Herbert C. Hoover Building

The Herbert C. Hoover Building extends over three city blocks with a grand eastern facade featuring twenty-four fluted columns in Doric colonnade formation.

Construction began in 1927, and President Herbert Hoover laid the cornerstone in 1929 using the same shovel George Washington used for the Capitol Building.

The Malcolm Baldrige Great Hall, formerly a Patent Search Room, now functions as the White House Visitor Center within the Department of Commerce headquarters.

The building contains over 3,300 rooms across seven floors, providing 1.8 million square feet of office space for Department of Commerce operations.

The structure rests upon 13,500 concrete piles above an ancient riverbed of Tiber Creek, which connected to the Potomac River in the early 1800s.

Location: Washington, D.C.

Inception: 1927

Architects: Louis Ayres, York and Sawyer

Official opening: 1932

Architectural style: Greek Revival architecture, neoclassicism

Floors above the ground: 7

Floors below the ground: 1

Part of: Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site

Address: 1401 Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC 20230 20230

GPS coordinates: 38.89417,-77.03278

Latest update: May 27, 2025 11:51