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Hidden in Plain Sight:
Coast Guard Headquarters
Rises Above an Ocean of Constraints
by Steven K. Dickens, AIA, LEED AP All photos © James and Connor Steinkamp
At 1.2 million square feet in the new main building, the Douglas Homeland Security (DHS) on the West Campus of St. Elizabeths,
A. Munro U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters complex is among the the long-shuttered psychiatric asylum that was once home to some
largest buildings in Washington. Its site is quite visible from many 8,000 residents. The historic hospital campus is on a plateau at the
parts of the city’s monumental core. But the various architects top of a steep hillside sweeping down to I-295, the Naval Support
involved with the project—some of the most prominent names in Facility Anacostia (formerly Bolling Air Force Base), and the
U.S. architectural practice—pulled off an impressive trick: this Anacostia River. It has expansive views. The master plan established
massive complex keeps a very low profile, yet scores high on a variety of requirements aimed at keeping new construction at the
design aesthetic, user experience, and a number of other common- scale of the historic buildings and maintaining the greenery of the
sense and client-mandated requirements. hillside. (For the final master plan and pretty much anything one
might want to know about the process, history, social and physical
SmithGroup (now SmithGroupJJR) started the process in character of the site, see www.stelizabethsdevelopment.com.)
2006, creating a master plan to consolidate offices for the various
“mission critical” agencies of the newly-created Department of
18 HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT
