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Constitution Center〔(Natarajan, Prabha. "Nassif Building Secures New Life After DoT Moves On." ''Washington Business Journal''. December 4, 2006. ) Accessed 2011-04-20.〕 (formerly known as the David Nassif Building) is an office building located at 400 7th Street SW in Washington, D.C.〔(Krouse, Sarah. "SEC Takes Nearly 1 Million Square Feet at Constitution Center." ''Washington Business Journal''. August 4, 2010. ) Accessed 2011-04-20.〕 It is high and has 10 floors.〔(Rein, Lisa. "Constitution Center: All Dressed Up but Missing a Suitor." ''Washington Post''. October 2, 2009. ) Accessed 2011-04-20.〕 Covering an entire city block, it is the largest privately owned office building in the District of Columbia.〔 Current tenants include the Federal Housing Finance Agency〔(Medici, Andy. "House Panel Seeks to Relocate Federal Trade Commission." ) ''Federal Times''. March 13, 2012. Accessed 2012-07-03.〕 and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.〔(Krouse, Sarah. "OCC to Take Space at Constitution Center." ''Washington Business Journal.'' January 20, 2011. ) Accessed 2011-04-20.〕 As of February 2014, Constitution Center was worth $725.8 million, making it the most valuable, taxable property in the city.〔(Neibauer, Michael. "There's a New Most Valuable Property in D.C." ''Washington Business Journal''. February 3, 2014. ) Accessed 2014-02-03.〕 ==Original structure== In the 1950s, the U.S. Congress, then the governing institution of the District of Columbia, undertook the Southwest D.C. urban renewal project, the first in the capital district and one of the earliest such programs in the nation.〔Banks and Banks, 2004, p. 41.〕 In 1946, Congress passed the District of Columbia Redevelopment Act, which established the District of Columbia Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA) and provided legal authority to clear land and funds to spur redevelopment in the capital.〔Committee on the District of Columbia, 1978, p. 112.〕 Congress also gave the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) the authority to designate which land would be redeveloped, and how.〔 The RLA was not funded, however, until passage of the Housing Act of 1949.〔Gutheim and Lee, 2006, p. 260.〕 A 1950 study by the NCPC found that the small Southwest quarter of the city suffered from high concentrations of old and poorly maintained buildings, overcrowding, and threats to public health (such as lack of running indoor water, sewage systems, electricity, central heating, and indoor toilets).〔〔Gutheim and Lee, 2006, p. 266–267.〕 Competing visions for the redevelopment ranged from renovation to wholesale leveling of neighborhoods, but the latter view prevailed as more likely to qualify for federal funding.〔Gutheim and Lee, 2006, p. 267–271; Banks and Banks, 2004, p. 42.〕 Original plans called for the demolition of almost all structures in Southwest Washington beginning in 1950, but legal challenges led to piecemeal razing of the area until the mid-1950s. Issues surrounding the planning and construction of L'Enfant Plaza (immediately to the west of the site) delayed construction of any buildings on the block until the late 1960s. In 1963, the RLA purchased the land from the Westminster Memorial Church, Fifth Baptist Church, and homeowners.〔〔(Historic American Buildings Survey, p. 109. ) Accessed 2011-04-20.〕 The United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare wished to purchase the site for its new headquarters, but the RLA declined to sell the property.〔 (The federal government does not pay taxes on land and structures it owns, and the RLA wanted a private owner who would add to the tax base.) The RLA attempted to sell the land on January 29, 1965, but there were no buyers.〔 The building was constructed pursuant to an agreement between the General Services Administration (GSA) and Boston developer David Nassif, Sr. In July 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson began planning to unite various disparate transportation agencies into a new United States Department of Transportation.〔Rose, Seely, and Barrett, 2006, p. 134.〕 GSA (the property owner and manager for the U.S. federal government) began seeking to lease or build a structure to house the new agency in late 1965.〔Kessler, Ronald. "GSA Ex-Aide Hits Jackpot on Lease." ''Washington Post''. August 9, 1970.〕 Donald T. Kirwan, chief of GSA's leasing division, knew Nassif from a previous lease negotiation, and discussed with him the siting of a building and its size.〔 Nassif approached the RLA on April 21, 1966, and asked to buy the newly razed block of land bounded by 6th, 7th, D, and E Streets SW.〔 In May 1967, GSA sent a letter to Nassif advising him that it was likely to lease the entire structure he intended to build.〔 The $5.9 million land purchase was finalized on October 30, 1967.〔 The cost of the structure is unclear. On November 15, 1967, Nassif had secured a $39 million construction loan.〔 But ''The Washington Post'' pegged the cost of the building at $27 million in July 1968.〔Goodman, S. Oliver. "D.C. Building Plans Skyrocket in June." ''Washington Post''. July 11, 1968.〕 The newspaper said in August 1970 that the cost of the structure was $26.5 million.〔 The building was designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone, who also designed the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.〔 On April 11, 1968, GSA leased the entire building from Nassif for 20 years for $98 million.〔〔 John A. Volpe Construction was the chief contractor.〔 Construction began in July 1968 (although it was delayed for a very short time when unionized ironworkers at the site went on strike) 〔Koprowski, Claude. "500 Striking Rodmen Tie Up 60 Local Building Projects." ''Washington Post''. July 11, 1968.〕 and was completed in 1969.〔 The main entrance faced 7th Street SW.〔Sharkey, Jane. "Marble-Face Office Building to Rise in Capital." ''New York Times''. October 1, 1967.〕 It included a central courtyard (open to the sky) which featured a fountain, footpaths, benches, and landscaping.〔〔 Four high arcades pierced the building in the center of the block on each side, creating access to the courtyard.〔〔 The facade's vertical marble ribs were obtained from the same quarry near Carrara, Italy, that provided the marble for the Kennedy Center.〔(Historic American Buildings Survey, p. 109–110. ) Accessed 2011-04-20.〕 The finished building had 10 floors, three basement floors, overhanging eaves, and of space ( of usable space).〔〔(Historic American Buildings Survey, p. 110. ) Accessed 2011-04-20.〕 It was the largest privately owned office building in the city at the time.〔 Kirwan's contacts with Nassif later became the subject of a legal investigation. Kirwan not only shared inside information with Nassif about leasing plans of the GSA, he later invested in Nassif's D.C. business and became an officer in it.〔 This relationship (Kirwan left GSA in December 1966, before the letter indicating intention to lease was set to Nassif), and GSA's irregular leasing of the building, became public knowledge in August 1970.〔 An internal GSA audit was critical of the leasing process and the costs of the lease.〔"GSA Keeps Wraps on Audit Of DOT Headquarters Rental." ''Washington Post.'' August 13, 1970.〕 That same month, refinancing of the building was called into question. In the U.S., it is common business practice for the initial lender to provide an interim loan (the "construction loan") to build a building. The interim loan is then paid off by a second lender, who becomes the mortgage lender and receives payments from the building's owner. Riggs Bank, a local D.C. bank, had provided the interim construction loan to Nassif. The New York City Employees Retirement System was to have paid off this construction loan. That payment was halted when the loan officer Nassif had dealt with was indicted for taking bribes to approve loans.〔Kessler, Ronald. "Indictment Stalls Loan On DOT Office Building." ''Washington Post''. August 12, 1970.〕 When the pension fund refused to provide the loan, Riggs Bank sued for payment and threatened to foreclose on the Nassif Building.〔Kessler, Ronald. "Riggs Bank, N.Y. Fund Sued On $39 Million D.C. Building." ''Washington Post''. September 12, 1970; Kessler, Ronald. "Bribe Probe Snags DOT Building Loan." ''Washington Post''. September 13, 1970.〕 From 1969 until 2007, the Nassif Building served as the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).〔 The building was designed to have removable interior walls to permit easy reconfiguration of the interior space.〔(Grass, Michael E. "SEC to Expand Into Denuded Edward Durrell Stone Building." ) ''Washington City Paper''. August 5, 2010. Accessed 2011-04-20.〕 In November 1970, the federal government exercised its powers of eminent domain and seized control of the three-story basement parking garage from Nasif in order to provide inexpensive parking for DOT workers.〔Eisen, Jack. "U.S. Takes Over Parking Garage." ''Washington Post''. November 5, 1970.〕 Over the years, so many government workers complained of ailments while working in the structure that some believed it suffered from sick building syndrome.〔 David Nassif Associates, owner of the building, disputed these claims.〔 However, when the Department of Transportation announced it would leave the building in 2000,〔The Dept. of Transportation built a new headquarters at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, which it occupied as of June 2007. See: Haggery, Maryann. "Transportation Dept. Shops for New Headquarters Site." ''Washington Post''. August 16, 1999; Spinner, Jackie. "GSA Picks 4 Sites For DOT Offices." ''Washington Post''. March 11, 2000; ("Contractors Move Forward on Transportation Building." ''Washington Business Journal''. February 16, 2004 ), accessed 2011-04-20; ("Green Roofs in the District - Showcase Projects." Department of the Environment. District of Columbia. April 10, 2009 ), accessed 2011-04-07.〕 the owners promised a $100 million renovation that included a new air ventilation and cleaning system as an inducement for the agency to stay.〔 The owners also unsuccessfully sued the General Services Administration in 1999 to force it to renew the federal lease on the building.〔 The Department of Transportation completed their move out of the Nassif Building and into their new headquarters in June 2007. The L'Enfant Plaza Metro station opened an escalator entrance in the structure's north arcade on July 1, 1977.〔〔"Metro's Newest Stations: Where They Are, What's Nearby." ''Washington Post''. June 24, 1977.〕 The entrance was one of two which opened that day (Metro Blue Line's opening day).〔 The third entrance (inside the L'Enfant Promenade underground shopping center at L'Enfant Plaza) opened in October 1977.〔 In June 1992, Virginia Railway Express opened the $1.1 million VRE L'Enfant Station on Virginia Avenue SE (about a half block north of Constitution Center).〔Masters, Brooke A. "Red Tape May Delay Va. Commuter Rail." ''Washington Post''. April 4, 1991; Fehr, Stephen C. "Getting on Track." ''Washington Post''. June 18, 1992.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Constitution Center (Washington, D.C.)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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