| Harry S Truman Building | |
|---|---|
 The Harry S Truman Building in 2008 | |
 Interactive map of Harry S Truman Building | |
| Former names | Main State Building |
| Alternative names | State Department building |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Modern Movement Stripped classical[1] |
| Location | 2201 C StreetNW Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Coordinates | 38°53′40″N77°02′54″W / 38.8944°N 77.0484°W /38.8944; -77.0484 |
| Current tenants | U.S. Department of State |
| Construction started | 1939; 86 years ago (1939) |
| Completed | 1941; 84 years ago (1941) |
| Renovated | 1960s, 2000s |
| Owner | U.S. federal government |
| Technical details | |
| Size | 12.2 acres (49,000 m2)[2] |
| Floor area | 2,600,000 square feet (240,000 m2)[2] |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Louis A. Simon[1] |
| Other designers | William Dewey Foster Gilbert Stanley Underwood[1] |
| Main contractor | John McShain, Inc. |
TheHarry S Truman Building is theheadquarters of theUnited States Department of State. It is located inWashington, D.C., and houses the office of theUnited States secretary of state.[3]
The Truman Building is located in theFoggy Bottom neighborhood at 2201 C StreetNW, bounded by C Street to the south, E Street, D Street, andVirginia Avenue to the north, 21st Street to the east, and 23rd Street to the west. It is located to the west ofEdward J. Kelly Park and north of theNational Academy of Sciences building and theNational Mall.
The building—previously known as "Main State" and often called "Foggy Bottom"—was officially named in honor ofPresidentHarry S. Truman in September 2000.[4]
The building was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places in 2017.
During the early 1930s, theNational Capital Park and Planning Commission sought to develop the section of theDistrict of Columbia known as Foggy Bottom, located between C, E, 18th, and 23rd streets. Leading up toWorld War II, the expandingDepartment of War occupied several different buildings on the mall, making the need for a new building to consolidate operations a high priority. It was always intended to construct the building in two phases, and the Foggy Bottom site was chosen because it was large enough to accommodate both.
Gilbert Stanley Underwood andWilliam Dewey Foster won the contract for the War Department building. They designed the building between 1938 and 1939 and construction began in 1940, withJohn McShain, Inc. as contractor. The Public Buildings Administration of theFederal Works Agency, which inherited oversight responsibility for the federal buildings program from theU.S. Treasury Department in 1939, completed the first phase of the building in 1941.[5][6]
During the design process, several agencies expressed concern that the War Department had already expanded beyond the capacity of the building. These concerns turned out to be correct; while some offices of the War Department moved into the building for a few years, the building never became the War Department headquarters. By the time construction was complete, the War Department had already outgrown the building. Congress appropriated funds for construction ofthe Pentagon early in 1941, the same year the first phase of the building was completed.
The Department of State also grew rapidly during the war (from under 1,000 employees to over 7,000), but was lower in priority and so was scattered all over Washington, occupying forty-seven buildings by the mid-1940s. In 1946, President Truman decided to make use of the space vacated by the War Department's ongoing move to the Pentagon to consolidate the central functions of the State Department in one place; the change of tenants was completed between January and August 1947.[7] The original portion of the building is today referred to as the Marshall Wing.[8]
World War II spurred the growth of this department as well. However, the planned expansion was delayed until Congress allocated funds for the addition in 1955. Harley, Probst Associates, a joint venture between Harley, Ellington, and Day of Detroit and Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White of Chicago, won the contract for the design in 1956. The addition, known as the State Department Extension, was completed in 1960 and dedicated in 1961. The original building was informally called "Old State" with the addition identified as "New State."
In 2007, more than 8,000 employees worked in the Truman Building.[9] The building houses 1.4 million square feet (130,000 m2) to 1.507 million square feet (140,000 m2) of usable space,[10][11] the corridors take up over 267,000 square feet (24,800 m2), and the roof area is about seven acres (28,000 square meters). There are 44 elevators, over 4,000 windows, and about 34,000fluorescent light fixtures that provide interior illumination.
The building is currently[when?] being renovated under a twelve-year plan to modernize the structure.[5] In May 2014, theGeneral Services Administration (GSA) awarded a $25 million contract to build a new public entrance on the east side of the Truman Building. The glass and steel structure acts not only as a high-security entrance to the building but also as a museum about American diplomacy. The 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) addition, called theU.S. Diplomacy Center, was designed by the firm Beyer Blinder Belle and constructed byGilbane Construction. The addition was privately funded by the Diplomacy Center Foundation, a nonprofit established by former secretary of stateMadeleine Albright in 2000 to honor American diplomats. TheNational Capital Planning Commission approved the design in 2011. Construction was completed in 2017. GSA awarded a $77.4 million contract in September 2014 to renovate much of the rest of the structure. Some of the renovations would restructure the interior layout of the building to meet the State Department's needs. However, most of the contract would focus on replacing the building's electrical, elevator, mechanical, plumbing, and telecommunication systems. The refurbishment was scheduled to begin in January 2015 and take 14 months to complete.[12]
The original portion of the building, known as the War Department Building, is an example of theStripped Classical architectural style withArt Moderne elements. Thesteel-framed building is clad inlimestone and rises eight stories above the basement and sub-basement. Because it was designed to be expanded at a later date, it was deliberately asymmetrical. A central spine connects a U-shaped configuration to the east with an E-shaped configuration to the west.
The east entrance is inspired by the main building of theSapienza University of Rome campus, designed by italian architectMarcello Piacentini and completed in 1935.
The horizontal delineations of the facade reflect the classical precedents of the architectural style.Cornices and pink granitestring courses create a base-shaft-capital system. The wings create a series of interiorcourtyards. The interior courtyard walls are clad in dark granite, emphasizing the transition from base to shaft.
The construction of the State Department extension, completed in 1960, is reinforced concrete and was designed in the International style. Buff colored limestone cladding helps to create a cohesive combination of the two buildings. With the completion of the extension, the building became second to the Pentagon in the number of offices that it houses. Since its completion, access to the main ceremonial entrance and lobby is via the south elevation. The entrance is located off-center toward the west end of the building and is set back to frame a forecourt. The court is paved with a combination of gray and red granite. At either side of the forecourt, a limestone belt course runs the full width of the elevation above the basement and second stories. Limestone piers span the first and second stories.
The east lobby of the original building is a two-story rectangular space surrounded by a screen of paired piers. Four largependant lights, which are original, are the primary light source. The floors areterrazzo and the walls aretravertine. Above the security barriers at the rear of the lobby is amural byKindred McLeary titledThe Defense of Human Freedoms, which depicts the five freedoms flanked at either end of the mural by their defenders, the American military. Access to the auditorium is via the second floor. TheDean Acheson Auditorium extends upward from the first through the third stories. The stage spans the full east wall of the room. The walls on either side are clad in burled California redwood paneling. TheLoy Henderson Conference Room is two stories tall. The walls are Verde Antique marble with brass and bronze accents. A speakers' platform, stepped up at the center, is set along the west wall.
In the lobby of the fifth floor executive office suite is a mural byJames McCreery entitledLiberty or Death:Don't Tread on Me. The work is an allegory of theAmerican Revolution, including maps, cannon and other armament, and flags of the era. The eastern section of the fifth floor contains executive office suites for department heads and their staffs. The west side of the corridor includes staff offices and the general council room. The east side of the corridor includes office suites originally designated for the secretary of war and chief of staff.
The south courtyard of the building features a sculpture byMarshall Fredericks titledThe Expanding Universe, which includes a circular fountain and an architectural bronze statue. A treaty room and the ceremonial office of the secretary of state is on the seventh floor.Diplomatic reception rooms were installed on the eighth floor during the 1980s as reproductions of early American architecture. They are furnished with eighteenth-century antique furnishings and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century artwork.
The diplomatic reception rooms are a suite of forty-two rooms located on the seventh and eighth floors of the building. These spaces are used for official diplomatic functions hosted by thesecretary of state and other senior government officials. The rooms collectively house one of the most significant collections of American fine and decorative arts from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.[13][circular reference]
The rooms were initially designed and furnished under the direction of curator Clement Conger starting in 1961. Notably, architectEdward Vason Jones contributed significantly to their architectural and interior detailing during his tenure from 1965 to 1980.[14][circular reference]
By contrast, the War Department Building's successor, the Truman Building, only achieved a surface area of 1.4 million square feet with its new additions of the early 1960s.
This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theGeneral Services Administration.
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