Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building, Washington, DC

Location: 1849 C St NW, Washington, DC 20240

Building History

Built between 1935 and 1936, the Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building represents President Franklin Roosevelt’s renewed emphasis on managing the nation’s natural and historic resources. With 3 miles of corridors, 15 acres of office space, 4,432 windows, and 22 elevators, the mammoth building is utilitarian in plan and austere in elevation, but is also embellished with architectural ornamentation and art, including a notable collection of murals. 

After outgrowing its previous headquarters, the Department of the Interior began searching for a site big enough to house its branches, including the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and U.S. Geological Survey. Harold L. Ickes (1874–1952), secretary of the Interior from 1933 to 1946, was actively involved in the design and construction, and the contemporary press referred to the building as Ickes’ new home. Ickes personally selected local architect Waddy Butler Wood (1896–1944), who enjoyed a distinguished and prolific career in Washington with the firm of Wood, Donn and Deming until after 1914, when he continued in his own practice. Wood is responsible for prominent institutional buildings, as well as fine residences that now serve as embassies. The Department of the Interior is one of his final works. 

Ickes worked closely with Wood to ensure the building incorporated the latest technological advances in office building construction. The building has a dedicated mechanical floor between the fifth and sixth floors, not frequently seen in the 1930s, as well as early versions of a central air-conditioning system, central vacuum system, and parking garage. It was the first federal building to have escalators, and one of the first to implement acoustic plaster to aid in noise reduction. Ickes wanted his employees to work in a functional, modern environment, and the building had amenities including an auditorium, broadcast studio, employee’s lounge, gymnasium, and library. An art gallery, museum, and Indian arts and crafts shop were built to showcase the Department of the Interior’s work across the country.

The building has been exceptionally well preserved, and in 1986 it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Architecture

The Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building encompasses two square blocks. The building’s plan maximizes the area and allows every office an exterior window. Six transverse wings run east to west between Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets and are connected perpendicularly by a central spine running between C and E streets.

Wood’s austere facade is sophisticated in design and execution. A one-story projecting base, clad in Milford pink granite, wraps the building. Above, the building is clad in buff Indiana limestone, laid in a regular ashlar pattern. On the primary, C Street, facade, the base opens and terminates on either side of the entrance with a pylon embellished with a Greek fret pattern and surmounted by a marble urn resting on a bronze pedestal. The pylons flank a graceful staircase leading to the five entrance doors clad in decorative bronze grilles and framed by bold granite door surrounds. The façade forms a tripartite composition horizontally and vertically. Above the granite base, a colossal colonnade of pilasters framing vertical window bays extends the width of the limestone building from the third through fifth floors. Above the center entrance doors, the facade plane is recessed and square columns form a loggia with a neoclassical, bronze balustrade. Above the heavy cornice, the sixth and seventh floors form an attic with a frieze embellished with bas-relief medallions representing the thirteen original states. 

The east and west elevations are marked by the transverse wings, which create a rhythm of U-shaped light courts. An eighth floor, located above the central spine of the building and not visible from the street, originally housed the building’s broadcast studio and employee’s lounge.

Wood employed rich materials in the north and south lobbies. The floors are made of dark Creole Georgian and white Georgian marble in tessellated geometric panels. The walls are finished in both buff Indiana limestone and gray Tennessee marble with a buff Champlain black marble base. The ceilings are acoustic stone and molded plaster. The two lobbies are connected by escalators flanking a grand staircase with white marble steps and a bronze balustrade with a modified Doric grille design.

The double-height auditorium on the first floor has a herringbone pattern, fumed oak floor, Indiana limestone walls and pilasters, bronze grilles, and bas-relief sculptures on the stage wall. A gilded plaster eagle is centered above the stage, and the room’s curving, dark Creole marble balcony stair has a bronze balustrade.

The secretary of the Interior’s private office suite encompasses the entire southwest wing on the sixth floor and boasts floor-to-ceiling fumed oak paneling, a marble fireplace, a shallow, segmental vaulted ceiling, and two chandeliers with antique bronze finishes weighing three hundred pounds each.

The building houses thirty-eight major works of art, most of which were funded through Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. The murals and sculptures cover subjects ranging from the department’s conservation efforts to Native American ways of life.

In 1997, a multi-year project to restore the building’s historic features and improve energy efficiency was begun. In keeping with the Department of the Interior’s conservation mission, a green roof was installed in 2008. In 2010, it was renamed in honor of Stewart Lee Udall (1920–2010), who served as secretary of the Interior from 1961 to 1969.

Building Facts

Architect: Waddy Butler Wood

Construction Dates: 1935–1936

Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places 

Architectural Style: Stripped Classical

Primary Materials: Milford Pink Granite; Indiana Limestone

Prominent Features:

• Large collection of New Deal artworks
• Classical facade
• Secretary’s office suite with oak, bronze, and marble finishes