Russell Senate Office Building
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| Russell Senate Office Building | |
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 The southwest entrance along Constitution Avenue, N.E. (c. 2001) | |
  Location within Washington, D.C. | |
| General information | |
| Status | Completed |
| Architectural style | Beaux-Arts |
| Location | United States Capitol Complex |
| Town or city | Washington, D.C. |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 38°53′34″N 77°0′25″W / 38.89278°N 77.00694°W |
| Construction started | 1903 |
| Opened | March 5, 1909 |
| Technical details | |
| Material | Marble and Limestone |
| Grounds | 698,921 square feet (64,931.9 m2) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Edward Clark |
| Architecture firm | Carrère and Hastings |
| This article is part of a series on the |
| United States Senate |
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| History of the United States Senate |
| Members |
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| Politics and procedure |
| Places |
The Russell Senate Office Building is the oldest of the
Constitution Avenue
, First Street, Delaware Avenue, and C Street N.E.
History
The first
congressional office building was constructed immediately after the turn of the 20th century to relieve overcrowding in the United States Capitol. Previously, members who wanted office space had to rent quarters or borrow space in committee rooms. In March 1901 Congress authorized Architect of the Capitol Edward Clark to draw plans for fireproof
office buildings adjacent to the Capitol grounds. In March 1903 the acquisition of sites and construction of the buildings were authorized, and the Senate Office Building Commission selected a site.
In April 1904, the prominent
forced-air ventilation systems, steam heat, individual lavatories with hot and cold running water and ice water, telephones, and electricity
. Both are connected to the Capitol by underground passages. Originally there were 98 suites and eight committee rooms in the Russell Building; the First Street Wing, completed in 1933, added two committee rooms and 28 suites.
Of special architectural interest is the
sinking of the RMS Titanic hearings; the 1974 Watergate hearings, the Iran-Contra hearings, and the 1991 Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination hearings. The rotunda contains a statue of Russell by sculptor Frederick Hart.[2]
The Russell Building was occupied in 1909 by the Senate of the 61st Congress. The growth of staff and committees in the twenty years following its completion resulted in the addition of a fourth side, the First Street Wing, to the originally U-shaped building.
Dirksen Office Building
was completed, it became the New Senate Office Building and the original Senate Office Building became the "Old Senate Office Building" until being renamed the Russell Building in 1972.
The building received extensive pop culture visual cachet in the 1970s when film footage of the southwest corner was regularly used to represent the headquarters of the fictional OSI organization in the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.
Chuck Schumer, the then-Senate Minority Leader announced on August 25, 2018, that he would introduce a resolution to rename the building after Senator John McCain from Arizona, who died of brain cancer earlier that day.[3]
Senators with Russell offices
Committee offices within Russell Senate Office Building
- United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
- United States Senate Committee on Armed Services
- United States Senate Committee on Rules and Administration
- United States Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
- United States Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs
- United States Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
Gallery
-
A 1995 statue of Russell by Frederick Hart stands in the building's rotunda -
The rotunda of the Russell Building featuring the sculpture by Frederick Hart -
View of Russell from United States Capitol dome -
Committee room in the Russell Building
.jpg)
See also
References
- ^ a b "The Russell Senate Office Building". Architect of the Capitol. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
- ^ "Richard B. Russell Memorial Statue". www.senate.gov. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
- ^ Schumer, Chuck [@SenSchumer] (August 26, 2018). "The Senate, the United States, and the world are lesser places without John McCain.
Nothing will overcome the loss of Senator McCain, but so that generations remember him I will be introducing a resolution to rename the Russell building after him" (Tweet). Retrieved November 16, 2020 – via Twitter. - ^ "U.S. Senate: Senators of the 117th Congress". www.senate.gov. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
External links
Media related to Russell Senate Office Building at Wikimedia Commons
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