Federal building

“ The term ‘‘Federal building’’ means any individual building, structure, or part thereof, including the associated energy or water-consuming support systems, which is constructed, renovated, or purchased in whole or in part for use by the Federal Government and which consumes energy or water. In any provision of this order, the term ‘‘Federal building’’ shall also include any building leased in whole or in part for use by the Federal Government where the term of the lease exceeds 5 years and the lease does not prohibit implementation of the provision in question. ”

“ The city-hall (1890–1893) , the courthouse (1888–1892) , and the Federal Building (1892–1900) are the most imposing of the public buildings. A convention hall, 314 ft. long and 198 ft. wide, with a seating capacity of about 15,000, is covered by a steel-frame roof without a column for its support; the exterior of the walls is cut stone and brick. ”

“ REDESIGNATION. The Federal building located at 167 North Main Street in Memphis, Tennessee, commonly known as the Clifford Davis Federal Building, shall be known and designated as the `Clifford Davis and Odell Horton Federal Building’. SEC. 2. REFERENCES. Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the Federal building referred to in Section 1 shall be deemed to be a reference to the `Clifford Davis and Odell Horton Federal Building’. ”

“ Later, at the beginning of the year, it had become a post-office, and the Federal building included a general store. Also, at that time, the girders of a new brick block rose on the adjoining lots, and a sign secured to the basement wall announced: "This strictly modern building will be completed about June first. For office and floor space see Henderson Bailey."
The financier, who had motored up the valley in a rented car, noted these indications of an embryo town with interest. ”

“ There are no fewer than seventy-five musical societies in the city.
Grand Avenue, which runs east and west, contains many of the chief buildings and best shops, while Wisconsin Street and East Water Street are also busy thoroughfares. Among the most prominent buildings is the Federal Building, a handsome structure of granite in a turreted baronial style, occupying the block bounded by Jefferson, Jackson, Michigan and Wisconsin Streets, and containing the Post Office, Custom House and United States Court House. The interior is finely finished in marbles, mosaics, mahogany, and oak. ”

“ Each Federal agency responsible for the construction and lease of a new building for Federal use shall ensure that the building is designed and constructed in accord with appropriate seismic design and construction standards. ”

“ In so far as executive acts in building matters concern federally owned buildings which serve public purposes, like accommodation for federal authorities and offices or public institutions including schools and hospitals or barracks quarters for members of the Army or other federal employees, these executive acts fall under the indirect federal administration ”

“ IN GENERAL— Each Federal agency shall ensure that any large capital energy investment in an existing building that is not a major renovation but involves replacement of installed equipment (such as heating and cooling systems) , or involves renovation, rehabilitation, expansion, or remodeling of existing space, employs the most energy efficient designs, systems, equipment, and controls that are life-cycle cost effective. ”

“ Beyond existing duties to comply with the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 and related standards, the head of each agency shall maximize the accessibility of the physical environment of the agency’s workplaces, consistent with applicable law and the availability of appropriations, so as to reduce the need for reasonable accommodations, and provide periodic notice to all employees that complaints concerning accessibility barriers in Federal buildings can be filed with the Access Board. ”

“ STORM WATER RUNOFF REQUIREMENTS FOR FEDERAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS. The sponsor of any development or redevelopment project involving a Federal facility with a footprint that exceeds 5,000 square feet shall use site planning, design, construction, and maintenance strategies for the property to maintain or restore, to the maximum extent technically feasible, the predevelopment hydrology of the property with regard to the temperature, rate, volume, and duration of flow. ”

“ East of the White House and obstructing the view from it to the Capitol stands the oldest of the departmental buildings, the Treasury Building (architect, Robert Mills (1781-1855) , then U.S. architect) , an imposing edifice mainly of granite, 510 ft. long and 280 ft. wide; on the east front is a colonnade of thirty-eight Ionic columns, and on each of the other three sides is an Ionic portico. On the opposite side of the White House is a massive granite building of the State, War and Navy Departments, 567 ft. long and 342 ft. ”

“ In Washington, DC, classical buildings such as the White House, the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, the Department of the Treasury, and the Lincoln Memorial have become iconic symbols of our system of government. These cherished landmarks, built to endure for centuries, have become an important part of our civic life. ”

“ The only type of modern ‘skyscraper’ building for office purposes erected by the Government, in Washington is the nine-story granite structure occupying an entire square on Pennsylvania Avenue, between Eleventh and Twelfth streets. It is the home of the Post Office Department, with offices on the first floor for the city post office. Directly north of the Capitol is another lofty structure which forms a part of the plant of the Government Printing Office, the largest concern of its kind in the world. ”

“ The Search House is as safe from any danger of loss by fire as the buildings which were vacated when it was leased, but it is not fire-proof, nor can any fire-proof buildings be obtained in the city.
A due regard for the safety of the public records would dictate the pressing need for the construction of suitable buildings for the comfortable and safe occupancy of the Bureaus. I therefore renew the recommendation made by several of my predecessors, that early action be taken by Congress looking to the erection of a suitable building for this Department. ”

“ Its height from the ground to the top of the tower is a hundred and eighty feet, and the three ample stories above the basement furnish accommodation to the city and county offices, in addition to the Circuit and Recorder's Courts. The walls are frescoed, the floors laid in mosaics of colored marbles, and the Council Chamber and other public rooms are furnished with black walnut chairs and desks, and paneled in oak. With these exceptions, there is no woodwork about the immense building. Everything, from basement to dome, is brick and iron and stone. ”

“ The House of Representatives holds its sessions in the southern wing of the Capitol at Washington. The House is very large, right angled, and rigid, with little ornament, and without beauty of proportion. The walls go up for about fifteen feet, and from that point the galleries slant back until they reach the next floor of the building. The roof is a vast expanse of glass, with the arms of each State painted on the square panels. The general effect is grayness of color and a size which can be measured in acres better than in feet. ”

“ The Architect recommends that some provision be made by Congress for inclosing, planting and otherwise improving the grounds surrounding the Capitol building which belong to the United States, and also for paving both of the streets and foot-ways around the lower grounds of the building. ”

“ By the plans the public buildings of the future will be arranged around Capitol Square (which has now two sides occupied by private residences) , and will then extend on both sides the mall, or flat, low-lying district 1,600 feet in width, extending from the Capitol building to the Potomac, a distance of one and a half miles, and inclosing the Washington monument. The buildings are all to be of white marble, harmonious in design, and with a standard sky-line. The latter feature is not pleasing in effect in the model. ”

“ Construction is under way in the country and ground has been broken for carrying out a public-building program for Washington. We have reached a time when not only the conveniences but the architectural beauty of the public buildings of the Capital City should be given much attention. It will be necessary to purchase further land and provide the required continuing appropriations. ”

“ But the structural lines of the old Executive office building will remain. The artistic lines of the White House buildings were the creation of master builders when our Republic was young. The simplicity and the strength of the structure remain in the face of every modern test. ”

“ The architect reports certain repairs upon the court-house of the city of Washington, and calls attention to the insecure condition of the land records of the District of Columbia stored therein. A large part of the upper story of this building is of wooden construction, and liable to fire. Greater security could be obtained at a small cost by removing the land records from the upper to the lower or basement floor, which is substantially fire-proof.
The expenditures on the Capitol Extension account for the year ended June 30, 1879, were $55,000, the amount of the appropriation. ”

“ In our public buildings we still suffer from the method of appropriation, which has been so much criticized in connection with our rivers and harbors. Some method should be devised for controlling the supply of public buildings, so that they will harmonize with the actual needs of the Government. Then, when it comes to the actual construction, there has been in the past too little study of the building plans and sites with a view to the actual needs of the Government. ”

“ Many of the departments in Washington need better housing facilities. Some are so crowded that their work is impeded, others are so scattered that they lose their identity. While I do not favor at this time a general public building law, I believe it is now necessary, in accordance with plans already sanctioned for a unified and orderly system for the development of this city, to begin the carrying out of those plans by authorizing the erection of three or four buildings most urgently needed by an annual appropriation of $5,000,000. ”

“ The President’s House stands near the center of an area of some 20 acres, occupying a very advantageous elevation, open to the view of the Potomac and about 44 feet above high water, and possessing from its balcony one of the loveliest prospects in our country—the junction of the two branches of the Potomac which border the District and the swelling and varied shores beyond of the States of Maryland and Virginia. The building is 170 feet front and 86 deep and is built of white freestone, with Ionic pilasters, comprehending two lofty stories, with a stone balustrade. ”

“ The Capitol was begun at a time when the country was entirely destitute of artists, and even of good workmen in the branches of architecture, upon which the superiority of public over private buildings depends. The north wing, therefore, which is carried up, although the exterior is remarkably well finished as to the masonry, is not a good building. For two or three years after the removal of Congress to this city the public works were entirely discontinued. ”

“ So it follows that whereas under pre-Revolutionary conventions even civic buildings like Independence Hall in Philadelphia are built on a domestic scale, the early republican architecture is marked by the practice of building its domestic dwellings on a public scale. The fine houses of the early republic all have an official appearance; almost any house might be the White House. ”

“ One of the finest corridors in the Albany capitol is so sadly marred in appearance by the settling of the foundation that the breaks and cracks in the panels on the side are noticeable to every one. But the dome to the Indiana capitol, which is to be 300 feet high, is not yet finished, and the proof of the stability of building has thus hardly been furnished. ”

“ In 1926, Congress finally acted and authorized the construction of the building, which began in September of 1931. President Herbert Hoover laid the cornerstone in February of 1933, though there was not yet an actual agency to be put in the building. ”

“ He might spend a couple of millions on a building which would astonish the natives, and not give them as agreeable a working room for the Legislature as this old chamber. The fashion is to put up an edifice whose dimensions shall somehow represent the dignity of the State, a vast structure of hall-ways and staircases, with half-lighted and ill-ventilated rooms. It seems to me that the American genius ought to be able to devise a capitol of a different sort, certainly one better adapted to the Southern climate. ”