Profile

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

Washington, D.C.
Completed 1998

Lead Designer: James Ingo Freed

A multiuse international office and trade center uniquely combining public, private and government facilities
 

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The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was designed to complete and augment the 70-acre wedge of government offices known as Federal Triangle. It occupies the last open site on Pennsylvania Avenue (a former parking lot two blocks from the White House) where construction was halted by the Depression. The building was designed to complement its historic context in materials and scale yet its architectural strategy is modern. It articulates structure and creates significant public spaces while fulfilling an extraordinarily rich mixed-use program of government offices, private businesses and public amenities.  At 3.1 million s/f, the RRB/ITC is second only to the Pentagon as the largest federal building ever undertaken.

The design's pronounced diagonal geometry is a direct response to Pennsylvania Avenue, which here bends east toward the Capitol. The building meets the Avenue at 90° and hinges back from a corner Rotunda to symbolically turn the street into the site. People are invited to enter a large outdoor plaza and to continue inside where a skylit conical space and public concourse offer retail, dining and vital connections to mass transit and neighboring buildings. In the seemingly impenetrable wall of government buildings that separates downtown from ceremonial Washington, the Reagan Building emphasizes access and permeability. It is both a destination and a public link to the nation's Mall, its monuments and museums.

Major Components

1.62 million s/f offices (1,485,000 s/f  Federal; 137,400 s/f privately operated Trade Center); 130,000 s/f public circulation; 14,000 s/f atrium; 83,000 s/f retail and exhibit areas; 57,100 s/f conference center; 43,500 s/f food court (980 seats); 33,850 s/f auditorium (620 seats); 28,500 s/f ballroom; 21,500 s/f dining establishments (4); 19,400 s/f exhibition hall; 13,900 s/f reception hall; 80,000 s/f U.S. Center for World Trade; 5,600 s/f Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (including the Woodrow Wilson Memorial); 950,000 s/f parking for 2,000 cars on 4 levels underground; 5.3-acre plaza areas; commissioned sculpture (Martin Puryear bronze, Stephen Robin cast aluminum flowers; Keith Sonnier neon and glass screen installation)

Awards

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners services

Architectural Design; Interior Design of public spaces; coordination with associate  architect on construction documents and construction administration

Associate Architect

Ellerbe Becket Architects and Engineers, Washington, D.C.

Structural

Weiskopf & Pickworth, New York, NY 

Mechanical / Electrical

Cosentini Associates LLP, New York, NY

Mechanical / Electrical / Plumbing

Ellerbe Becket, Inc., Washington, D.C.

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