Project Description
The Arlington County Department of Human Services needed a new home to consolidate numerous disparate locations into a comprehensive campus of community focused programs. Architecture, Inc. was selected to fully renovate a three-building campus known in Arlington as Sequoia Plaza for a total of approximately 230,000 sf. The entire campus was repositioned and rebranded as the new home for the Department of Human Services. Achieving this goal involved development of a complex renovation strategy to address the diverse needs of this multi-bureau County agency, and balanced with the physical constraints and opportunities presented by the existing buildings.
The project was phased to permit existing programs to be relocated and newly vacated spaces renovated for other programs to take their place. To allow incremental occupancy of the project by phases, the design team obtained multiple building permits for the project. This allowed each floor to be finalized and occupied while construction progressed on other floors of the building. Construction progressed from the top down, so the top floors and the main entry lobbies were completed first and occupied upon their completion. As floors were completed, the owner was able to occupy the respective floor as progress continued.