The U.S. Department of Agriculture South Building is an office building located at 14th Street and Independence Avenue, Southwest, Washington, D.C.

History

It was built beginning in 1930, to house the expanded offices of the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

(USDA). Construction was completed on the

U.S. Department of Agriculture Administration Building The U.S. Department of Agriculture Administration Building, also known as the Jamie L. Whitten Building, houses the administrative offices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. The Administration Building projects into the ...

to the north of Independence Avenue in 1930, but

Depression-era The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

agriculture programs demanded far more office space than the main building could provide. The phased construction was completed in 1936. The building was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2007. Completed in 1936, the South Building was the largest office building in the world until the completion of the

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...

, with dimensions of by in seven stories with 4500 rooms. The building's design is credited to Louis A. Simon of the Federal

Office of the Supervising Architect The Office of the Supervising Architect was an agency of the United States Treasury Department that designed federal government buildings from 1852 to 1939. The office handled some of the most important architectural commissions of the nineteenth ...

. The South Building was joined to the Administration Building by two enclosed

pedestrian bridges A pedestrian separation structure is any structure that removes pedestrians from a roadway, street or railway track. This creates a road junction where vehicles and pedestrians do not interact. This can be considered a type of grade separati ...

spanning Independence Avenue, thus consolidating USDA operations into one complex. The new building contained laboratory space as well as offices. It was originally referred to as the "Extensible Building", which could be expanded in a phased fashion. Phasing was necessary due to the time required to acquire such a large parcel of land. The architecture of the South Building is a stripped-down example of

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aestheti ...

, with plain detailing that borrows from Classical form and proportion without using a great deal of expensive and time-consuming detail. The style became popular for government buildings until the advent of the

Modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

style in government architecture, reaching its apex at the Pentagon. In the case of the South Building, the lesser level of detail indicated its subordinate position vis-à-vis the Administration Building. The interior is based on a rigidly-enforced network of corridors; only the departmental auditorium and library deviate from the corridor grid. Interiors are even more plain than the exterior. The building is arranged in seven north-south wings, connected at the ends by the Headhouse (facing Independence Avenue) and Tailhouse (facing C Street). The 12th and 14th Street elevations were planned to be seen from 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 ...

and so were sheathed in

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

. The C Street and Independence Avenue elevations, which are not visible from the National Mall, used brick as the primary material, with limestone and

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

detailing. The 14th Street elevation also features a monumental entrance with sixteen

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

columns. Elsewhere,

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

panels between windows feature depictions of animals native to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

by sculptor Edwin Morris. Since the relocation of laboratory space to the

Beltsville Agricultural Research Center The Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC), also known as the National Agricultural Research Center, is a unit of the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. It is located in unincorporate ...

, the South Building has been occupied exclusively by offices.

References

External links

Agriculture South Building
at the

General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. gover ...

History of the Washington USDA complex with links to construction pictures
{{National Register of Historic Places Government buildings completed in 1936 Department of Agriculture South Building Department of Agriculture South Building Department of Agriculture South Building Department of Agriculture South Building Department of Agriculture South Building South Building

History

See also

References

External links