Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building | |
Location | 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, and Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. |
---|---|
Coordinates | 38°53′35.52″N77°1′30″W / 38.8932000°N 77.02500°W |
Built | 1935 |
Architect | Milton Bennett Medary; Charles L. Borie Jr.; Clarence C. Zantzinger. |
Architectural style | Classical Revival |
Part of | Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site (ID66000865 [1] ) |
The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, sometimes called Main Justice, [2] is the headquarters of the United States Department of Justice. It houses Department of Justice offices, including the office of the United States Attorney General. The building was completed in 1935. In 2001, it was renamed after Robert F. Kennedy, the 64th Attorney General of the United States.
The building is located at 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, on a trapezoidal lot on the block bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue to the north, Constitution Avenue to the south, 9th Street to the east, and 10th Street NW to the west, in the Federal Triangle. [3] It is located west of the National Archives Building, east of the Internal Revenue Service Building, north of the National Mall, and south of the J. Edgar Hoover Building. The building is owned by the General Services Administration. [4] It comprises seven floors [5] and 1.2 million sq ft (110,000 m2). [3] [4] [6]
The Office of the Attorney General was created by the 1st United States Congress by the Judiciary Act of 1789. [3] In 1792, the Congress made the Attorney General a Cabinet-level post. [3]
In 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill creating the Department of Justice. [3] Still, there was not yet a permanent home for either the Attorney General or the Justice Department, and each had occupied a succession of temporary spaces in federal government buildings and privately owned office buildings. [3] While plans to provide the department with its own building were developed as early as 1910, it was not until the late 1920s that significant progress was made toward this goal. [3]
In 1908 and in 1928, Congress authorized the purchase of land in what is now known as the Federal Triangle for departmental offices. [3] The authorization was part of a wave of government construction; the 1926 Public Buildings Act permitted the government to hire private architects for the design of federal buildings, which led to large-scale construction of public buildings, including the development of the 70 acre Federal Triangle site between the Capitol and the White House. [3] Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon and the Board of Architectural Consultants, composed of leading architects and headed by Edward H. Bennett of the Chicago architectural firm of Bennett, Parsons & Frost, developed design guidelines for the site. [3] Under Bennett's direction, each member of the board designed one of the buildings in the Federal Triangle complex to "provide each government agency or bureau with a building that would address its functional needs, while combining the individual buildings into a harmonious, monumental overall design expressive of the dignity and authority of the federal government." [3]
Milton Bennett Medary of the Philadelphia firm Zantzinger, Borie & Medary was selected as the architect for the Department of Justice Building; upon Medary's death in 1929, the project was taken over by his two partners Charles L. Borie Jr. and Clarence C. Zantzinger. [3]
In 1930, Congress appropriated $10 million for the construction of a permanent Department of Justice headquarters in the Federal Triangle. [3] The building was constructed from 1931 to 1934. [3] Upon completion in 1935, the building finally provided a headquarters for the Attorney General and Department of Justice. [3] 1% of the cost of its construction was for art; between 1935 and 1941, 68 murals were painted in the building (an example of New Deal art). [3]
In 1966, the Department of Justice building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site. [3]
In 1974, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which had been headquartered in the same building as the Justice Department, moved into its own headquarters at the J. Edgar Hoover Building across the street on Pennsylvania Avenue. [7] In 1978, the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was established after the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The court of 11 judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States (increased from seven by the USA PATRIOT Act) meets in secret.
From March 1998 to January 2006, [4] major renovations to the building took place, including work on plumbing, electrical wiring, heating and cooling, and elevators. The project included replication of original lighting for the building's corridors and other ornamental spaces. [3] A new $3.1 million conference center and "data room" were built, the main library and executive suites were restored, and a new mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) system was installed. [4] The project's submitting firm and construction manager was the Gilbane Building Company, the architectural firm was Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates, the structural engineering firm was Delon Hampton Associates, and the mechanical/electrical engineer was H.F. Lenz Company. [4]
Several difficulties were present: The building had to remain operational during renovations, and hazardous materials were involved, with a large-scale asbestos abatement effort, lead paint removal, and the handling of mercury-vapor lamps with PCBs. The Gilbane Building Company established a "stop-work" rule to halt construction when hazardous material was discovered. [4] An additional complication was security concerns, because of sensitive and classified information in the building. According to Building Design & Construction, construction personnel were "classified into three tiers and were permitted access to specific building areas based on these three levels of security clearance." [4] The extensive murals, sculptures, and plaster reliefs in the building were protected with shields during the construction, and temperature, humidity, and dust controls were installed. [4]
The cost of the renovations was $142 million, but the project came in $4.2 million under budget, in part due to significant conservation efforts. [4] Design consultants decided to renovate courtyard plaza and garage structures instead of demolishing them, using 95 percent of existing materials. [4] Cobblestone blocks in the courtyard were "removed, cleaned, refurbished, and reinstalled", with "the foundation of the courtyard's original fountain" being preserved and its pipes and pumps replaced. [4] Further, only the concrete of "questionable integrity around the facility's garage beams" was repaired, instead of having all the concrete replaced. [4] For the plaza deck, the integrity of the concrete structure was tested. Some sections were found to be repairable, preventing them from being rebuilt and diverting 14,520 tons of waste from landfill. [4] Finally, the original foundation and structure building was preserved, which saved 110 tons of waste material and decreased "the risk of penetrating a sensitive waterproofing membrane system." [4] Additional costs were saved through "early buyout": "taking advantage of the purchasing power of the entire four-phase construction job", the construction management firm "was able to secure prices early on in the project that otherwise would have been spent covering the escalating costs of building materials." [4] These measures allowed the GSA to carry out additional work: "restoration and repointing of the limestone exterior", repair and replacement of the roof, restoration of "ornate painting and plaster", further hazardous materials abatement, and fire code upgrades. [4] Ultimately close to $1 million was returned to the GSA.
In 2001, the Department of Justice Main Building was renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in honor of Robert F. Kennedy, who was Attorney General (1961–1964) under his brother, President John F. Kennedy, and his successor, President Lyndon Johnson. Kennedy was later a U.S. senator from New York and presidential candidate until his assassination in 1968. [3] President George W. Bush directed the General Services Administrator to designate the building as the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in a presidential memorandum, [8] [9] and gave the rededication address on November 20, 2001, Senator Kennedy's birthday. [10] [11] Attorney General John Ashcroft also rededicated it in a speech at the Justice Department.
The building retains its original facades, lobbies, corridors, library, Great Hall, executive suites, and private offices, including the extensive use of ornamental aluminum. [3]
The design by Zantzinger, Borie, and Medary blends influences from neoclassical (Greek Revival) and Art Deco architectural styles. [3] The design is similar to other Federal Triangle buildings, with an Indiana limestone facade over a steel frame, red-tile hip roof, and colonnades, as well as interior courtyards to provide natural light and ventilation. [3] The inscription on one of the sides of the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building is, "Justice is founded in the rights bestowed by nature upon man. Liberty is maintained in security of justice."
It is distinguished from other Federal Triangle buildings by Art Deco elements and the innovative use of aluminum for details that were traditionally cast in bronze. [3] The General Bronze Corporation, known for New York City's Mies van der Rohe-designed Seagram Building, [12] [13] the Atlas [14] and Prometheus [14] bronze sculptures in Rockefeller Center, the bronze doors for the United States Supreme Court and Commerce buildings, [15] the aluminum windows for the United Nations Secretariat, [16] [17] [18] Chase Manhattan Bank, [19] [20] and the Tripler Army Base Hospital [21] was chosen for supplying the aluminum and bronze for the building's design. All entrances to the building feature 20-foot (6.1 m)-high aluminum doors that slide into recessed pockets. Interior stair railings, grillwork, and door trim are aluminum, as are Art Deco torchieres, doors for the building's 25 elevators, and more than 10,000 light fixtures. [3]
The building has many distinctive interior spaces, including the Great Hall entry foyer and the Law Library. [3] The two-story Great Hall features Art Deco light fixtures and a terra-cotta tile floor with gray marble borders. [3] The Law Library, located on the fifth floor, is a two-story room distinguished by a pair of tall Art Deco lights and a 20-panel mural by Maurice Sterne. [3]
The building contains the largest historic art collection of any General Services Administration–built facility. [4] Sculpture is integrated into the fabric of the building. [3] Sculptor C. Paul Jennewein was selected to create a unified design concept for the building's exterior and interior spaces, designing 57 sculptural elements for the building. His work ranged from the carved limestone figures for the pediments on the Constitution Avenue facade, to the aluminum Art Deco torchieres and light fixtures throughout the interior. [3] To ensure the themes of the artwork reflected the role of the department within American democracy, Jennewein hired philosopher Hartley Burr Alexander. [22]
The interior of the U.S. Department of Justice building contains many decorative wall paintings. [3] The building's extensive murals depict scenes of daily life from throughout American history and symbolic interpretations or allegories relating to the role of justice in American society. [3] In all, 68 murals were completed between 1935 and 1941, at a cost of $68,000, one percent of the cost of the building. [3] Mural artists include George Biddle, Henry Varnum Poor, John Steuart Curry, Boardman Robinson, Emil Bisttram and Leon Kroll.
The striking, colorful concrete mosaics on the ceilings of the vehicular and pedestrian entryways from 9th and 10th Streets were created by the Washington, D.C. master craftsman John Joseph Earley, an innovator in the aesthetic applications of the material. [3] Visible from the street, these mosaics retain much of the brilliance of their original colors. [3] A sculpture of the Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale by Bela Pratt stands on the southern side of the building.
Spirit of Justice is a cast aluminum Art Deco statue designed by Jennewein. It depicts Lady Justice, a woman wearing a toga-like dress with one breast revealed and arms raised, and stands on display along with its male counterpart Majesty of Law in the Great Hall. Unlike many representations of Lady Justice, Spirit of Justice wears no blindfold to symbolize blind justice. The statue measures 12.5 feet (150 inches) and was commissioned in 1933 at a cost of $7000, and has stood with Majesty of Law in the Great Hall since 1936. [23]
In 1986, the statue was seen behind then-U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese during a press conference as he discussed the final report of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, also known as the Meese Report. According to the Associated Press, "photographers dived to the floor to capture the image of him raising the report in the air, with the partially nude female statue behind him". [24]
In 2002, under Attorney General John Ashcroft, curtains were famously put up blocking the bare-breasted statue from view during speeches. [24] According to Justice Department spokesman Shane Hix, the department spent $8,000 to purchase blue drapes to hide them. Under Ashcroft the department had previously rented blue drapes at a cost of $2,000 every time the agency had a formal event. [24] ABC News reported that Ashcroft had ordered the statues covered because he did not like being photographed in front of them, but Hix insisted that the Attorney General was not aware of the change and that the nudity on the statue was not the reason for the purchase, citing instead "aesthetic" reasons, such as the background for television cameras. [24] [25]
Internal e-mails later surfaced, referring to "hiding the statues" and "the episode was quickly seized upon by pundits and satirists as a symbol of Ashcroft's allegedly puritanical and censorious bearing." [23] Journalist and writer Claire Braz-Valentine wrote an open lyrical letter to Ashcroft, which included the lines "John, John, John,/you've got your priorities all wrong." [26] Ashcroft joked about the incident on the Late Show with David Letterman in April 2002. [23] In May 2007, the "Inside Washington" column in National Journal reported that Monica Goodling, a former aide to Ashcroft, was responsible for the covering of the statue. [27] The curtains were removed on June 24, 2005, under Ashcroft's successor Alberto Gonzales. Justice Department spokesman Kevin Madden was quoted as saying that "the decision to remove the drapes was made by Paul Corts, assistant attorney general for administration, and that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales 'agreed with the recommendation.'" [23]
Seagram Building Marks Apex Of Mies van der Rohe's Career
In 1903, he became a supervisor of bronze manufacturing for Tiffany Studios. Founder of General Bronze Corporation Dies – Products Adorn Leading Buildings
Massive Panes and Thousands of Smaller Ones Mark a Radical New Design
The General Bronze Corporation engineered and manufactured the ¼ inch thick aluminum panels
Recessed flush with the inside faces of the huge aluminum-sheathed columns, the curtain wall consists of a two-tone aluminum spandrel and sill panel and an 8-foot-high window of clear glass
Certain of the excellent future for aluminum window frames, the General Bronze Corporation, Long Island City, has started mass production of such items for residential use throughout the country
Media related to Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building at Wikimedia Commons
Art Deco, short for the French Arts décoratifs, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in Paris in the 1910s, and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920s to early 1930s. Through styling and design of the exterior and interior of anything from large structures to small objects, including how people look, Art Deco has influenced bridges, buildings, ships, ocean liners, trains, cars, trucks, buses, furniture, and everyday objects including radios and vacuum cleaners.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries. The department is headed by the U.S. attorney general, who reports directly to the president of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet. Merrick Garland has served as attorney general since March 2021.
Lee Oscar Lawrie was an American architectural sculptor and an important figure in the American sculpture scene preceding World War II. Over his long career of more than 300 commissions Lawrie's style evolved through Modern Gothic, to Beaux-Arts, Classicism, and, finally, into Moderne or Art Deco.
Federal Triangle is a triangular area in Washington, D.C., formed by 15th Street NW, Constitution Avenue NW, Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and E Street NW. Federal Triangle is occupied by 10 large city and federal office buildings, all of which are part of the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site. Seven of the buildings in Federal Triangle were built by the U.S. federal government in the early and mid-1930s as part of a coordinated construction plan that has been called "one of the greatest building projects ever undertaken" and all seven buildings are now designated as architecturally historic.
Paul Philippe Cret was a French-born Philadelphia architect and industrial designer. For more than thirty years, he taught at a design studio in the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.
Milton Bennett Medary Jr. was an American architect from Philadelphia, practicing with the firm Zantzinger, Borie and Medary from 1910 until his death.
Spirit of Justice is a 1933 cast aluminum statue depicting Lady Justice that stands on display along with its male counterpart Majesty of Justice in the Great Hall of the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C., the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Justice. The statue is of a woman wearing a toga-like dress with one breast revealed and arms raised and measures 12.5 feet.
Zantzinger, Borie and Medary was an American architecture firm that operated from 1905 to 1950 in Philadelphia. It specialized in institutional and civic projects. For most of its existence, the partners were Clarence C. Zantzinger, Charles Louis Borie Jr., and Milton Bennett Medary, all Philadelphians.
The Spring Street Courthouse, formerly the United States Court House in Downtown Los Angeles, is a Moderne style building that originally served as both a post office and a courthouse. The building was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood and Louis A. Simon, and construction was completed in 1940. It formerly housed federal courts but is now used by Los Angeles Superior Court.
The William R. Cotter Federal Building is a historic post office, courthouse, and federal office building located at 135–149 High Street in Hartford, Connecticut. It was the courthouse for United States District Court for the District of Connecticut until 1963.
The United States Post Office and Courthouse, Dubuque, Iowa is a courthouse of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa located in Dubuque, Iowa. Completed in 1934, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. It is a contributing resource within the Cathedral Historic District.
The Eldon B. Mahon United States Courthouse is a courthouse of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit located in Fort Worth, Texas. Built in 1933, the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 and was renamed in honor of district court judge Eldon Brooks Mahon in 2003.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Federal Building is a United States federal government office building located in the Government Center area of Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent to City Hall Plaza and diagonally across from Boston City Hall. An example of 1960s modern architecture, and designed by Walter Gropius and The Architects Collaborative with Samuel Glaser, it is a complex that consists of two offset 26-floor towers that sit on-axis to each other and a low rise building of four floors that connects to the two towers through an enclosed glass corridor. The two towers stand at a height of 387 feet (118 m). The complex was built in 1963-1966. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
The Federal Office Building, Seattle, Washington is a historic federal office building located at Seattle in King County, Washington.
The James T. Foley United States Courthouse is a stone Art Deco federal courthouse, located on Broadway in downtown Albany, New York, United States. Built in the 1930s, it was included in 1980 as a contributing property when the Downtown Albany Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2020 it was listed on the Register individually as the United States Post Office, Court House, and Custom House.
The New York State Supreme Court Building, originally known as the New York County Courthouse, is located at 60 Centre Street on Foley Square in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It houses the Civil and Appellate Terms of the New York State Supreme Court for the state's First Judicial District, which is coextensive with Manhattan, as well as the offices of the New York County Clerk.
Captain Nathan Hale is a bronze statue of Nathan Hale (1755–1776), a schoolteacher from Connecticut, who enlisted in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He was stationed in Boston, but was later transferred to the New York City area. While in New York, Hale acted as a spy against the Kingdom of Great Britain's army. He posed as a teacher and was able to cross enemy lines to obtain military information. He left the area and before he could return home, his cousin, a Loyalist, informed the British about what Hale had done. He was captured and sentenced to death, with the hanging occurring the following day. While Hale was on the gallows, he gave a speech which ended with his famous quote: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
The Art Deco style, which originated in France just before World War I, had an important impact on architecture and design in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The most notable examples are the skyscrapers of New York City, including the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center. It combined modern aesthetics, fine craftsmanship, and expensive materials, and became the symbol of luxury and modernity. While rarely used in residences, it was frequently used for office buildings, government buildings, train stations, movie theaters, diners and department stores. It also was frequently used in furniture, and in the design of automobiles, ocean liners, and everyday objects such as toasters and radio sets.
The Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex is located in Trenton, the capital of the State of New Jersey. It is home to the New Jersey Supreme Court and other judicial and executive departments. Named in honor of Richard J. Hughes, a former Governor and Chief Justice in New Jersey, it is one several judicial centers in the city.
Bruno Mankowski, was a German-born American sculptor, carver, ceramicist and medalist.