The new headquarters of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, located in Northeast, is nearing completion, according to a General Services Administration spokesman.
The 438,000-square-foot building, in the area north of Massachusetts Avenue known as NoMa, was built because the agency’s old headquarters at 650 Massachusetts Ave. NW did not meet security requirements enacted after the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The new headquarters is one of the first new federal buildings to meet the government’s most stringent security standards.
“We’ll be done in the next few weeks, and moving in shortly after,” GSA spokesman Michael McGill said. “It incorporates all [federal security standards] including a 100-feet set-back [from the street], progressive collapsible walls and laminated windows” that help prevent glass shattering.
The headquarters is at the corner of Florida Avenue and Second Street NE, across the street from the New York Avenue Red Line Metro station. It was designed by architect Moshe Safdie.
The building includes 8,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.
Originally expected to cost $121 million, the price tag has now risen to $138 million, according to GSA.
The area, which is slated for $1.2 billion in development in the coming years, also is popular with the private sector, with XM Satellite Radio and CNN offices in the area.
