The United States Tax Court Building is a courthouse located at 400 Second Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C. , in the Judiciary Square neighborhood. It serves as the headquarters of the United States Tax Court . Built in 1972, the building and its landscaped plaza occupy the entire block bound by D Street, E Street, Second Street, and Third street.
16-489: Government officials selected architect Victor A. Lundy to design the building in 1965. They awarded Lundy the contract without competition. The design follows the "Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture" issued by the Ad Hoc Committee on Federal Office Space at the request of President John F. Kennedy in 1962. In an attempt to improve federal buildings, the committee recommended architecture that would convey
32-585: A central cantilevered courtroom block, and a landscaped plaza. Despite enthusiastic support for the project, the Vietnam War triggered funding cuts that delayed construction until 1972, when GSA secured a site and held a groundbreaking ceremony. The completed building was dedicated on November 22, 1974, the fiftieth anniversary of the Revenue Act that created the court. Employees occupied the building on January 20, 1975. Due to escalating construction costs,
48-483: A sense of where you are and of the sky outside". The building's exterior forms indicate the interior spatial arrangements. The interior is defined by a four-story central public hall, also called the Hall of Justice, crowned by a clerestory roof that admits light into the space. Lundy created a hierarchy of interior spaces through his use of materials. The walls of the public hall consist of exposed, board-formed concrete and
64-922: Is also well known for his World War II Sketches that were donated to the Library of Congress in 2009. In 1942, Lundy was 19, studying to be an architect in New York City. He was enlisted in the Army Specialised Training Program (ASTP). During 1944, he joined the 104th Infantry Division , a sub-division of the 26th Infantry division of the US Army. He trained at Fort Jackson , before sailing from New York departing on 27 August 1944, to Cherbourg , arriving on 7 September 1944. He spent time in Normandy in September before moving to
80-467: Is considered a significant engineering accomplishment. Compression and post-tensioned bridges, steel cables hidden within the building's walls, and six slender columns together support the imposing 4,000-ton cantilevered courtroom block, which projects over the entrance. The compression and tension bridges also function as interior circulation bridges. In uniting the interior and exterior of the building, Lundy stated, "Inside this building, you will always have
96-630: Is listed in the National Register of Historic Places . Lundy was born in New York City on February 1, 1923. He was honored by the Smithsonian on his 90th birthday in 2013. A film on his life and work, entitled "Victor Lundy: Sculptor of Space" was premiered by the GSA on February 25, 2014. Lundy turned 100 in February 2023, and died on November 4, 2024, at the age of 101. Lundy
112-753: The "dignity, enterprise, vigor, and stability of the American Government". Designers and officials were encouraged to pay special attention to site selection and layout, including landscape development. In the 1930s, the U.S. Board of Tax Appeals, later renamed the Tax Court of the United States, was housed in the Internal Revenue Service Building in the Federal Triangle . By 1956, overcrowding and
128-508: The Atlantic crossing; Cherbourg Harbor ; and French villages. Many vivid portraits of fellow soldiers and frontline danger also fill the pages. The sketches cover May to November 1944 when Lundy was wounded, with some gaps where notebooks were lost. The eight surviving sketchbooks are spiral bound and 3 x 5 inches --small enough to fit in a breast pocket. Lundy used black Hardtmuth leads (a drawing pencil) and sketched quickly. "For me, drawing
144-611: The Western Front by November. He drew out his experiences from training at Fort Jackson (May 1944) to his journey across the Atlantic and then his time in France. In total, he produced a visual diary with 158 pencil sketches brings to life the wartime experience. Lundy applied his drawing skills to what was around him--training at Fort Jackson , South Carolina; forced marches; men at rest; the PX and tents; New York Harbor; aboard ship in
160-628: The ceilings. Lundy designed the plaza, located on the Second Street side of the building, with a central reflecting pool flanked by landscaped areas. Interstate 395 runs directly beneath the plaza. Victor A. Lundy Victor Alfred Lundy (February 1, 1923 – November 4, 2024) was an American architect. An exemplar of modernist architecture , he was one of the leaders of the Sarasota School of Architecture . His Warm Mineral Springs Motel , outside Warm Mineral Springs, Florida ,
176-484: The desire to separate judicial and executive powers led to initial attempts to relocate the court. In 1962, Secretary of the Treasury Douglas Dillon appealed to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to incorporate funds for the design of a new building in its upcoming budget. GSA subsequently allocated $ 450,000. In 1966, GSA approved Lundy's concept for a building with strong end masses,
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#1732783005013192-428: The exterior bronze-tinted glass curtain wall. The floor is covered with Royal Pearl granite pavers. The same granite also surfaces the original security desk in the center of the hall. The upper three stories of the hall consist of projecting cantilevered galleries that provide circulation for the upper stories. A screen of louvered teak strips extends from the second to fourth floors and allows natural light to filter into
208-543: The front with office blocks on each side and to the rear. These four components surmount a single-story base called the podium. The building is clad in flame-treated Royal Pearl granite from Georgia and bronze-tinted, heat-absorbing, glare-reducing glass with slim bronze-anodized aluminum mullions. Lundy's use of materials and voids between blocks articulate the units. Lundy employed state-of-the-art engineering technology to achieve his design. The building's structure not only allowed Lundy's design to be securely executed, but also
224-404: The plans for the U.S. Tax Court Building as "a progressive, sensitive, contemporary solution fully responsive to Washington's classical tradition and yet fully part of the mid-20th century - a period of exceptional vigor and beauty in the history of structure and design". The building presents itself as a cube that has been deconstructed into four units: a dramatic cantilevered courtroom block on
240-471: The plaza was not completed until 1981. Lundy's design won a GSA Honor Award in the first Design Awards Program held in 1972. Describing the building, Lundy stated, "What I've done is taken a monolithic block and broken it apart". The building displays the culmination of Modern design principles coupled with technological advances that allowed for a new type of building. Hailing the design in 1967, New York Times architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable described
256-416: The spaces. The hall ceiling is covered in tongue-in-groove hemlock planks. The courtroom block projects from the east wall of the public hall. On the third floor, a large ceremonial courtroom is flanked by two smaller courtrooms. A curved wall encloses the central courtroom, which contains a semi-circular judges' bench. Courtrooms are finished in full-height teak veneer panels and strips. Hemlock grilles cover
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