Government and Public Building GENERAL ASSEMBLY BUILDING Richmond, ViRginia Just a decade ago, the offices of Virginia’s General Assembly faced sig-nificant programmatic and functional challenges. Spread across sev-eral buildings, House and Senate members worked in undersized, dimly lit rooms with low ceilings and ill-proportioned legislative hear-ing rooms with columns that impeded sight lines. Officials eventually deemed these conditions untenable, leading to the decision to design and construct a modern facility that consolidates the offices into a single building. The state’s new General Assembly Building occupies a full block site, anchoring the northwest corner of Richmond’s Capitol Square. The massive, 414,000 ft 2 facility came to life through the de-sign work of Robert A.M. Stern Architects and GATE Precast’s produc-tion of nearly 1300 precast concrete panels. PROJECT TEAM Owner: Commonwealth of Virginia, Richmond, Va. PCI-Certified Precast Concrete Producer and Precast Concrete Specialty Engineer: ROOTED IN HISTORY The new building meets contemporary General Assembly require-ments while expertly complementing the character of Richmond’s historic Capitol Square district. The 10-story, masonry-clad tower for the offices of house delegates and senators rises above a four-story podium with publicly accessible legislative committee rooms and a variety of supporting amenities. Both the podium’s height and architectural expression reinforce the historic cornice height maintained by other civic buildings in the area. Carefully col-ored, textured, and detailed precast concrete panels emulate lime-stone across much of the building’s exterior. Through meticulously detailed prefabrication techniques, joints—which typically are not visible on limestone façades—were avoided. According to Preston Gumberich, partner with Robert A.M. Stern Architects, a precast concrete panelized façade system was chosen GATE Precast, Oxford, N.C. Architect: Robert A.M. Stern Architects, New York, N.Y. Associate Architect: Glavé & Holmes, Richmond, Va. Engineer of Record: Silman, Washington, D.C. General Contractor: Gilbane Building Company, Richmond, Va. PCI-Certified Erector: E.E. Marr Erectors, Baltimore, Md. Project Size: 414,000 ft 2
Ascent Spring 2025: Page 28
