Federal Triangle - Construction of Original Seven Buildings

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 1,000 feet (300 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 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 marshy 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.