The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building houses the main offices of the

Board of Governors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulations ...

of the United States'

Federal Reserve System The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a series of ...

. It is located at the intersection of 20th Street and

Constitution Avenue Constitution Avenue is a major east–west street in the Northwest, Washington, D.C., northwest and Northeast, Washington, D.C., northeast quadrants of the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was originally known as B Street, and ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

The building, designed in the

Stripped Classicism Stripped Classicism (also referred to as Starved Classicism or Grecian Moderne) Jstor is primarily a 20th-century classicist architectural style stripped of most or all ornamentation, frequently employed by governments while designing officia ...

style, was designed by

Paul Philippe Cret Paul Philippe Cret (October 23, 1876 – September 8, 1945) 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 Pennsyl ...

and completed in 1937. President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

dedicated the building on October 20, 1937. The building was named after Marriner S. Eccles (1890–1977),

Chairman of the Federal Reserve The chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is the head of the Federal Reserve, and is the active executive officer of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The chairman presides at meetings of the Board. ...

under President Roosevelt, by an

Act of Congress An act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. Acts may apply only to individual entities (called Public and private bills, private laws), or to the general public (Public and private bills, public laws). For a Bill (law) ...

on October 15, 1982. Previously it had been known as the Federal Reserve Building.

Architectural competition

From 1913 to 1937, the Federal Reserve Board met in the

United States Treasury building The Treasury Building in Washington, D.C., is a National Historic Landmark building which is the headquarters of the United States Department of the Treasury. An image of the Treasury Building is featured on the back of the United States ten-do ...

on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., while employees were scattered across three locations throughout the city. In response to the

Banking Act of 1935 The ''Banking Act of 1935'' passed on August 19, 1935, and was signed into law by the president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, on August 23. The Act changed the structure and power distribution in the Federal Reserve System that began with the '' Bankin ...

, which centralized control of the Federal Reserve System and placed it in the hands of the Board, the Board decided to consolidate its growing staff in a new building, to be sited on

and designed by an architect selected through an invited competition. The principal officials overseeing the competition were Charles Moore, chairman of the

United States Commission of Fine Arts The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States, and was established in 1910. The CFA has review (but not approval) authority over the "design and aesthetics" of all construction wit ...

, and Adolph C. Miller, a member of the Board since 1914. Miller drafted a statement to help the competing architects understand the concerns of Board, explaining that the traditional style of public architecture – with columns, pediments, and generous use of symbolic ornamentation – would not be of the utmost concern.

In describing the character of the building as governmental, it is not, however, intended to suggest that its monumental character should be emphasized. It is thought desirable that its aesthetic appeal should be through dignity of conception, proportion, scale and purity of line rather than through stressing of purely decorative or monumental features. For this reason it is suggested that the use of columns, pediments and other such forms may be altogether omitted and should be restricted to the character of the building as above described.

Proposals were received from architects such as

John Russell Pope John Russell Pope (April 24, 1874 – August 27, 1937) was an American architecture, architect whose firm is widely known for designing major public buildings, including the National Archives and Records Administration building (completed in 193 ...

and

James Gamble Rogers James Gamble Rogers (March 3, 1867 – October 1, 1947) was an American architect. A proponent of what came to be known as Collegiate Gothic architecture, he is best known for his academic commissions at Yale University, Columbia Univer ...

. Ultimately, the winner of the competition was the simplified classical design by

. File:US Federal Reserve Eccles Board building construction 1936.jpg, The Eccles Building under construction in 1936 File:US Federal Reserve Eccles Building 1937.jpg, The Eccles Building in 1937

The architect and the design

Cret was a naturalized U.S. citizen who had trained at the in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

s and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He was invited to the United States in 1903 to establish the department of architecture at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, and established his own practice in 1907. His first major commission was the

Pan American Union Building The Pan American Union Building is the headquarters for the Organization of American States. It is located at 17th Street N.W. between C Street N.W. and Constitution Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D.C. History The cornerstone was laid on May 1 ...

, in Washington, D.C. (1908). Designed with Albert Kelsey, it was a building in quintessential Beaux-Arts style, with a classical

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

, rich ornamentation, and allegorical references to the goals of the organization. This led to many other commissions for war memorials, civic buildings, court houses, and museums in cities such as

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, and Washington, D.C. By 1935, under the influence of Modernism, Cret's style had evolved toward the

of buildings such as the

Folger Shakespeare Library The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materia ...

(1929–32). But true to the Beaux-Arts tradition, he oversaw every aspect of the building project, including technical and aesthetic details. His firm made more than 300 freehand sketches, measured plans, site plans, elevational studies, and perspective drawings, each of which could contain front, side, and top views, and sectional details when necessary. The four-story building, with an exterior of Milford pink granite, is in the shape of the letter ''H'', with the space on either side of the building's center forming east and west courtyards. The interior has a two-story atrium with dual staircases and a skylight etched with the outline of an eagle. The atrium floor is of marble and its walls are of

travertine Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and rusty varieties. It is formed by a process ...

marble. The largest meeting space is the two-story Board Room. Construction of the building began in 1935 and was completed in 1937. Its pragmatic classicism captured the spirit of Depression-era and wartime Washington, a city determined to remain grand but with nothing to spare on the non-essential.

Ornamentation and furnishings

Cret employed nationally recognized artists to complete the ornamentation and furnishing of the building. Sidney Waugh designed the eagle on the front facade, the building's only three-dimensional sculpture which was carved by the

Piccirilli Brothers The Piccirilli Brothers were an Italian family of renowned marble carvers and sculptors who carved many of the most significant marble sculptures in the United States, including Daniel Chester French’s colossal ''Abraham Lincoln'' (1920) in the ...

, while John Gregory carved bas-reliefs for the exterior of the C Street entrance. Samuel Yellin, a noted wrought-iron craftsman from Philadelphia, designed and executed numerous railings, gates, and fixtures throughout the building. Milford pink granite was used as a building material. Mural artist

Ezra Winter Ezra Augustus Winter (March 10, 1886 – April 6, 1949) was a prominent American muralist. Biography Winter was born in Traverse City, Michigan, trained at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1908, and the American Academy in Rome in 1914. Winte ...

painted a large map of the United States for the Board Room, and sculptor Herbert Adams created memorials to President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...

and Senator

Carter Glass Carter Glass (January 4, 1858 – May 28, 1946) was an American newspaper publisher and Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician from Lynchburg, Virginia, Lynchburg, Virginia. He represented Virginia in both houses of United Stat ...

to occupy niches in the main lobby. The furniture was produced by W. & J. Sloane, New York, with the architects having the final responsibility. The building is undergoing both interior and exterior renovations as of September 2022, with plans approved by the National Capital Planning Commission in September 2021.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Eccles Building
Federal Reserve

(New York FED) Art Deco architecture in Washington, D.C. Buildings of the United States government in Washington, D.C. Federal Reserve Bank buildings Buildings and structures in Foggy Bottom Government buildings completed in 1937 Office buildings completed in 1937 Office buildings in Washington, D.C. Paul Philippe Cret buildings Sculptures by the Piccirilli Brothers