by Zach Mortice
Associate Editor

Summary: The federal government has hired the Washington office of Perkins and Will, as well as Omaha-based HDR and Boston-based Goody Clancy in a joint venture to design the new $450 million Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters campus on the 300-acre site of St. Elizabeths Hospital in the District of Columbia. This new federal agency headquarters is one of the largest single design and construction projects being funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) economic stimulus package signed into law last winter and is not only the single largest project in the General Service Administration (GSA) $5.5 billion portfolio of ARRA-funded work but GSA’s largest building project ever.

As part of the DHS, the United States Coast Guard is moving their headquarters to the West Campus of the St. Elizabeth’s site, where they’ll be the primary departmental tenant on the DHS site. The Washington, D.C., office of Perkins and Will have contributed design development drawings and bridging documents to be turned over to the project’s builders Clark Design Build. HOK will be acting as a subconsultant to Clark Design Build, providing interior design services, landscape architecture, and LEED coordination. WDG Architecture is the architect of record. The HDR and Goody Clancy joint venture will be designing other sections of the DHS campus.

The ARRA provides the DHS with $200 million and the GSA with $450 million for the development of the St. Elizabeths campus, though the GSA will be responsible for executing the project’s management and constriction, which they hope to have completed by 2016. Currently, the DHS is spread across more than 60 office buildings. The department’s headquarters will accommodate 14,000 federal workers.

Joining four members of the construction team (in hard hats) at the St. Elizabeths site September 7 for the groundbreaking ceremony are, from left, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty (in a GSA hardhat), Sen. Joseph Lieberman, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, GSA National Capital Region Acting Regional Administrator Sharon Banks, and GSA Acting Administrator Paul Prouty. Photo courtesy GSA.

The groundbreaking ceremony, which took place September 9, included DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano; Sen. Joseph Lieberman, chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, chair of the House Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management; GSA Acting Administrator Paul Prouty; and D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty.

St. Elizabeth’s Hospital was established by Congress in 1855 as a mental health facility for members of the Army and the Navy, as well as for residents of the District of Columbia. It was also a hospital for Civil War veterans. In the mid-20th century, the university-style campus with buildings designed by Thomas U. Walter (who designed sections of the United States Capitol Building) fell into decline and disuse. The last patients moved out in 2002, according to the Washington Post, the same year it was placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Most Endangered List. Civic leaders and developers have mulled several redevelopment schemes since then. (President Reagan's attempted assassin, John Hinckley Jr., is a resident of the John Howard Pavilion on the east campus, separate from the federal tract.)

HDR is known for its deep portfolio of federal facilities designs and has worked with the DHS before on several projects. Goody Clancy maintains a specialty in campus planning and has designed several GSA facilities.

Using AIA/AAF archival source material, the National Building Museum and the GSA are currently planning an exhibition on the history and architecture of the St. Elizabeths campus.