Southwest Federal Center is a business district in
Southwest Washington, D.C., nearly entirely occupied by offices for various branches of the
U.S. Government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...
, including many of the museums of the
Smithsonian Institution.
Southwest Federal Center lies between Independence Avenue and the
National Mall
The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institut ...
to the north, the Southeast-Southwest Freeway (
Interstate 395) and the Washington Channel to the south, South Capitol Street to the east, and 15th Street SW to the west.
Several
U.S. Cabinet
The Cabinet of the United States is a body consisting of the vice president of the United States and the heads of the executive branch's departments in the federal government of the United States. It is the principal official advisory body to ...
Departments have headquarters or large office complexes in the area, including the
Agriculture (including a separate building dedicated to the Forest Service),
Transportation,
HUD,
Health and Human Services,
Education, and
Energy Departments. The most prominent are the Department of Agriculture, which is housed in a neoclassical building complex that lines both sides of Independence Avenue, and the arcing high-rise of HUD, which is characterized by a unique installation of illuminated fiberglass rings in its 7th Street plaza. Additionally,
NASA Headquarters is located in a large building at the corner of 4th and E Streets. The
Bureau of Engraving and Printing is also located in the Southwest Federal Center area.
The office buildings for the
U.S. House of Representatives line Independence Avenue on the south side of the
U.S. Capitol; two of these, the
Rayburn and
Ford House Office Buildings, are located in Southwest Federal Center (although the Ford building is not actually located on Independence Avenue, but is on 3rd Street between D Street and Virginia Avenue SW).
The Smithsonian museums in Southwest Federal Center include the
Hirshhorn Museum, the
National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States.
Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...
, and the
Museum of the American Indian, the
Freer and
Sackler galleries, the
National Museum of African Art, and the
Arts and Industries Building
The Arts and Industries Building is the second oldest (after The Castle) of the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Initially named the National Museum, it was built to provide the Smithsonian with its first proper facil ...
, as well as the
Smithsonian Castle that forms the main offices for the Institution. The
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, though not affiliated with the Smithsonian, is also located in the vicinity.
The few non-governmental businesses in the neighborhood include five hotels, St. Dominic's Catholic Church, a few restaurants, a power station for the neighborhood, the First District police station, and commercial spaces (e.g., convenience stores, bank branches, coffee shops, etc.) in the lobbies of the hotels and office buildings. Also,
L'Enfant Plaza, a multi-building complex and
promenade that includes both government and civilian offices (as well as an indoor shopping mall), is located off Independence Avenue.
The Southwest Federal Center is served by the
Smithsonian and
Federal Center SW Metro stations on the
Orange,
Blue,
Silver Lines, and by the
L'Enfant Plaza station on the
Green,
Yellow,
Silver, Orange, and Blue Lines.
{{Neighborhoods in Washington, D.C.