East Building Architectural Tour

Interior, Concourse and Foundations

Like the pilings that support the West Building, the East Building also rests on the underlying mud of the Mall, but it features a technology not available in 1937 when the West Building was constructed. The East Building has a reinforced concrete foundation 6 feet thick, poured in one continuous flow so that the basement is a water-tight unit that floats like a gigantic ship's hull.

Beneath the plaza, the two-story underground concourse connecting the old and new structures is engineered with waterproof friction joints. This eases any stresses while the four-block-long complex rises and sinks by millimeters each year.

Audio: I. M. Pei and Earl A. Powell III

The Connecting Link

RealAudio

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