Ronald Reagan Building
and International Trade Center

Washington, DC

The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center is the largest building (3.1 million square feet with five below-grade levels and ten above-grade levels) in Washington, DC and is owned by the United States General Services Administration.

As the first and only federal building dedicated to both government and private use, the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center has been mandated by Congress to bring together the country’s best public and private resources to create a national forum for the advancement of trade. In addition, the building houses a premier conference and event center, executive office space, ample meeting and event facilities, and dining opportunities.

Construction began in 1990 and the building was officially dedicated in 1998. Today, the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center is a “crown jewel” on Pennsylvania Avenue. With its skylight soaring upward, its Trade Center reaching out to the world, and its landscaped plazas and entrances on all sides welcoming visitors, the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center is the nation’s newest “architectural triumph” and most majestic landmark.

The domed Rotunda on Pennsylvania Avenue is the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center’s signature feature and “front door” to the world inside. Through the 14th Street entrance, the eight-story foyer gives way to the building’s most dramatic interior feature, a cone-shaped, horizontal glass skylight that soars from 35 to 125 feet over the 170-foot-diameter Atrium. The skylight comprises an acre of glass. As it widens from 30 to 110 feet, the Atrium serves as the pedestrian “spine” of the building, leading out to the Woodrow Wilson Plaza, the Federal Triangle Metro station, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan Place.

The fire protection systems fully provided by National Fire Protection consist of two 10” service entrances, each with an independent fire pump system. The facility contains approximately 33,500 sprinklers and over 300 fire hose valves on multiple standpipes. In addition, the facility contains 31 dry pipe valve assemblies, two double-interlocked preaction valve assemblies, and 206 wet sprinkler zone control assemblies. The above described atrium skylight is protected by a custom fabricated brazed copper wet sprinkler piping system concealed in the spines of the framing.