Ariel Rios Federal Building — Facade Restoration

Project Details

Owner: General Services Administration
Contract Amount: $4,262,622
Date of Award: December 1996
Date of Completion: July 1998
Architects: Karn, Charuhas, Chapman & Twohey

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Located at 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC, the Ariel Rios Federal Building is a central feature of the Federal Triangle Historic District. As such, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Grunley was responsible for the complete renovation of this building, including the Facade Restoration.

The original design for Ariel Rios would have extended the structure from 12th Street to 14th Street, but this concept never reached full completion. Instead a temporary brick wall bridged the gap between the dissimilar facades on Pennsylvania Avenue and 13th Street. The possibility of expanding the Ariel Rios Building was eliminated by the construction of the Ronald Reagan Building in the 1990's. GSA designed a facade for this section of building to compliment the existing building elements. This project replaced the brick facade with a stone facade that connects the two sides of the building that were never intended to adjoin.

To accommodate the GSA design, Grunley attached a new stone facade to the steel framework that was set against the existing facade. The new stone was fabricated to match the adjacent existing stone facade. Additional elements included:

The facade project received a Citation from 2002 GSA Design Awards and the AIA/DC Chapter's "2000 Award of Merit in Historic Resources."

The project was completed on time, with no claims and/or appeals filed.