---
title: Federal Overhaul … of D.C. Buildings
date: 2024-11-25T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/federal-overhaul-of-d-c-buildings"
section: Articles
---
# Federal Overhaul … of D.C. Buildings

*November 25, 2024* — by [Maggie Haslam](/author/maggie-haslam)


> Architect Working With City Proposes New Life to 4 Underused Sites

*Shutterstock 104423270 1920x1080 — The sprawling J. Edgar Hoover Building could have a second life when the FBI moves its headquarters to Maryland in just over a decade, says a UMD architecture professor who envisions alternative futures for D.C.'s stock of aging federal office buildings.*

The FBI Headquarters fits into the urban fabric of Washington, D.C., like a rayon leisure suit in a collection of silk blouses. The bleak, blocky building in the brutalist style (sideburns-era, all-concrete), nestled among its neoclassical counterparts on Pennsylvania Avenue, is a low-rise low point in the architectural annals of a monumental city.

When the FBI relocates to Maryland in 2036, however, the building site could have a second life, said University of Maryland architecture Professor Matthew Bell.

“It’s a real 1970s period piece,” he chuckled, of the 1.7-million-square-foot property. “But it could be mixed-use, residential or entertainment and add new public space to the inventory of great places in that part of the city.”

For the past 30 years, Bell has devised new possibilities for the nation’s changing capital as a principal of the global design firm Perkins Eastman. His projects—which range from D.C. schools and libraries to master plans for university campuses and city neighborhoods—have helped enliven communities across the District. Alongside UMD alums Christian Calleri M.Arch. ‘01 and Bhavi Venkitaraman M.Arch., M.C.P. ‘21, Bell’s team most recently proposed a new concept plan to the National Planning Commission for the tangled web of freeways around the Kennedy Center.


*community center at sunset — Architecture Professor Matthew Bell and his team at Perkins Eastman designed a new community center and master plan for the 25-acre McMillan Reservoir Site, a former federal water filtration site, which stands to be one of the D.C.’s newest mixed-use urban districts. (Photograph by Andrew Rugge. Copyright Perkins Eastman)*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation](https://today.umd.edu/topic/school-architecture-planning-and-preservation)