sTRUCTURE, sTRUCTURAL

In keeping with the theme of pretty faces presented to the public, this facility’s design and program attempt to convey an aesthetic sense of governmental pragmatism. The materiality of the building is constrained to steel and glass from structure to skin. The building’s main public foyer, lecture rooms, and site history exhibit sit above a grid of white I-beams, as does the enigmatic central volume. This grid extends upward to support the cantilevering glass laboratories. These are also bolstered by a series of three concrete shafts. Encircling these shafts, are panel-clad staircases, one of which is accessible to public entry and exit traffic and two of which are dedicated to faculty and personnel entry. Heads poke out above these tall-sided staircases, hinting at the secretive circulations of the facility members into and out of their hidden rooms. Further teasing occurs on the third floor. Here, the public can actually access a space within the central volume: an auditorium for lectures and screenings from the personnel. Knowing that one is inside of this secretive space - that this volume isn’t wholly impenetrable - offers confidence about one’s autonomy of experience regarding the building. But of course, the federally-curated lectures and films held here might only be further extensions of the architecture itself: prettied-up,watered-down, partial-truths.