Federal Triangle - Federal Triangle's First Half-century

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 Administration (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.