-$350 million building was scheduled for 1989, and completion in 1993. Disagreements broke out in mid-1988 over which federal agencies should take up residence in the structure, and whether they should be trade- or foreign-policy related. Seven designs were submitted in June 1989, each incorporating a base-middle-crown structure and enclosed in traditional materials (limestone facade, vertical glass windows, terra-cotta roof tiles). Each design incorporated a new home for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars , located in Washington, D.C., is a United States Presidential Memorial that was established as part of the Smithsonian Institution by an act of Congress in 1968...
(a Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
entity), an outdoor memorial to President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
, and exhibition and retail space.
Construction began in mid-1989. Contractors estimated the cost of the building at between $550 million and $800 million, far higher than the anticipated $350 million original price tag. The design committee picked the $738.3 million design submitted by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners is an architectural firm that was founded in 1955 by I. M. Pei as I. M. Pei & Associates, in 1966 called I. M. Pei & Partners, and received its current name and organization in 1989. The founders were I. M. Pei, Henry N. Cobb, and Eason H. Leonard. Pei and Leonard retired...
in October 1989. A consortium led by New York developer William Zeckendorf, Jr. was chosen to build and operate the building and lease it to the government. One of the firms which had lost this contract subsequently challenged the bidding process.
Significant cost increases led to the project being mothballed by the George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
administration. The General Services Administration refused to sign the draft lease, arguing that the building's rental costs were too high and would cost (rather than save) the government $18 million to $24 million a year. Although Pei Cobb Freed agreed to investigate design changes to make the project less costly, at least one member of Congress declared the project dead. In September 1990, the architectural team made changes which cut $82 million from the cost of the building (including the elimination of two theaters, scaling down the reception hall, using plaster rather than stone, substituting aluminum for bronze in the trim, and reducing the size of interior doors), reducing the price tag to $656 million. Delta Partnership, a development consortium led by New York developer William Zeckendorf, Jr., was chosen to operate the building and lease it to the government. Another design change came in January 1991, when the number of parking spaces rose by 12.6 percent to 2,500 spaces. But the changes did not resolve the controversies enveloping the project. Design committee member Donald A. Brown quit the committee in late 1991, complaining that the Bush administration was meddling in the project's design. Two days later, Eleanor Holmes Norton
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Eleanor Holmes Norton is a Delegate to Congress representing the District of Columbia. In her position she is able to serve on and vote with committees, as well as speak from the House floor...
, D.C.'s delegate to Congress, repeated these charges. On January 19, 1992, even as the foundation for the trade center was being dug, the GSA said the building would not achieve financial self-sufficiency. A separate report commissioned by the Bush administration reached similar conclusions. On January 25, 1992, the Bush administration cancelled the international trade center construction project. Days later, a United States district court
United States district court
The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...
ruled that Delta Partnership had been chosen in violation of federal contracting guidelines, although the court also refused to overturn the award after finding no bias in the award process. Construction experts decried the decision, saying that the building's costs could balloon to more than $1.2 billion if construction were resumed at a later time.
The decision to cancel the building was reversed on December 2, 1993, by the Clinton administration
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
. Although the building was originally designed to be a major tourist destination and provide a boost to economic development in the downtown area, the building was repurposed to be a simple office building. Rather than a mix of federal and private renters, federal agencies were now scheduled to occupy 80 percent of the office space. By January 1995, the structure was two years behind schedule. By September 1995, a tentative occupancy date of December 1996 had been set. The building was named for former President Ronald Reagan in October 1995. There were still occasional design glitches. For example, the GSA approved two major sculptures for the Woodrow Wilson Plaza in 1994, abruptly ordered a halt to work on the sculptures in June 1996, and then ordered work to proceed again in July 1996. Construction slipped further, and by January 1997 occupancy was scheduled for the following summer. Construction continued to fall behind schedule, with completion not expected until summer 1998. Nonetheless, federal officials planned to move more than 480 Environmental Protection Agency employees into the building in July 1997. By this time, security concerns had led to several additional design changes (including a reduction in the number of parking spaces to just 1,900), and the cost of the structure had risen to $738 million.
The Ronald Reagan Building opened on May 5, 1998. President Bill Clinton and former First Lady Nancy Reagan
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....
dedicated the building. Three large pieces of artwork were included in the building. The first, by sculptor and D.C. native Stephen Robin, is a gigantic rose with stem and a lily, both made out of cast aluminum and lying on stone pedestals. The second, by African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
D.C. native Martin Puryear
Martin Puryear
Martin Puryear is an African American sculptor. He works in media including wood, stone, tar, and wire, and his work is a union of minimalism and traditional crafts.-Life:...
, is a Minimalist
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
tower of brown welded metal titled "Bearing Witness" which stands in Woodrow Wilson Plaza. The third, located inside the building's atrium, is a multi-story neon installation by Keith Sonnier
Keith Sonnier
Keith Sonnier is a Postminimalist, performance, video and light artist. Sonnier was one of the first artists to use light in sculpture in the 1960s, and has been one of the most successful with this technique...
titled "Route Zenith." The structure's final cost was $818 million.
Critical assessment
"Federal Triangle was the most important government construction project of the 1930s in Washington." It was the largest construction project in the United States in the 1930s; only the construction of Rockefeller CenterRockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
came close. It "remains one of the most important design and construction projects" in American history.
The original seven buildings won critical praise for their beauty from the news media when they first opened. The Washington Post said the Internal Revenue building was "a credit to any city" and declared the "marble work to be among the most beautiful in the United States." At its dedication, the New York Times called the Department of Justice building "one of the most beautiful public buildings in the world". But praise was most heavily lavished on the Commerce building. It was not only the largest office building in the world, but the "greatest of office buildings" and one which represented the aspirations of the nation. It had "dignity without severity", one report said, and was "a magnificent architectural end". It had the "world's most extensive and impressive applications of bronze", "embellished with a wealth of detail, delicately modeled, carefully tooled, finely chased and exactingly finished." Even the interior decorating scheme was highly noted for its "fine architectural effect".
But younger architects in the 1930s criticized the style and size of the buildings at Federal Triangle for being "elitist, pretentious, and anachronistic". Architecture critic William Harlan Hale
William Harlan Hale
William Harlan Hale was an American writer and journalist, and editor.William Harlan Hale was born in New York City, the son of William Bayard and Olga Unger Hale. He attended Riverdale Country School...
strongly criticized the Neoclassical style for being unimaginative and anti-democratic: "New Deal indeed! What was there new, or modern, or imaginative, or efficient, or economical in trying to give modern Washington the character of Imperial Rome? What was there either aesthetic or intelligent in cloaking the offices of a modern democracy as the temple of a classic tyrant, the gallery of a Renaissance prince, or the palace of a French monarch? ...we have learned quite a lot about the principles of modern architecture, just as we have learned a lot about some other things; and today, after so short a time, it looks it looks pretty much like a relic out of the dim past." By the 1940s, some critics said the buildings were too reminiscent of Nazi
Nazi architecture
Nazi architecture was an architectural plan which played a role in the Nazi party's plans to create a cultural and spiritual rebirth in Germany as part of the Third Reich....
and Soviet
Constructivist architecture
Constructivist architecture was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. It combined advanced technology and engineering with an avowedly Communist social purpose. Although it was divided into several competing factions, the movement produced...
architecture.
Initial assessments of the Ronald Reagan Building's design were overwhelmingly positive. Washington Post critic Benjamin Forgey highly praised the Pei Cobb Freed design when it was first made public. Forgey found the final building even more praiseworthy, finding it full of "character and extraordinary potential," "brilliant," "vital," "welcoming," "clever" and "dynamic." Forgey particularly praised the bold stroke of the building's diagonal structure (which extends from the rotunda at the north end of Woodrow Wilson Plaza to the juncture of 13th Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW) and the conical atrium on the building's east side. Federal employees working in the building gave it "rave reviews" and at its dedication was one of the most sought-after places to work in the city. But six months later, another Washington Post reporter declared the Ronald Reagan building "much too large," "confusing" to get around in, "awkwardly configured," and with "dismal views". The facade, the critic felt, was "relentlessly austere" and represented "a lost opportunity to lighten the Federal Triangle's imperial, ponderous architectural spirit."
Current buildings
As of 2009, the Federal Triangle development contained two existing buildings and eight buildings built specifically for the development. The structures include:- Apex Building (which houses the Federal Trade CommissionFederal Trade CommissionThe Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
) - Ariel Rios BuildingAriel Rios BuildingThe Ariel Rios Federal Building is located in the Federal Triangle in Washington, D.C., across 12th Street from the Old Post Office, which the new building was designed to replace....
(originally the Post Office Department Building, but renamed in 1982) - Department of LaborDepartment of Labor BuildingThe Department of Labor Building, also known as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency , is an historic office building, located at 14th Street, and Constitution Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D.C., in the Federal Triangle.-History:...
/ Interstate Commerce CommissionInterstate Commerce CommissionThe Interstate Commerce Commission was a regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including...
building, which now houses the Environmental Protection AgencyUnited States Environmental Protection AgencyThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
; (originally the the connecting Departmental Auditorium was renamed the Andrew W. Mellon AuditoriumAndrew W. Mellon AuditoriumThe Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium is a, 750-seat historic Neoclassical auditorium located at 1301 Constitution Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. The auditorium, which connects the two wings of the United States Environmental Protection Agency building, is owned by the U.S...
in 1987) - Herbert C. Hoover BuildingHerbert C. Hoover BuildingThe Herbert C. Hoover Building is the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the United States Department of Commerce.The building is located at 1401 Constitution Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D.C., on the block bounded by Constitution Avenue NW to the south, Pennsylvania Avenue NW to the north, 15th...
(Department of CommerceUnited States Department of CommerceThe United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...
headquarters; it also houses the National AquariumNational Aquarium in Washington, D.C.The National Aquarium, Washington, D.C. is an aquarium in Washington D.C. It is located in the Herbert C. Hoover Building , which is bounded by 14th Street NW on the east, 15th Street NW on the west, Pennsylvania Avenue NW on the north, and Constitution Avenue NW on the south.-History:The National...
, and White House Visitor Center) - Internal Revenue Service BuildingInternal Revenue Service BuildingThe Internal Revenue Service Building is a federal building which serves as the headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service.It is located at 12th Street, and Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D.C., in the Federal Triangle.-Building history:...
- John A. Wilson BuildingJohn A. Wilson BuildingThe John A. Wilson Building, popularly known simply as the Wilson Building or the JAWB, houses the offices and chambers of the Mayor and Council of the District of Columbia. Originally called the District Building, it was renamed in 1994 to commemorate former Council Chair John A. Wilson...
(houses the offices and chambers of the CouncilCouncil of the District of ColumbiaThe Council of the District of Columbia is the legislative branch of the local government of the District of Columbia. As permitted in the United States Constitution, the District is not part of any U.S. state and is instead overseen directly by the federal government...
, and the Mayor of the District of Columbia) - National Archives BuildingNational Archives BuildingThe National Archives Building, known informally as Archives I, is the original headquarters of the National Archives and Records Administration...
- Old Post Office PavilionOld Post Office PavilionThe Old Post Office Pavilion, also known as Old Post Office and Clock Tower and officially renamed the Nancy Hanks Center in 1983, is a building of the United States federal government. Built in 1892-99, it is located at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue , NW, in Washington, D.C...
- Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice BuildingRobert F. Kennedy Department of Justice BuildingRobert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building is the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the United States Department of Justice.The building is located at 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, on a trapezoidal lot on the block bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue to the north, Constitution Avenue to the south,...
(Department of JusticeUnited States Department of JusticeThe United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
headquarters) - Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade CenterRonald Reagan BuildingThe Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, named after former United States President Ronald Reagan, is the first federal building in Washington, D.C. designed for both governmental and private sector purposes....
(which houses both private-sector and government offices, including the United States Agency for International DevelopmentUnited States Agency for International DevelopmentThe United States Agency for International Development is the United States federal government agency primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid. President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 by executive order to implement development assistance programs in the areas...
and U.S. Customs and Border ProtectionU.S. Customs and Border ProtectionU.S. Customs and Border Protection is a federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security charged with regulating and facilitating international trade, collecting import duties, and enforcing U.S. regulations, including trade, customs and immigration. CBP is the...
agency)
These buildings are contributing structures to the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site
Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site
Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site is a National Historic Site in the city of Washington, D.C. Established on September 30, 1965, the site is roughly bounded by Constitution Avenue, 15th Street NW, F Street NW, and 3rd Street NW...
.
External links
- Buildings of the Federal Triangle, by EmporisEmporisEmporis GmbH is a real estate data mining company with headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. The company collects and publishes data and photographs of buildings worldwide....