Earth Finally Moving at Rhode Island Avenue Office Building

The Center for Strategic and International Studies is finally doing a lot less thinking and a lot more digging, as dirt is finally moving at their site for a new headquarters at 1616 Rhode Island Avenue NW.

The new $100-million think-tank headquarters, which was to break ground in September 2011, was delayed several times as HITT Contracting, the general contractor worked out key technical issues for the building's underground levels, Ryan Sickles, a CSIS spokesman, said.

The new CSIS space will share the neighborhood with the new University of California Washington Center and the Human Rights Campaign headquarters.

Designed by Hickok Cole Architects, the CSIS headquarters will be nine stories, 130,000 s.f., and should achieve LEED-Silver certification, with substantial help from a green roof.

The light, open space is a substantial contrast to its fortress-like location at 1800 K Street, NW, where it has been for more than 50 years. CSIS will move when the project completes in the fall of 2013.

CSIS bought its 15,400-sf property in the Golden Triangle in 2007, for what was reported to be just over $31 million.

(photos courtesy Hickok Cole)

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