Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC

Named after Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, the Rayburn House Office Building is the third of three office buildings constructed for the United States House of Representatives. Completed in 1965, the building accommodates one hundred sixty-nine representatives, nine committees, and numerous amenities to facilitate the work of the House. This project was a Life Safety upgrade and began in 2000

This was a design-bid-build project, covering approximately 2.4 million square feet, that lasted two and a half years. NFP installed around 9000 sprinklers, two electric fire pumps in the sub-basement, an 8” feed main loop for tie-in to the underground piping, and 6” sprinkler system risers for all four quadrants of the building. The sprinkler system installation was performed above existing plaster ceilings in the congresspersons’ suites, and the risers were installed behind existing chase walls.

One of the challenges of this project was working in a building that remained occupied during construction. The work was performed at night, while making sure that all areas, including work areas, remained accessible to the building’s occupants during the day. Additionally, all of the work areas were secure and our workforce had to coordinate with the occupants and Capitol Police in order to achieve existing systems shut downs and final system acceptance testing.

The Life Safety Upgrade of the Rayburn House Office Building was the recipient of the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) Award of Merit in 2002.