One Step at a Time

Contracting Method Accelerates and Streamlines the $100 Million Rte. 28

By Tom Gibson

The National Archives and Records Administration is spending about $110 million over seven major projects to renovate its National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.

Once complete in the fall of 2004, the building's occupants - including theoriginal Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights will be better for it.

When deterioration in the glass encasements holding the Charters of Freedom documents was discovered in 1997, the National Archives embarked on a delicate renovation of the rotunda.

Marvin Pinkert, director of museum programs at NARA, describes the building's renovation as a "once-in-a-lifetime experience." The main thrust is to modernize the 1931-vintage structure and bring it up to various codes, improve storage conditions for documents and enhance the experience for people viewing them.

The first phase of the work - renovating the building's rotunda and spaces surrounding it - was completed in 2001and reopened to the public on Sept. 18,Constitution Day.

A second, overlapping phase of renovation will involve completing work throughout the building, including public spaces, the theater and research rooms on the ground and basement levels not associated with the rotunda.

Hartman-Cox Architects of Washington, D.C., serves as the architect. Grunley Construction of Rockville, Md., a firm specializing in historic renovation of occupied buildings, is the general contractor.

Sense of Urgency Planning for the renovation took on a sense of urgency in 1997 when deterioration in the glass encasements holding the Charters of Freedom documents was discovered. These include the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of
Rights, all displayed to the public in the building's rotunda.

NARA officials determined the Charters of Freedom should be taken off display for two years starting in July 2001 while new encasements were constructed for them. Meanwhile, a construction project to renovate spaces immediately surrounding the rotunda and those supporting it was accelerated.

The rotunda was previously used for public displays, but it could hold only a small number of records, and they were difficult for some people to view.

NARA wanted to dedicate the rotunda fully to the Charters of Freedom and open up space elsewhere for other attractions, so three floors of storage area were converted to public museum areas and exhibit galleries. New entrances, a museum shop and a research area are located within the new space. Fiber optic illumination of all the precious documents were designed and installed by a company that specializes in such work, Band, Inc., Red Hook, N.Y.

Changing Headroom The building was originally designed as a records depository, meaning few people at a time would work in the space. Twenty-one of the building's floors were only 7 ft.
apart, said Scott Teixeira, project architect for Hartman-Cox Architects.

The building had a concrete floor every 21 ft. and then two steel-deck floors at 7 ft. each. "We needed to improve the headroom, so we removed the lower six 7-ft. floors and replaced them
with three 14-ft. floors," said Patrick Alexander, project manager for NARA. Workers replaced the lighter decking floors with structural steel and concrete to support heavier loads.

"As far as mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems go, the project saw virtually a complete replacement of all the systems and components."

Alexander added that to meet the conditions for storage of the records, "we had to replace all the ductwork and the complete chiller plant. Before, the best we could do was about 72 or 73 degrees F and about 52 percent humidity. But for the long-term life of the records, the
conservationists wanted to get down to 65 degrees and 45 percent humidity."

The old chillers drew condenser water through two 36-in. lines from the nearby Tidal Basin. NARA wanted to get off that system because the water temperature was unpredictable and the
water dirty, resulting in erratic cooling for the building.

They chose to use cooling towers instead. Crews cut a big hole in the roof in one corner of the building, took three floors out and dropped four cooling towers onto the new roof by crane.

One Complication After Another "The other complicated piece of the job is we took an existing parking garage on grade and lowered it 15 or 20 ft. to make the new 300-seat movie theater, which is underneath the Constitution Avenue stairs," said Ken Grunley, president of
Grunley Construction. "A steam line running down Constitution Avenue used to heat buildings in the federal triangle coursed through the site, so they had to build a new steam tunnel under
the sidewalk before they dug out for the theater."

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