United States General Services Administration Building
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Interior Department Offices
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U.S. General Services Administration Building-E Street facade, March 2009
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| Location | Eighteenth and F Sts. NW, Washington, District of Columbia |
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| Coordinates | 38°53′48″N 77°2′35″W / 38.89667°N 77.04306°WCoordinates: 38°53′48″N 77°2′35″W / 38.89667°N 77.04306°W |
| Area | 3.6 acres (1.5 ha) |
| Built | 1917 |
| Architect | Sup. Architect of the Treasury; Butler,Charles |
| Architectural style | Classical Revival, Beaux Arts |
| NRHP Reference # | 86003160 |
| Added to NRHP | November 23, 1986 |
The U.S. General Services Administration Building is a historic office building located at Washington, D.C.. It was built originally to house offices of the United States Department of the Interior.
The U.S. General Services Administration Building, originally designed for the U.S. Department of the Interior, was the first truly modern office building constructed by the U.S. Government and served as a model for federal offices through the early 1930s.
New York architect Charles Butler (1871–1953) designed the innovative building in his capacity as consultant to the U.S. Treasury Department's Supervising Architect Oscar Wenderoth (1873–1938). Butler's design, patterned after private office buildings in New York and Washington, DC, allowed for the substantial amount of natural light necessary for the many architects, draftsmen, pressmen, and scientists working in the building. Construction of the restrained Neo-Classical building began in 1915 and was completed in 1917 at a cost of $2,703,494.
The Department of the Interior occupied the building from 1917 until 1937, a period significant in the department's history. The activities of the National Park Service were conceived in the sixth floor offices of Interior Secretary Franklin K. Lane. The U.S. Geological Survey, the largest tenant in the building, determined which public lands would be closed to development and conserved for their mineral and water resources. In 1921-1922 the building was the locus of the "Teapot Dome" scandal involving Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall. Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, oversaw construction of dams, fully developed the National Park Service to provide recreational needs, and served as the first Federal Administrator of Public Works. They moved to the Main Interior Building.
In 1939, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) became the building's primary occupant. PWA activities were subsumed into the newly created U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) in 1949 and the building was renamed the U.S. General Services Administration Building. In 1986 the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allowed the construction of glassy, energy-efficient new infill space in the GSA building's East courtyard, and the modernization of half of the rest of the building. This new space, and an open floorplan, allowed employees from previously leased buildings in Crystal City and elsewhere to be moved into this historic building, which saves lease costs and serves as an example for other federal agencies. It continues to house GSA including the Public Buildings Service—the largest and most diversified real estate organization in the world.
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