The Mark Center Building is a United States military installation and office building in Alexandria, Virginia. It is operated by the Washington Headquarters Services (WHS) of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and provides office space for several other DoD agencies. The name of the site refers to the "Mark Center" property development, which is located at the intersection of Seminary Road and Beauregard Street at the Interstate 395 interchange. [1]
Sixteen acres of the site were sold to the federal government and are administratively considered part of Fort Belvoir. [1] It is the tallest building constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers. [2]
The site was selected in September 2008 as a result of the 2005 round of Base Realignment and Closures (BRAC), and is also referred to as BRAC-133. [3] The 2005 BRAC process mandated a move of many DoD offices from leased office space to secure sites that could meet DoD's high anti-terrorism security standards.
Federal employees began moving to the center in August 2011, with the move scheduled to be complete by January 2013. [4] The project has been controversial in the region because of potential traffic impacts: many of the approximately 6,500 employees who will be relocated to the site were formerly located in Metro-accessible locations such as Crystal City, Virginia, and office buildings in Washington, D.C., itself, but must commute by car or bus to the new site via a highway that already handled 200,000 vehicles per day. [5] [6]
Onizuka Air Force Station or Onizuka AFS was a United States Air Force installation in Sunnyvale, California, at the intersection of State Route 237 and North Mathilda Avenue. It was operational from 1960 to 2010.
Shirlington is an unincorporated urban area, officially called an "urban village", in the southern part of Arlington County, Virginia, United States, adjacent to the Fairlington area. The word "Shirlington" is a combination of "Shirley" and "Arlington".
Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) is a process by a United States federal government commission to increase the efficiency of the United States Department of Defense by coordinating the realignment and closure of military installations following the end of the Cold War. Over 350 installations have been closed in five BRAC rounds: 1988, 1991, 1993, 1995, and 2005. These five BRAC rounds constitute a combined savings of $12 billion annually.
Washington Headquarters Services (WHS) is a Department of Defense (DoD) Field Activity, created on October 1, 1977, to provide administrative and management support to multiple DoD components and military departments in the National Capital Region and beyond.
The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission preliminary list was released by the United States Department of Defense on May 13, 2005. It was the fifth Base Realignment and Closure ("BRAC") proposal generated since the process was created in 1988. It recommended closing 22 major United States military bases and the "realignment" of 33 others. On September 15, 2005, President George W. Bush approved the BRAC Commission's recommendations, leaving the fate of the bases in question to the United States Congress. Congress had a maximum of 45 days to reject the proposal by passing a joint resolution of disapproval, or the recommendations automatically enter into effect. Such a resolution was introduced to the House of Representatives on September 23, 2005, by Rep. Ray LaHood (R-IL). The House took up debate of the resolution on October 26, 2005. The resolution failed to pass by a 324-85 margin, thereby enacting the list of recommendations. The Secretary of Defense was required to begin implementing the recommendations by September 15, 2007, and to complete implementation no later than September 15, 2011.
Fort Monmouth is a former installation of the Department of the Army in Monmouth County, New Jersey and the site of a major upcoming Netflix film production campus. The site is surrounded by the communities of Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport, New Jersey, and is located about five miles (8.0 km) from the Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately an hour and 15 minutes south of Manhattan by vehicle.
Potomac Yard is a neighborhood in Northern Virginia that straddles southeastern Arlington County and northeastern Alexandria, Virginia, located principally in the area between U.S. Route 1 and the Washington Metro Blue Line /Yellow Line tracks. The area was home to what was once one of the busiest rail yards on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. The "Potomac Yard" name is also used to refer to several developments in the area, especially the Potomac Yard Center power center and a Washington Metro station.
The Washington metropolitan area, also sometimes referred to as Greater Washington, the National Capital Region or colloquially as the DMV, is the metropolitan area containing Washington, D.C., the federal capital of the United States. The metropolitan area includes all of Washington, D.C. and parts of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. It is part of the larger Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area, which is the third-largest combined statistical area in the country.
The Alexandria Canal was a canal in the United States that connected the city of Alexandria to Georgetown in the District of Columbia.
Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) is the Army Service Component Command of the U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) and is a major subordinate command to Army Materiel Command (AMC). This relationship links USTRANSCOM's Joint Deployment and Distribution Enterprise and AMC's Materiel Enterprise. The command also partners with the commercial transportation industry as the coordinating link between DOD surface transportation requirements and the capability industry provides.
The Defense Media Activity (DMA) is a United States Department of Defense (DoD) field activity. It provides a broad range of high-quality multimedia products and services to inform, educate, and entertain Department of Defense audiences around the world. The Defense Media Activity is located on Fort Meade, Maryland. DoD field activities are established as DoD components by law, by the President, or by the Secretary of Defense to provide for the performance, on a DoD-wide basis, of a supply or service activity that is common to more than one Military Department when it is determined to be more effective, economical, or efficient to do so. DMA operates as a separate DoD Component under the authority, direction and control of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs.
Ivy Hill Cemetery is a cemetery in the Rosemont Historic District of Alexandria, Virginia, United States. Burials began at the site in 1811, when it was a family cemetery, and it received a charter as a community cemetery in 1856. The adjoining residential neighborhood was developed beginning in 1908 as a streetcar suburb of Washington, D.C., as trolley lines of the Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon railway extended from Alexandria's nearby Union Station. The cemetery is now also known for its rare and protected flora and fauna.
The U.S. Army Sustainment Center of Excellence (SCoE) [pronounced sko or sko-e] is a subordinate organization under the U.S. Army Combined Arms Support Command (CASCOM) at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia. Its mission is to oversee and coordinate the functions of the 5 sustainment branches of the Army and the Army Sustainment University. The CASCOM commander is dual-hatted as the commander of SCoE.
Vint Hill Farms Station (VHFS) was a United States Army and National Security Agency (NSA) signals intelligence and electronic warfare facility located in Fauquier County, Virginia, near Warrenton. VHFS was closed in 1997 and the land was sold off in 1999. Today the site hosts various engineering and technology companies, as well as two Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic control facilities.
Potomac Yard station is a Washington Metro station in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. It is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), serving both the Blue and Yellow Lines, and opened on May 19, 2023. It is located at Alexandria's 7.5-million-square-foot (700,000 m2) Potomac Yard mixed-use development bounded by Richmond Highway and the George Washington Memorial Parkway. It is the second infill station to be added to the Washington Metro system, after NoMa–Gallaudet U in 2004. It was constructed on the site of Potomac Yard, a former railroad freight yard.
The Alexandria Fire Department (AFD) provides fire protection and emergency medical services to the city of Alexandria, Virginia. Established in 1866, the department is responsible for 15 square miles (39 km2) with a population of over 159,000.
Alexandria, Virginia, an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, is located along the western bank of the Potomac River. The city of approximately 151,000 is about six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.
Cameron Station was the location of the Defense Logistics Agency in Alexandria, Virginia (as well as the smaller Defense Contract Audit Agency, until its closure by the 1988 Base Realignment and Closure Commission.The BRAC report can be found here.