During construction, The Gallup Organization, a nationally known polling and consulting company, became the project primary tenant, necessitating modifications to the building and public space design. The project was a neighborhood pioneer and a catalyst for surrounding development in the historic downtown.
Opportunity
The Gallup Building is a significant renovation and addition project, encompassing the 32,500 SF Old Masonic Temple, a four-story structure completed in 1869 with extremely high floor-to-floor heights including a 28-foot high second floor, a 130,000 SF addition, and several levels of underground parking. The Temple is an individually designated landmark of particular significance to the city, and the entire redevelopment project received Historic Preservation Tax Credits through review by the National Park Service.
Creation
The project retains the Temple’s floor-to-floor heights, aligning them with new floors in an addition. The new component extends to 120 feet and has four floors above the Temple, all surrounding a 1500 SF glazed atrium space. The original building walls form the south and west sides of an atrium accessed off Ninth Street NW between the Temple and the addition. Consequently, the public experience within the building is to understand the interaction of the new and old building components.
The facade of the addition extends the retail base of the Temple and the muscular horizontal banding that distinguishes the Masonic Temple. As the addition wraps the atrium and extends above the Temple, the building skin becomes increasingly abstract and transparent and is capped by a metal interpretation of the Temple cornice. The texture and rhythm of the openings resembles that of the larger old buildings in the locale, notably the Riggs and Atlas Buildings across F Street NW.
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