page_title: J. Edgar Hoover Building
section_title: Decay and potential replacement
hierarchical_section_title: J. Edgar Hoover Building / Decay and potential replacement
caption_attribution_description: English: The east facade of the J. Edgar Hoover Building (the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation) on 9th Street NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Chunks of concrete have broken free of the facade, exposing the steel reinforcing rods in the concrete to the elements. Wire netting below the ledge helps to contain pieces of concrete which might break free and injure pedestrians below. The office building, constructed in the Brutalist style, began construction in 1967 and was completed in 1975. Poorly designed, poorly constructed, and poorly maintained, chunks of concrete began breaking off the upper floors in 2006. A contractor removed loose pieces, and hung construction netting around the upper floors and at other points on the building to protect pedestrians on the busy streets below.
context_page_description: The J. Edgar Hoover Building is a low-rise office building located at 935 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It is the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Planning for the building began in 1962, and a site was formally selected in January 1963. Design work, focusing on avoiding the blocky, monolithic structure typical of most federal architecture at the time, began in 1963 and was largely complete by 1964. Land clearance and excavation of the foundation began in March 1965; delays in obtaining congressional funding meant that only the three-story substructure was complete by 1970. Work on the superstructure began in May 1971. These delays meant that the cost of the project grew to $126.108 million from $60 million. Construction finished in September 1975, and President Gerald Ford dedicated the structure on September 30, 1975.
  The building is named for former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. President Richard Nixon directed federal agencies to refer to the structure as the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building on May 4, 1972, but the order did not have the force of law. The U.S.
context_section_description: The FBI immediately closed the second-story pedestrian observation deck for security reasons when the building opened in 1975. It has not been reopened to the public since. The agency suspended public tours of the J. Edgar Hoover Building in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The tours remained suspended as of April 3, 2019.
  Structural problems with the J. Edgar Hoover Building became apparent around 2001. That year, an engineering consultant found that the building was deteriorating due to deferred maintenance and because many building systems (HVAC, elevators, etc.) were nearing the end of their life-cycle. The consultant rated the building as in "poor condition" and said it was not at an "industry-acceptable level".
  Additional studies of the building were made over the next several years. In 2005, a real estate consultant reported that the FBI's scattered workforce (then housed in the Hoover building and 16 other leased sites throughout the D.C. metropolitan area) and the Hoover building's inefficient interior layout were creating workforce inefficiencies for the FBI. Security upgrades, building systems replacements, and other renovations were suggested. At this time, GSA estimated that it would take three years to develop a replacement headquarters and identify a site, and another three years for design, construction, and move-in. The FBI began studying the costs and logistics of moving its headquarters later that year.
  In 2006, GSA estimated the costs of renovating the Hoover Building at between $850 million to $1.1 billion. Additional problems also became apparent that same year. A piece of the concrete façade came loose and fell onto the sidewalk on busy Pennsylvania Avenue NW. A contractor was hired to remove loose concrete from the exterior. Construction netting was hung around the upper floors to prevent additional pieces of concrete from crashing to the ground. The total cost of the concrete removal and safety netting installation was $5.9 million. In 2007, an architectural design and planning consultant reported that the cost of these renovations and the disruption to FBI work and staff were not justifiable. The consultant recommended building a new FBI headquarters.
  In 2008, a real estate appraisal firm was hired by GSA to further evaluate the J. Edgar Hoover building. The firm rated the construction of the building as average and the condition of the building below average. The consultant also said the Hoover building was inferior in both design and construction in comparison to other office buildings built at the same time. The appraiser also noted that even if GSA made all $660 million in identified urgent renovations, the J. Edgar Hoover Building would still not be classified as "Class A" office space.
  The onset of the Great Recession forced the FBI to suspend its efforts to build a new headquarters. In 2010, GSA downgraded the Hoover building from a "core asset" (a structure whose useful life is longer than 15 years) to "transition asset" (a structure whose useful life is six to 15 years). In making the downgrade, GSA decided to limit renovations to the building.
  In 2011, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) inspection of the Hoover building revealed additional major deterioration. Water seeping from the interior courtyard had corroded the concrete ceiling of the parking garage below. McMullan & Associates, a structural contractor, reported that the parking garage was "severely deteriorated", and that loose pieces of concrete were in "imminent danger of releasing" from the garage roof. McMullan & Associates called the issue life-threatening, and removed loose concrete to mitigate the problem. GSA also noted that the building basement was prone to flooding when it rained. GAO concluded that the building was "aging" and "deteriorating", that the Hoover Building's original design was inefficient, and that the building could not be easily reconfigured to create new workspace or encourage intra-agency cooperation.
  The GAO report also identified major security risks to FBI personnel in the D.C. metropo
caption: The deteriorating east facade of the J. Edgar Hoover Building, showing where concrete has fallen from the structure. Reinforcing steel rods inside the facade are now rusting.
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