Robert C. Weaver Federal Building
| Robert C. Weaver Federal Building | |
|---|---|
Interactive map of the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building area | |
| Alternative names | Department of Housing and Urban Development Headquarters |
| General information | |
| Type | Government office building |
| Architectural style | Brutalist |
| Location | 451 7th Street SW, Washington, D.C. |
| Coordinates | 38°53′02″N 77°01′21″W / 38.88389°N 77.02250°W |
| Construction started | 1965 |
| Completed | September 9, 1968 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Marcel Breuer |
| Other designers | Herbert Beckhard; firm of Nolen-Swinburne |
| Main contractor | John McShain, Inc. |
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | |
| Location | 451 7th St., SW., Washington, DC |
| Area | 5.5 acres (2.2 ha) |
| NRHP reference No. | 08000824 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | August 26, 2008 |
| Designated DCIHS | June 26, 2008 |
The Robert C. Weaver Federal Building is a 10-story office building in Washington, D.C., United States. Owned by the U.S. federal government, it was built by the General Services Administration as the headquarters of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It was completed in 1968 and designed by Marcel Breuer in the Brutalist style. The building is one of two that Breuer designed for the U.S. federal government in the District of Columbia, along with the Hubert H. Humphrey Building, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The building was first conceived in 1962, when President John F. Kennedy established the Ad Hoc Committee on Federal Office Space. Work began after Kennedy's successor Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965. A cornerstone-laying ceremony took place in November 1966, and the building was formally dedicated on September 21, 1968. The plaza was redesigned in the 1990s by Martha Schwartz. The structure was renamed for Dr. Robert C. Weaver, the first Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the first African American Cabinet member, in 2000. After HUD announced plans to move out of the building in 2025, the federal government considered demolishing it.
The Weaver Building has a curvilinear precast concrete facade, similar to Breuer's previous UNESCO Headquarters and IBM La Gaude. It is shaped like two back-to-back "Y"s, with four curving wings extending off an elongated core. Breuer designed a 6-acre (2.4 ha) plaza, which serves as the roof for an underground parking garage. The facade contains concrete panels with deeply recessed rectangular windows; the ground floor is recessed behind concrete pilotis. As built, there were two basements, a ground-level lobby and communal area, and nine office floors above. Although the building's design received architectural praise when it was built, its Brutalist style and the unoriginality of its design have also received negative commentary, especially from several HUD secretaries.