Architecture shapes our own experience of who we are and where we are in the world. Buildings are not inanimate objects, but opportunities for human contact that frame our understanding of place.
Especially when these constructions are large complexes that generate a strong impact on their entire environment.
For this reason, Grupo Edisur made a list of the 12 architectural works that stand out for their dimensions and we will get to know them one by one each month this year. We begin with “Volume 4: the United States Pentagon.”
What is it about?
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense and is located in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington, DC. It was for decades the largest administrative building in the world, until in 2023 it was surpassed by the Diamond Exchange. of Surat in India.
From a bird’s eye view, you can see its pentagonal shape from which it takes its name. It covers an area of 2,359,000 square meters (608,000 built-up area) and measures 22 meters high, divided into five known floors and another seven classified ones.
Approximately 23,000 employees (military and civilian) and nearly 3,000 support personnel work there.
A little history…
In the 1940s, the United States War Department had a problem that made its task difficult: it lacked its own headquarters for its operations. Its offices were distributed among 17 buildings and employees already numbered 24 thousand.
This is why the Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson, decided that it was urgent to build a place that would bring everyone together in record time.
A pharaonic project
That task fell on the shoulders of Colonel, and later General, Brehon B. Somervell. However, the building he had in mind was too large and would not fit in Washington. Even for the country where he invented skyscrapers, the dimensions being considered were enormous.
This added to the fact that the almost 3 million square meters had to be deployed in width and not height, so as not to cause an impact on the capital’s landscape.
According to legend, the pentagonal shape of the building was designed by architect Edwin Bergstron, based on the topography of the plot where it was originally going to be built. However, President Roosevelt believed that it would have a great impact on the city and ordered it to be moved a few kilometers from the American capital. The works began on September 11, 1941.
Strong controversies
In those first weeks, the project tried to remain secret. However, its execution required congressional approval, so the press soon echoed some sensational information. Among them, the budget: 83 million dollars.
Some also questioned the fact of concentrating all security forces in the same place or Roosevelt’s intention for the Pentagon to have no windows (eventually one of the five wings would be made with blind walls).
The works were carried out with impressive efficiency. In May 1942, the first of the wings began to operate and the building was ready in 16 months.
Crazy figures
The figures surrounding the Pentagon are exorbitant: it is estimated that around 14,000 workers worked on its construction and 43,000 tons of steel and 680,000 tons of gravel and sand were used. More than 32 kilometers of floors and corridors were cemented.
In January 1943, it was officially completed. Its five-sided façade contains almost 350,000 square meters of useful surface, divided into five concentric “rings”. They are connected by 28 kilometers of corridors, with precise planning that allows you to cross the building from one end to the other in just seven minutes.
Next volumes
In the previous volumes we discovered the impressive architecture of the pyramid of Cheops (Egypt), the Great Palace of the People (China) and the Three Gorges hydraulic work (China). In the following months we will learn about the history of the Ice Hotel (Sweden), the Beijing Imperial Palace (China), the Barbican residential neighborhood (United Kingdom), Pudong New Area (Shanghai), the Stade de France (France), the Great Wall (China), the Parliament Palace (Romania) and the Boeing Everett Factory (United States).
#EdisurData: I discovered the impressive hydraulic work of the Three Gorges in China.
