Photo
By Brian Gassel/TVS |
Washington
Convention Center/Washington, DC
Joint Venture Architects
Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback
and Associates/Atlanta,
Georgia
Devrouax
& Purnell Architects Planners/
Washington, DC
Mariani
Architects Engineers/
Washington, DC
Owner
Washington County Convention Authority/Washington, DC
Size/Cost
2.3 Million sf/$700 Million
TLC Services
CT
The new Washington Convention Center is the first project
ever to receive both the American Institute of Architects
national Honor Award for architecture and the Urban Land
Institute's Award of Excellence. Prior to development
of the convention center, the design team was faced with
the challenge of creating the largest enclosed gathering
space in the nation's capital on a relatively small footprint
of 600,000 sf. The result was the first vertically stacked,
long-span convention center in the country. The 2.3 million-sf
building was designed to minimize the impact on the surrounding
neighborhoods while respecting the city's historic street
grid. This was accomplished by extending two east-west
streets through the facility, stacking the meeting and
exhibition space on multiple levels and putting more than
40 percent of the facility below ground. Moving most of
the exhibit space down, instead of up, lessened the enormous
height and mass of the structure while providing a 473,000-sf
subterranean exhibit space in three exhibit halls. The
project includes three buildings over a three-block area
between Seventh and Ninth streets. Pedestrian bridges
and tunnels link the buildings and allow for traffic circulation.
TLC’s Communication & Technology specialists
worked closely with the design team to meet the project's
diverse needs, especially with the architects in designing
the telecommunications rooms due to the center’s
unique architectural design. We provided design services
for voice/data distribution, new phone switch specifications,
and internal cell phone switch sites.
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