The Dennis Chavez Federal Building is a highrise federal office building and courthouse in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was built in 1965 to house the U.S. District Court as well as offices of various federal agencies including the U.S. Postal Service, Veterans Administration, U.S. Public Health Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. Originally known simply as the U.S. Courthouse and Federal Office Building, the building was renamed in honor of longtime U.S. Senator Dennis Chavez in 1976.
The Dennis Chavez Building was designed by the Albuquerque firm of Flatow, Moore, Bryan, and Fairburn, which had previously been responsible for other local highrises like the Simms Building and Bank of the West Tower. The steel-framed building is faced with polished granite, with New Mexico marble used in the ground floor lobby. It is 197 feet (60 m) in height and has 13 above-ground floors with a basement and underground parking garage. When built, it was the third-tallest building in New Mexico after the Bank of the West Tower and the Gold Building. It is currently the seventh-tallest building in Albuquerque.
The District Court relocated to the newly-built Pete V. Domenici United States Courthouse in 1998, but the U.S. Bankruptcy Court is still housed in the Dennis Chavez Building.
Famous quotes containing the words federal and/or building:
“The Federal Constitution has stood the test of more than a hundred years in supplying the powers that have been needed to make the Central Government as strong as it ought to be, and with this movement toward uniform legislation and agreements between the States I do not see why the Constitution may not serve our people always.”
—William Howard Taft (18571930)
“The artist must be an egotist because, like the spider, he draws all his building material from his own breast. But just the same the artist alone among men knows what true humility means. His reach forever exceeds his grasp. He can never be satisfied with his work. He knows when he has done well, but he knows he has never attained his dream. He knows he never can.”
—Rheta Childe Dorr (18661948)