Herbert C. Hoover Building - Design and Art

Design and Art

The building is rectangular and measures approximately 320 feet (98 m) east to west and 1,020 feet (310 m) north to south. It forms almost the entire west side of the Federal Triangle from Constitution Avenue to E Street. The building contains more than 3300 rooms joined by unbroken corridors one thousand feet long. Flexible partitions rather than permanent walls were a part of the original design for many of the offices to allow for changes in departmental organization. The New York Times has described it as "sprawling."

The Malcolm Baldrige Great Hall (named after Howard M. Baldrige, Jr., Commerce Secretary 1981–1985 under Ronald Reagan) is located on the first floor of the north end of the building, facing Pennsylvania Avenue, houses the White House Visitor Center, operated by the National Park Service.

The Great Hall is 225 feet (69 m) long and 62 feet (19 m) wide and was originally used as the Patent Search Room for more than three million patents cataloged by the Department of Commerce (the United States Patent and Trademark Office is part of the Commerce Department). As part of the United States Bicentennial celebrations, the Great Hall became the Bicentennial Visitor Center in 1976 and until 1989 housed the Washington Tourist Information Center. Renovations began in July 1993 with the restoration of the ornate plaster ceiling to restore the simple elegance of the Great Hall. The original Indiana limestone walls, bronze doors, Vermont marble base and accent flooring, and Italianate bronze chandeliers were cleaned and refurbished. In March 1995 the White House Visitor Center was opened.

Aspects of other buildings built in Federal Triangle in the 1930s are present in the building, including courtyards (natural light and ventilation are provided to inner offices by six interior courtyards and a Neoclassical (Greek Revival) architectural style (a Doric colonnade on three sides).

The 15th Street facade stretches almost three city blocks and has four pedimented pavilions featuring sculptures by James Earle Fraser and Haig Patigian. The National Aquarium is located in the basement and has been open to the public since the building was completed in 1932.

Also located inside the building is the Commerce Departmental Library (also called the U.S. Department of Commerce Main Library), a Federal Agency Library which is open to the public but is used mainly by Commerce and other federal government employees and academics. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Census Bureau, all part of the Department of Commerce, maintain their own library collections.

Because the Census Bureau is a part of the Commerce Department, the official Population Clock at one point was located in the lobby of the Hoover Building. It briefly malfunctioned in 1982 when it showed some 50 million more Americans than estimated. The clock now resides at the Census Bureau's headquarters in Suitland, Maryland.