Preservation Strategies
The Weather Bureau

2400 M STREET, N.W.
DETERMINATION OF ELIGIBILITY
WASHINGTON, D.C.

Weather Bureau, 2400 M Street, N.W., Source: Evening Star, March 22, 1940

The Weather Bureau Building was constructed in 1940, for administrative staff of the Bureau and several technical divisions, as well as an auditorium for conferences and lectures. Designed by prominent Washington architect, William Dewey Foster, acting consulting architect to the Office of the Supervising Architect within PBA, Foster designed a restrained five-story, 18-bay, symmetrical, reinforced concrete, brick and limestone building.

The building's central block was to be six stories in height with a central entrance emphasized by a penthouse observation room. Lack of funding allowed only the western eleven bays to be constructed, giving the building an asymmetrical appearance belying its intended formal presentation.

EHT Traceries, Inc. conducted extensive research, and prepared a determination of eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

EHT Traceries, Inc. focused research on the building's place in Foster's work, its place among the buildings constructed by the Federal Works Agency, and its place in the architecture of Washington, DC on the cusp of US involvement in World War II as architecture styles moved from Beaux-Arts Classicism and Art Deco to Stripped Classicism.

Although designed specifically for the Weather Bureau in its latter years, the building is limited in its expression of this function. It is primarily an office building and was not completed as intended. Alterations have been made to serve new office tenants and to meet health and safety codes.

After reasonable evaluation, it was determined that this property does not meet the criteria of the National Register.