Federal Triangle

Identification

Facts

• The Federal Triangle project is the largest US government-initiated construction project ever enacted in the nation's capital.
• In the late 1800's through the first decades of the 1900's, the dilapidated area between Pennsylvania Avenue and the National Mall, east of the White House, was known as Murder Bay.
• Early attempts to improve this district included the construction of the Old Post Office Building and John A. Wilson Building, but little additional development followed.
• The massive plan for a wholesale demolition of the area's buildings and construction of new government facilities was approved by Congress with the Public Buildings Act of 1926.
• Design guidelines were set by Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and a Board of Architectural Consultants, headed by Edward H. Bennett of the Chicago firm Bennett, Parsons & Frost.
• Each member of the Board was given the responsibility of designing one building in the Federal Triangle. Design guidelines contributed to a unifying concept across the entire complex, creating a monumental complex highly symbolic in its role as a center of the Federal Government's power.
• The Federal Triangle occupies the site bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue on the north, Constitution Avenue and the National Mall on the south, and 14th Street NW on the west. The apex of the triangle, on the east side, is where Pennsylvania and Constitution meet 6th Street NW.