Rayburn House Office Building — Fire, Life Safety and Communications Upgrade

Project Details

Owner: The Architect of the Capitol
Contract Amount: $11,669,183
Date of Award: June 2000
Date of Completion: March 2003
Architect: James Posey Associates, Baltimore, MD

Photo Photo

This project required the installation of 9,000 sprinkler heads, thousands of lineal feet of cable tray, nd multiple communication systems upgrades over a 27 month period. It required the delivery of high quality workmanship within an occupied, national historic building, holding to a tight timeframe and in a manner that was not disruptive to a most prestigious tenant. The Rayburn House Office Building houses members and staff of the U.S. House of Representatives; it has about 830,000 square feet of office and related support service space.

Work areas (i.e., occupied offices and corridors) were staged each night by an interdisciplinary team (i.e., abatement, fire protection, electrical, general labor and carpentry) that worked together to assure that all elements were coordinated and the offices were returned to their original condition each morning. The occupants were asked to evaluate the work on a daily basis in order to assure satisfaction with both the product and the process. The measure of success was the occupants' lack of awareness of both the physical changes (as noted above) and the process that produced the upgraded facilities (i.e., work in hazmat containment; all office furniture and fixtures protected and replaced in original condition).

In 2002 this project won an Award of Merit from the Associated General Contractors of America.