Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-25
NEW COMMERCE
BUILDING TO TAP
SUBSURF ACE FLOW
Cooling System Designed for
Secretary's Offices With
Old Tiber Creek Waters.
$4,000 CONTRACT LET
AND PLANS UNDER WAY
Plant Will Be Similar to Those at
White House and in Senate
and House.

The cool waters of old Tiber Greek.
long since turned into a subterranean
stream, will be used in a new air-cool-
Ing system to be installed in the private
Offices of the Secretary of Commerce.
and his immediate assistants.
This water, which seeps under the Qi-
gantic new Department of Commerce
building, has been found to be much
cooler than the water in the city mains.
especially during the terrific heat of a
Washington Summer, and will be the
principal source of supply for the new
air conditioning system.
"A contract has been let to the Car
rler Air Conditioning Co., in the sum
OF ABOUT $82, 900 to install a plant SINH
lar TO the ones used at the White House
executive offices, and in the Senate and
House. Plans are being drawn and the
new cooling system will be installed as
Inc building is under completion.
Inc air conditioning system was not
ment Of Commerce Building. Who was
instrumental in having it installed has
not been disclosed, but it was learned
that the success which has attended
the installation of the cooling system
In the White House led indirectly to
the installation of a similar system in
the new Department of Commerce.
Building without System.
The new Department CT Agriculture
Administrative Building, which was the
frst new departmental building COM
pleted in the Governments building
program here does not include anv
Sucn cooling system for the executive
offices of the Secretary of Agriculture.
Neither does the private Office of the
commissioner of internal revenue, in
the new Internal Revenue Building,
recently completed, have any such
cooling system.
The introduction of the device in
the new Department Of Commerce led
to conjecture as to whether this is
the hrSt step in a program to cool
the private offices of all members of the
Presidents cabinet.
The members of the cabinet are
familiar now with the relief afforded
by the cooling system at the White
House. The cabinet meets twice weekly
with the President in the cabinet room
in the executive Offices, where the tenn
perature in the Summer is cut down
far below the street heat. The in
creased efficiency of a cooled Office as
well as the more pleasant atmosphere
which it affords has been a source Of
discussion among many visitors to the
executive Offices and was believed to
have appealed to the whole personnel
of the Presidents official family.
The conditioning system to be In.
stalled in the Department of Commerce
will be placed partly in the basement
and partly in the attic to cool the
secretary's whole suite of rooms on the
fifth floor. These rooms are located
on the Fifteenth street front of the
building overlooking the Ellipse. The
cooling system chills water by refrig-
Grafton then sprays it through a space
through which air is forced to wash
and chill the air before delivery to the
Offices.
Temperatures Compared.
Temperature readings conducted last
Summer showed that while the tenn
perature of the water in the city mains
stood at 80 degrees, the temperature Of
the water of the underground stream.
formerly known as old Tfber Greek,
was "a.
This underground water proved one
of the interesting problems in con-
Structing the Department of Commerce.
1t was necessary to place the whole
building on a series of concrete piles.
In driving these piles, it was discovered
that the water pressure from under
ground was so great that a deep sea
diver was brought in in order to re-
lieve it. A huge hole was dug in the
ground, many feet below the street
level, the diver in helmet and inflated
rubber suit, descended below the water
level and dug down this hole still
deeper, until it was more than 20 feet
below the level of the deep excavation
for the subbaSement of the building. A
powerful electric pump was then set to
work to suck water out of this hole.
This reduced the water pressure on the
new concrete piles.
1t is near the spot where this deep
sea diver was working that the con-
tractors plan to tap the source of sup
ply of the Subterranean stream. The
water still is flowing toward the Poto-
mac, according to engineers, in much
the same general direction that in years
long ago, old Tiber Greek flowed to-
ward the river, draining large area.
Rapidly Taking Shape.
The new Department of Commerce
building is rapidly taking shape under
the joint efforts of the Treasury De-
partment, York 81 Sawyer, architects,
and the Consolidated Engineering Co.
Of Baltimore, general contractors. The
building is now about 80 per cent COM
plete, according to an estimate by Fred
NJ. Kramer of York e. Sawyer.
One of the most conspicuous interior
features is the large lobby on the
street side of the building,
which has just been cleared of the large
amount of scaffolding used in finish
ng the marble and interior decorative
work. Several columns of dark, colored
marble lend distinction to this i'm
1ressive entrance to the Governments
argest office building.
The lobby will look out over what will
De the Grand Plaza, an open space of
landscape architecture,
stretching from Fourteenth street al
most IN Twelfth street