Official name: Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center Built: 1998 Designed by: Pei, Cobb, Freed & Partners; Ellerbe Becket Type: Government Building Maximum Height: 125 feet / 38 meters Location: 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, United States
Description by United States General Services Administration A rchitect James Ingo Freed, of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, designed the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The structure’s brilliant exterior design with its traditional Indiana limestone façade, blends in perfectly with the surrounding historic buildings, while its dramatic and contemporary interior proclaims and celebrates the 21st century.
The building features a magnificent interior framework of stone, steel and glass crowned by a soaring, 10-story rotunda and a majestic, cone-shaped skylight comprised of an acre of glass.
Distinctive works of art grace the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center at strategic points.
Three exquisite new works of art were created for the building through the U.S. General Services Administration's Art-in-Architecture Program. The GSA program commissions fine art for Federal buildings nationwide that "reflects our country’s cherished and strongly held belief in the worth of the individual and the value of creative expression." Out of 250 nominations, the GSA commissioned works from Martin Puryear, Stephen Robin and Keith Sonnier. Their works are on display in the building’s most dramatic spaces -- the Atrium and the Woodrow Wilson Plaza.
A fourth work of art, the Oscar S. Straus Memorial Fountain, with sculpture by Adolph Alexander Weinman, was installed on the site in 1947. The memorial has been restored and returned to its original location at the 14th Street entrance of the Ronald Reagan Building.
