Planners Push For Smithsonian Takeover Of Federal Buildings On Chopping Block

The federal government this year has fast-tracked plans to shrink its real estate footprint, giving a handful of huge, underutilized office buildings just south of the National Mall a chance for a second life.

The Trump administration in recent weeks has approved the accelerated disposition of five buildings in a cluster of Southwest D.C. that has been eyed as the District's next major redevelopment opportunity. 

Local and federal officials have been discussing a vision for a mixed-use district with multifamily and retail that would connect the Mall to waterfront megaproject The Wharf. But one influential planning body sees the buildings as an opportunity to meet a longstanding need: more space for Smithsonian Institution museums.

The National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees how federal lands are used, has been looking to expand the National Mall for more than 15 years — but now that efforts to dispose of the massive federal properties in the area are becoming a reality, commissioners say the opportunity has finally arrived.

“It just makes sense,” NCPC Vice Chair Elizabeth Hewlett said at the commission’s June 5 meeting. “The Smithsonian comes to us on a regular basis. There’s a new museum proposed, a new museum proposed. And they’re all worthwhile. But we’re so limited on space, and this is opportunity knocking, and I think we should find a way to seize it.”

The Smithsonian is in need of sites for at least two planned museums: the National Museum of the American Latino and the American Women’s History Museum.

The institution’s board of regents pinpointed two “optimal” sites in 2022: undeveloped properties near the National Museum of African American History and Culture and near the eastern banks of the Tidal Basin.

During that search, NCPC sent a letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch highlighting the possibility of expanding the Mall, rather than building on undeveloped land, which would reduce the Mall's green space.

Now, as several blocks of federal buildings are set to become available just south of the Mall, officials say expansion effort should be the priority.

“There’s a tremendous opportunity if we can get out of the mindset of ‘we’re selling this building like it’s a commercial development project,’” NCPC Commissioner Evan Cash, who is also the committee and legislative director for D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson, said at the meeting.  

There are five buildings in the Southwest corridor slated for “accelerated disposition”: the headquarters for the Department of Energy and Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Regional Office Building, the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building and the Liberty Loan Building.

The DOE’s 1.8M SF Forrestal Building stretches from Ninth Street to 12th Street on Independence Avenue, directly across from the Smithsonian Castle.

HUD’s four-winged, 1.1M SF Robert C. Weaver Federal Building stands above the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station.

Nearby are the General Services Administration’s 845K SF Regional Office Building and the 1.2M SF Cohen Building, which the U.S. Agency for Global Media plans to depart. The Liberty Loan Building, a bit farther west, spans 141K SF near the Tidal Basin.

The GSA, the federal government's real estate arm, has the power to determine how it will offload these properties, as well as any others slated for future disposition.

Typically, it has a requirement to offer up properties it wants to get rid of for nonprofit or public use before putting them on the market. But being labeled for “accelerated disposition” allows them to go straight to sale, according to federal real estate professionals. 

The GSA hasn't yet indicated its intentions for how it will dispose of these properties. The agency and the Smithsonian didn't respond to Bisnow's requests for comment.

Members of the Public Buildings Reform Board, a body created by Congress that recommended some of the Southwest buildings for disposition, have discussed a mixed-use transformation of the properties.

At the board’s January meeting, an architect presented a vision for 13.3M SF of mixed-use development on a series of federal properties in Southwest D.C. 

That came after PBRB Member Dan Mathews, a former GSA public buildings commissioner, said at a December Bisnow event that he sees the Southwest federal cluster as a huge development opportunity akin to The Yards in Southeast D.C.’s Capitol Riverfront neighborhood.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser proposed $1.5M in her fiscal year 2026 budget “to develop a Master Plan for Southwest DC as a new mixed-use community that maximizes its proximity to the National Mall.” Speaking at Bisnow’s D.C. State of the Market event last week, Bowser said her administration has “been working in a pretty focused way” on creating a vision for the Southwest federal cluster. 

But given D.C.’s budget challenges and issues in the commercial development market, Cash said it is hard to imagine a major mixed-use project moving forward anytime soon.

“The economics, especially what’s going on in D.C. right now — we’re not going to build another Wharf, we’re not going to build another Capital Riverfront down there,” Cash said. “In light of what’s been going on over the past year, in light of the Smithsonian coming to us every few years for a new museum and us just going crazy, I think there’s a tremendous opportunity.”  

When asked about the potential for new Smithsonian museums in the cluster, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Nina Albert said “the Smithsonian could certainly be a part of that future for Southwest DC, particularly in areas near the National Mall.”

“As federal office buildings come online for other uses, we are focused on ensuring they are not only quickly filled, but also become vibrant hubs of activity,” she said in a statement. 

In an interview with Bisnow Thursday, Cash said he wants to hear what the Bowser administration envisions for the site, and he doesn’t think NCPC’s desire to use buildings for Smithsonian museums would be out of step with the city’s goals. But he said he doesn’t think every property should simply be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

“So maybe the federal government should look at whether there's a different way they can offload these buildings at something less than fair market value, just to make sure that we get the highest and best use out of the properties,” he said.

At the NCPC meeting, Cash raised the idea that anything in the block between C Street and the National Mall be an “automatic ‘we’re just going to give this to the Smithsonian.’”

Commission members began discussing the Smithsonian's needs at the June 5 meeting after hearing a presentation about the Urban Land Institute's new Technical Assistance Panel report that looked at repurposing the Forrestal Building.

In addition to Hewlett, NCPC Commissioner Tammy Stidham, a land and planning director for the National Park Service in the National Capital Region, echoed Cash's sentiment.

“We need to extend the Mall, and this is an opportunity, and it’s a space for Smithsonian, it’s a space for memorial sponsors — it can be a great connection — we need someone to see that vision and take the chance,” she said.

The TAP report mentions the potential for museum uses in the area.

The report, which was sponsored by the NCPC and the Public Buildings Reform Board, suggests a redevelopment scenario for Forrestal in which it would be transformed into 3.7M SF of “uses likely to succeed based on current market factors.”

Those uses included 800K SF of museum and cultural uses as well as 2,773 residential units, a 286-room hotel, 200K SF of office and 74K SF of retail. 

“One possibility would be to divest at least a portion of the site to public benefit users, including cultural institutions such as the Smithsonian, health care organizations, universities, or non-profits,” the report says.

And it recommends the public benefit user be identified in the predisposition process. 

“I think there's definitely an opportunity to expand the presence of the Smithsonian and other cultural institutions as we think about the redevelopment of these sites,” Norman Dong, who chaired the TAP and presented the report to NCPC, told Bisnow in an interview this week. 

“It comes back to having that kind of comprehensive plan and vision for the neighborhood and to understand how the proposed reuse of these sites fits within that vision,” he said.