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The current FBI building is spatially inefficient and a maintenance nightmare. Even if it did meet the FBI's security needs, it is not a suitable candidate for renovation.

@Matt Johnson

The reason the Post editorial calls for a PG location is because if you consider the three main requirements the FBI has (1. needing a lot of space, far more than their current downtown location has; 2. needing good transit access via metro as per GSA guidance; and 3. needing the most stringent security requirements), the only plausible locations are suburban, and the vast majority would be in Prince George's.

Personally, I think the security requirements (stand-off distances, etc) are over the top, but fighting that fight is a losing cause. It's never going to be truly urban. Maybe ATF-ish is the best case scenario.

Likewise, insisting that it not use an existing Metro station is counter-productive in my mind. Those of us with a regional mindset blast BRAC's decision making process for moving jobs into secure sites away from transit, yet then flip this around and say 'yeah, but not THAT transit stop.' Major jobs centers like this need to be linked to transit. The Pentagon isn't much in terms of urbanism, but it's well linked by transit and is a major job center - enough that spillover demand from contractors helped fuel Crystal City and Pentagon City.

The campus might not be the ideal built form for a Metro station, that's true. But you could do a lot worse than dropping 17,000 jobs on top of one.

by Alex B. on Nov 21, 2011 5:25 pm • link • report