Winter/Spring 2003

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NBC Leads Renovation of the DOI Building in Washington, DC

In 2003, a new fire pump was installed in the basement mechanical room.

By Dirk Meyer and Roberta Richardson

The barrier walls are in place at the end of the main corridors and the usually busy hallways of the sixth or northwestern most wing now house a much different type of activity. Employees and visitors alike may think that the construction activities have recently begun in the Main Interior Building, but in actuality a great deal of construction has been occurring for many months now. Most of the work has been behind the scenes, in areas such as the Central Plant, located in the basement or in what is in referred to as the M-floor. M-floor is an entire floor located between the 5th and 6th floors devoted to mechanical equipment. Easily over a million dollars worth of work every month has been occurring for almost a year before those partitions went up The Profile will endeavor to keep you abreast of the progress, by providing updates on the construction and information on enhancements to improve work life and safety at the Main Interior Complex. This will be what we hope is first in a series of seven articles addressing the design parameters which shaped the scope of the renovation project. The project is spread over six phases and upon completion will provide a more healthful, safe and efficient work environment. We have earmarked seven categories the architects had to consider in arriving at the design solution to this facility; life safety, environmental safety, security, historic preservation, sustainability, accessibility and technology. As any good design is a fusion of complimentary and sometimes contradictory parameters, there will be overlap in the issues, but our first area of focus is life safety. Even though great efforts have been expended to insure the construction is as seamless and unimposing on the original historic building fabric as possible, an obvious change occupant will recognize will be the construction of a new stair tower near the end of each of the twelve wings. "Remoteness" is a term building code experts use to define desired placement of exit stairs when designing a building. Providing two different means of egress, connected by exit access corridors, allowing the building occupant to travel in opposite directions, is a basic premise of all model building codes. Additionally, the industry has learned through actual fire related fatalities, what can happen when occupants travel the wrong way in a smoke filled corridor, only to find that there is no stair and they have to return from the way they came. Currently, all of the stair towers are located near the main corridor and therefore, each wing results in a "dead end " corridor in which occupants could possibly travel a great deal in excess of the code required maximum distance before they realized they went the wrong way. Additionally, the new stair will satisfy the concept of remoteness allowing the occupant two alternative means of travel to a stair, if they occupy a wing. This improvement will also satisfy a number of other issues such as the minimum door size, the hourly fire protection rating required of egress stair towers and other issues required of today's building codes. Unfortunately, the stair tower design lacks what would be required of non-federal buildings constructed within the District. According to Dirk Meyer, Program Manager for the Modernization, "Unfortunately, GSA has consciously decided to ignore the building code requiring that stair towers serving levels greater than 75' above the level of exit discharge be constructed as "smoke-proof" enclosures." What the code is trying to eliminate is the possibility that smoke from the fire floor could rapidly contaminate the stair due to change in air temperatures. One area where GSA has provided a considerable service to the occupants of the DOI is in the acceleration of a portion of the future fire alarm system, which offers public address capabilities. At the urging of the NBC, Facilities staff strobes and speakers have been temporarily placed throughout most of the building, As each phase is constructed these devices will be permanently mounted, however, until that time the system will be used in conjunction with the needs of the Building's Occupant Emergency Plan. Even considering all of the proposed changes to the building, the design of the MIB was very progressive for its day. When this building was first constructed a great deal of thought went into fire sprinklers, fire detection systems, and security systems. An automatic fire sprinkler system was installed in the garage and storage areas and a fire detection system was provided the mechanical floor.

The current renovation will provide all areas of the building with smoke detection and fire suppression capabilities. Areas subject to freezing such as the garage, which currently has a "wet" fire sprinkler system, will be retrofitted with a "dry" system. State of the art is not new to the Department of Interior. It was cutting edge for the MIB to be designed with central air conditioning, and the Interior was the as well as the first federal building to have an escalator, and a central vacuum system.

When the Interior was being built in the 1930's then Secretary Ickes spent a lot of time and energy considering what would make his employees lives at work safe. In addition, Secretary Ickes was interested in the morale and welfare of his employees. He provided a nice place for employees to get away from their desks to have lunch by building a large indoor cafeteria, including a courtyard outside for warm weather, along with the South Penthouse with its' own soda fountain. The original planning of the Main Interior included a swimming pool. Secretary Ickes was a very athletic man and thought that a gym and pool would be great for employees to stay healthy, unwind and would be a great morale builder. As you know the gym is still operating, however the pool didn't receive much support.

Because Secretary Ickes had such concern for his employees, the planning of the new Interior Building was done with the employee's safety and welfare in mind. So much attention was given to the details of the aesthetics' as well as the function, this building was one of the most functional and innovative government office structures during the 1930's. The next article will focus on issues of environmental safety and welfare proposed in the Modernization.