John McShain Builders Sites

The eastern half of the former General Services Administration Regional National Capital Office Building was built under the New Deal in 1933-35.   The Public Works Administration (PWA) contributed $1,750,000 towards the project and the Treasury Department paid the rest, $850,000. The purpose of the expansion was to add ~400,000 square feet of space for a consolidated home of the Treasury Department's Procurement Division, whose workers had been spread out across several buildings in the District. Originally meant to be an addition to the Procurement Division's building across 8th Street to the west, completed in 1932, the addition was simply integrated into the...

The first Washington DC airport was built during the New Deal.  Long known as National Airport, it was renamed for former President Ronald Reagan in 1998. Most locals still refer to it by its former name. Construction began in 1938, after "President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced at a press conference that he was 'tired of waiting for Congress' to select a site for the new airport and said that it would be built on mudflats on a bend of the Potomac River at Gravelly Point, 4 miles south of the District of Columbia." (Airport Authority website) Several federal agencies were involved in...

In 1934, the Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the expansion of the White House West Wing, which houses the Executive Offices of the President of the United States.  The West Wing contains the Oval Office, Cabinet Room, Situation Room, and Roosevelt Room.  The West Wing's four floors also contain offices for the vice president, chief of staff, counselor to the president, the senior advisor to the president, the White House press secretary, and their support staffs. There had been three expansions of the West Wing prior to the New Deal, in 1902, 1909 and 1929, but this one was the most thorough-going. When Franklin...

The Jefferson Memorial was built to honor the author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Such a memorial had long been proposed, but it was only realized under the New Deal, 1939-1943.  It remains one of America's most beloved monuments to this day.   The design is based on the Roman Pantheon and Jefferson's own love of classical architecture, as shown in his design of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia. It is built of white Danby marble from Vermont and is elevated on a circular platform of granite and marble, with steps...

The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center began life as the National Naval Medical Center under the New Deal. Congress appropriated the funds in 1937 and President Franklin D. Roosevelt selected the site in Bethesda, Maryland.   Architect Paul Cret designed a magnificent Moderne building with a tower that still delights (though much obscured by subsequent additions to the complex).  Construction began in 1939.  FDR laid the cornerstone of the famous tower on Armistice Day 1940, and the center opened soon thereafter (probably some time in 1941, not 1940 as most sources say). According to the official Center website, "The President’s vision was to...