Federal Office Building No. 6 Site, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, District of Columbia, DC

Significance: The Federal Office Building No. 6 (FOB 6) Site is significant as an early example of a Modernist designed landscape in Washington, D.C. It embodies the seminal efforts of the newly created General Services Administration (GSA) to implement the Construction Program, Federal Buildings, Washington, D.C., & Vicinity, 1956-1966, a master plan for the design, construction, and funding of federal office buildings in the District of Columbia. The location of FOB 6 and its associated site was the result of the first cooperative response by the federal government to the National Capital Planning Commission's (NCPC) 1950 Comprehensive Plan for the District of Columbia and the removal of temporary federal office buildings from the National Mall. The FOB 6 Site also reflects the direct participation of the federal government in the redevelopment plans for Southwest Washington, becoming the first federal office building constructed specifically as part of the Southwest Urban Renewal Plan. Its Modernist design, which represented a dramatic stylistic change for federal government buildings, prompted a significant shift towards the expression of modern architecture and its placement in the Monumental Core. Constructed in 1959-61, FOB 6 was designed jointly by the local architectural firms of Faulkner, Kingsbury and Stenhouse and Chatelain, Gauger and Nolan with landscape architecture by Lester Collins of Collins, Simonds and Simonds. Significant to its mid-century aesthetic is the holistic treatment (hardscape and landscape) of the trapezoidal site, a character-defining aspect of Modernist design. The tripartite plaza with sunken courtyard unites the building to its planned site, respects the angle of Maryland Avenue (a L'Enfant Plan street), and acknowledges the hierarchy of the Monumental Core.
Survey number: HALS DC-58
Building/structure dates: 1959-1961 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1971 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: after 1973 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1989 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 2000-2001 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: before 2011 Subsequent Work