The last construction barriers have been removed, the pneumatic hammers have fallen silent, and the final displaced employees have returned.
After 17 years, the job of renovating the Pentagon is complete. Little remains to be done but
the paperwork closing out the $4.5 billion program, which when it began was the world’s largest reconstruction project.
Constructing the building took just 17 frenetic months during World War II and remains one of the great engineering feats in U.S. history.
The Pentagon renovation, however, went on for so long that the first parts completed are showing their age, and some equipment — including fire alarms and electrical and mechanical systems — are already being upgraded.
Yet the remaking of the 6.5 million-square-foot, 29-acre site is considered such a success in industry circles that its “design-build” techniques have influenced other federal projects, including the rebuilding of levees by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans as well as the construction of a new research facility for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado.
