The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, named after former United States president Ronald Reagan, is located in downtown Washington, D.C., and was the first federal building in Washington designed for both governmental and private sector purposes. It is the second largest federal building after the Pentagon. At the time it was built, the Ronald Reagan Building was the most expensive federal building ever constructed, at a cost of $768 million.
All the organizations located in the Pennsylvania Avenue building are dedicated to international trade and global relations. Organizations headquartered in this building include U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was a tenant for many years until it was mostly dismantled in 2025. The first private sector lease was signed with investment banking firm Quarterdeck Investment Partners, Inc. The building hosts conferences, trade shows, cultural events, and outdoor concerts. Post-9/11, security requirements for high-profile federal buildings have limited the amount of public access anticipated by the center's designers.
History
20th century
The building is located near Federal Triangle station in Washington, D.C., an area once heavily populated with saloons and brothels. The federal government purchased the land in the 1920s, and it was to be part of the Federal Triangle redevelopment of the late 1920s and 1930s. Until development on the current building began, the area known as the "Great Plaza" was used as a massive downtown parking lot.
In the 1960s and 1970s, efforts were under way to finish Federal Triangle by building a large office building on the site of the parking lot. The first effort came in 1972, when the Nixon administration proposed building a $126 million office building on the lot in time for the national bicentennial in 1976.Eisen, Jack. "76 Finish Sought for 'Triangle. Washington Post. January 25, 1972. But this proposal was never seriously contemplated or funded. One outcome of the Nixon proposal was "the Weese Plan". The Nixon administration commissioned the architecture planning firm of Harry Weese & Associates to come up with a master plan for the continued development of Federal Triangle.Forgey, Benjamin. "Square Deal for Federal Triangle". Washington Post. May 24, 1998. The Master Plan, which was later called the Weese Plan, proposed a massive new federal office building on the parking lots of the Triangle and a new series of pedestrian paths throughout the complex, titled "Federal Walk". Federal Walk would not only be a network of sidewalks designed to showcase the architecture of Federal Triangle; it also included destinations such as spots for tourists to wait for tours of the interiors of each building, outdoor art, places for rest and contemplation, and cafes and restaurants. Federal Walk was gradually implemented in piecemeal fashion over the next 15 years, although it still remained incomplete as of 1997. The General Services Administration (GSA) held a competition in 1982 to select a design for a 10-story office building to replace the parking lot, but planning bodies refused to approve the plan.Miller, Tim. "GSA to Begin Selection Of Triangle Designers". Washington Post. February 20, 1982; Eisen, Jack. "Office Building on Great Plaza Denied". Washington Post. April 23, 1982.
Plans for construction of an office building on the Federal Triangle parking lot site found support in 1986. The Federal City Council, a private civic organization which had been promoting the construction of a $200 million international trade center in the District of Columbia, advocated construction of its proposed building at Federal Triangle.Mintz, John. "New Sites Eyed In District for Trade Center". Washington Post. May 23, 1986. Reagan administration officials favored the plan, and in October 1986 the proposal received the backing of the GSA.Havemann, Judith. "Trade Center Draws Support". Washington Post. October 30, 1986. The idea received support from Democrats in Congress as well, especially from Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a former Kennedy administration aide who had long championed completion of the Federal Triangle.Havemann, Judith. "JFK Planted Seeds After Inaugural". Washington Post. August 8, 1987. There was some opposition to the idea from planning officials and others, who were dismayed at the loss of parking in the downtown area and who feared that the trade center's proposed 1,300 to 2,600 underground parking slots would not be built due to poor soil conditions."It May Be Ugly, But at Least It's a Parking Lot". Washington Post. August 16, 1987. A bill was passed (almost unanimously) by Congress on August 7, 1987, to provide $362 million for the construction of an "International Cultural and Trade Center" on the parking lot at Federal Triangle.Havemann, Judith. "Completion of Federal Triangle Voted". Washington Post. August 8, 1987.
The plan was to provide office space for both the U.S. Departments of Justice and State. The legislation also provided that although the U.S. government would finance the building, a private developer would construct it. The federal government would lease space from the private developer for 30 years, after which ownership of the building would revert to the government.Crenshaw, Albert B. "Funding Plan Is Unusual For Government Building". Washington Post. January 17, 1990. The bill also required the building to be financially self-supporting within two years of its completion. The rental prices throughout the lease's term would remain stable. It was only the fifth time the government had signed a "lease-to-own" agreement. With of office space and of space for trade center activities, the planned trade center would be larger than any other federally owned building except for The Pentagon.
The bill also required that the trade center be "designed in harmony with historical and government buildings in the vicinity, ... reflect the symbolic importance and historic character of Pennsylvania Avenue and the Nation's Capital, and ... represent the dignity and stability of the Federal Government."McPherson, Harry. "A Winner On the Avenue". Washington Post. August 21, 1987. A nine-member panel was established to approve any plans, and included the Secretaries of State, Agriculture, and Commerce; the Mayor of the District of Columbia; and five members of the public."Five Named to Panel On Cultural Center". Washington Post. April 7, 1988. The building was expected to be completed in 1992. President Reagan signed the Federal Triangle Development Act into law on August 22, 1987."President Signs Federal Triangle Expansion Act". Washington Post. August 23, 1987.
Preliminary design specifications required that the final building be no taller than the existing Federal Triangle structures, be constructed of similar materials, emphasize pedestrian traffic, and have a "sympathetic" architectural style.Forgey, Benjamin. "Energizing the Great Plaza". Washington Post. April 18, 1987. An architectural model by the firms of Notter Finegold & Alexander, Mariani & Associates, and Bryant & Bryant depicted a building with a long, uninterrupted facade along 14th Street NW and two colonnaded hemicycles on the east side (matching the Post Office Department building's hemicycle). The preliminary design specs were criticized for not more clearly specifying the architectural style, for bringing another 10,000 new workers to Federal Triangle each day, and for reducing the required number of parking spaces by 30 percent to just 1,300.Hilzenrath, David S. "Huge Office Plan Draws Criticism". Washington Post. April 16, 1988. The five public members of the design committee were named on April 6, 1988, and were former Senator Charles H. Percy, chair; Harry McPherson, president of the Federal City Council; Donald A. Brown, chair of the Federal City Council's International Center Task Force; Michael R. Garder, a member of the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation; and Judah C. Sommer, a local attorney.
Groundbreaking on the now-$350 million building was scheduled for 1989, and completion in 1993. Disagreements broke out in mid-1988 over which federal agencies should take up residence in the structure, and whether they should be trade- or foreign-policy related.Hilzenrath, David S. "Plan to Move Justice Dept. Is Attacked". Washington Post. June 25, 1988; Hilzenrath, David S. "Federal Tenants Compete for Complex". Washington Post. December 3, 1988. Seven designs were submitted in June 1989, each incorporating a base-middle-crown structure and enclosed in traditional materials, including a limestone facade, vertical glass windows, and terra-cotta roof tiles.Forgey, Benjamin. "Competing to Complete the Triangle". Washington Post. June 10, 1989. Each design incorporated a new home for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (a Smithsonian Institution entity), an outdoor memorial to President Woodrow Wilson, and exhibition and retail space.
Construction began in mid-1989. Contractors estimated the cost of the building at between $550 million and $800 million, far higher than the anticipated $350 million original price tag.Hilzenrath, David S. "Bidding for a Federal Triangle Bonanza". Washington Post. June 10, 1989. The design committee picked the $738.3 million design submitted by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners in October 1989.Wheeler, Linda. "Federal Triangle Developer Picked". Washington Post. October 19, 1989. A consortium, the Delta Partnership, led by New York City developer William Zeckendorf Jr. and Larry Silverstein, was chosen to build and operate the building and lease it to the government. One of the firms that previously lost the contract for the building's construction subsequently challenged the bidding process."Development Company Challenges Award of Federal Triangle Contract". Washington Post. March 3, 1990."Another out-of-town firm shows interest in D.C". Washington Post. March 19, 2011.
Significant cost increases led to the project being mothballed by the George H. W. Bush administration. The GSA refused to sign the draft lease, arguing that the building's rental costs were too high and would cost, rather than save, the federal government between $18 million and $24 million a year.Hilzenrath, David S. "Ballooning Costs Delay Federal Triangle Project". Washington Post. July 20, 1990. Although Pei Cobb Freed agreed to investigate design changes to make the project less costly, at least one member of Congress declared the project dead. In September 1990, the architectural team made changes, which cut $82 million from the cost of the building, including eliminating two theaters, scaling down the reception hall, using plaster rather than stone, substituting aluminum for bronze in the trim, and reducing the size of interior doors, which reduced the building cost to $656 million.Hilzenrath, David S. "$656 Million Building Set for Federal Triangle". Washington Post. September 22, 1990.