By Victoria L. Tanner

Relocating to a new headquarters can be a trying experience. But as the U. S. Marine Corps Band prepares to move this month into its new Marine Barracks Annex and Band Support Facility in downtown Washington, D.C., it is a little more complicated than usual. The move will mark the first time the band, dubbed the "President’s Own" by Thomas Jefferson, has relocated since 1801.

Decamping to a new, state-of-the-art building represents a huge step forward, but for an institution as steeped in honor and tradition as the Marine Band, it is not easy. They have to leave the historic Marine Barracks Washington compound that has served as home base to generations of band members, including the iconic John Philip Sousa, who have lived, composed and played there. A quadrangle-shaped complex that covers an entire city block and encloses a grassy courtyard and parade ground area, the barracks has the distinction of being the oldest post of the Corps and is a National Historic Landmark.

It is a testament, then, to the lure that good acoustics holds for serious musicians that Marine Band members are awaiting their move away from all the "pomp and circumstance" embodied within the barracks’ red brick walls. While they may be true-blue Marines, the band members also are serious musicians recruited from the nation’s top music schools. So the band’s new home, just a stone’s throw away from the landmark barracks site, represents a quantum leap forward in providing appropriate facilities for the world-renowned musical ensemble.

Beyond the state-of-the art rehearsal halls, the annex also will provide a unified office environment for key personnel and support staff. Not surprisingly, the current quarters, which have been continually readapted, is a rabbit warren of small spaces. One of the band’s current rehearsal facilities previously was used as the barracks’ gymnasium. While the Marines always have toughed it out, there is no denying that they have longed for better facilities to enhance their artistry. "The band goes out and plays in high school auditoriums in Iowa and the acoustics there are [of] better quality than what we’ve got in the barracks," says Capt. John R. Barclay, executive assistant to band director Col. Timothy W. Foley.

The design-build team of Coakley Williams Construction, Gaithersburg, Md., and Brennan Beer Gorman Monk Architects & Interiors (BBGM), Washington, D.C., won the annex assignment in December 2001 after a lengthy contracting process administered by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command. NAVFAC’s Chesapeake division manages planning, design and construction of shore-based facilities for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and other federal clients in Washington, Maryland and Northern Virginia.

True Believers

The annex job unites a seasoned design-build partnership with one of the area’s foremost proponents of the integrated project-delivery method. Coakley and BBGM have teamed up on close to 30 design-build projects throughout the greater metropolitan Washington area, and Coakley Williams has a long project history with NAVFAC. The Chesapeake division of NAVFAC has a strong design-build emphasis, with nearly 45% of its fiscal year 2004 military construction program slotted for design-build delivery. "NAVFAC’s default now is to use design-build," says NAVFAC’s Lt. Cmdr. Mark K. Edelson, who is overseeing the annex project. "There’s a bottom threshold that tends to be $2-3 million, [below which] we find design-build is not useful, and there are some specialized facilities we won’t use design-build on, such as cleanrooms." Given the components included in the annex and barracks facility and a relatively tight construction budget, Edelson says the project easily fell within NAVFAC’s design-build matrix.

	The new barracks annex and band support facility had to meet stringent design guidelines.

Edelson points to two key reasons for NAVFAC’s preference for design-build: "One is speed of execution. We can obligate funds quicker with design-build and the way our military construction budget is provided, getting the project awarded in the year that the funds are provided is very important," he says. "The second one is shifting risk to the contractor. Normally, I pull out my checkbook and pay for everything I missed. With design-build, I don’t have to."

The lengthy design-build selection process eventually pitted the Coakley/BBGM team against two other contenders. With NAVFAC’s contracting budget tightly fixed and the band’s significant, specific and unique needs in mind, the teams were challenged to develop a construction program that would strike the right note for a variety of audiences, while working within budget confines. Besides NAVFAC and the Marine Band, the plan had to pass muster with a host of local and state governmental agencies, public utilities and the Commission of Fine Arts, a federal agency charged with advising the federal and District of Columbia governments on matters of art and architecture that affect the appearance of the nation’s capital. No federal project within the city can move forward without CFA’s stamp of approval. Not only would the structure need to serve a multitude of purposes but its design also would need to reflect the dignity of the institution and help to serve as an anchor for redevelopment of the district’s Southeast corridor.

BBGM’s extensive preliminary design work was a key component in the contract award. The job "was actually several different projects all put together," says Mark Boekenheide, who headed the design effort for BBGM. A departure from typical military construction projects, the annex incorporates multiple elements. Essentially, the Coakley/BBGM team was asked to develop a plan for an 84,351-sq-ft building with critical acoustical performance requirements, connected to a 72,323-sq-ft, 166-room dormitory-style building with extensive athletic and support facilities and supported by a free-standing 121,000-sq-ft, five-story garage sited around full-size athletic facilities. In addition, the contract included a complete renovation of the existing bachelor’s officers quarters’ dining facility in the existing barracks. The final price tag is about $35 million, including full tenant fit-out.

In the end, Barclay and Edelson agree that while experience was a key consideration in qualifying bidders, one of the factors that ended up tilting the decision towards the Coakley/BBGM team was their assessment that the team presented a concept for the building that was more aesthetically pleasing. The final design reflects the Georgian style architecture of the original barracks and surrounding structures and also was designed to sit on the land in such a way as to maintain sight corridors down the major thoroughfares–all in keeping with Pierre L’Enfant’s original plans for the city–a CFA sticking point.

On Key

	Design and materials were aimed at accoustics.

The new annex is sandwiched into the southeast quadrant of the city. Located a few blocks behind the U.S. Capitol building, at the intersection of 7th Street, S.E., and Virginia Avenue, the project is situated squarely between the Marine Barracks Washington and the Navy Yard. The Annex houses three separate rehearsal facilities that will simulate concert hall acoustics. The space also features complete, state-of-the-art audio recording facilities. The largest rehearsal hall will allow the full 160-member band to practice together and offers some seating for special visitors. In addition, there are 14 individual practice rooms to accommodate small groups of musicians. "That’s 14 more than we have right now," Barclay notes. They are sure to be well used because band members typically rehearse for at least eight hours each day and frequently more, depending on their performance schedule.

The new facility also will provide storage for instruments, equipment, uniforms and an extensive historical collection of artifacts, recordings, photographs and documents that have belonged to the band’s impressive roster of directors, including the legendary Sousa. The space will feature a special archival library to house the band’s extensive collection of sheet music, which Barclay describes as the world’s largest.

While no effort was spared to meet the exacting standards for the rehearsal halls, neither NAVFAC nor the Marine Band felt that their budget gave much leeway to consider finer finishes for the building’s public areas. Recognizing that their project was not your average military facility, the Coakley/BBGM team incorporated an upgraded marble lobby and grand staircase area to enhance the interior and added handsome stone Marine Corps emblems to the building’s facade. "We recognized the importance of giving this building the dignity the Marine Corps and the Marine Band deserve," says Jeff Landis, Coakley Williams vice president and design-build team leader.

The residential part of the annex is standard-military issue, providing housing for 332 Marines. Yet the annex is a fairly posh post. In addition to private and semi-private quarters, the facility features a fitness center, martial-arts training room, aerobics facility, athletic equipment storage space, locker rooms, laundry room and small retail facility.

While the job carries considerable prestige, it also presented the design-build team with some interesting issues as they worked to meet specialized needs and contend with significant obstacles. The band support areas feature highly sophisticated performance and practice spaces, with acoustic requirements that are both a musician’s dream and a daunting construction challenge. As subjective as aesthetic appeal may be, it is a lot easier to achieve and more tangible than achieving the elusive perfection of acoustic quality.

	Stone Marine Corps emblems add a touch of tradition to the facade of the new annex facility.

Despite a highly detailed acoustical specification and working with specialized engineers hired by both the Marine Band and the team, everyone acknowledges that they will not know for certain that the acoustics are right until the first notes are sounded. Henning Associates, Rockville, Md., is the acoustical design engineer on the Coakley/BBGM team, while Acoustical Design Collaborative, Ruxton, Md., is serving as the band’s own acoustical consultant. Between the two firms, no sound has been left unanalyzed, yet the musicians still wonder.

For the construction team, achieving the right purity of sound has demanded a level of detail that encompasses every aspect of the project’s mechanical, lighting, flooring and finish requirements. "We’ve spent an amazing amount of time to try to get this thing right. The acoustical requirements are the number-one thing," says Barclay. "Everything else is really icing on the cake."

Beyond acoustical issues, Landis notes that the team has been taxed by a tight parcel of land that abuts a section of the city’s Southeast/Southwest Freeway in a transitional neighborhood. The land was the site of a dilapidated public housing project, the demolition of which created considerable public concern. And then there is the weather. The project endured 118 rain days in 2003 and has been dogged by a wet spring this year. Recognizing the impact of the rain, NAVFAC and the Coakley/BBGM team negotiated time extensions. "We’re scrambling right now to hit the scheduled delivery date for building occupancy," Landis says. "Come hell or high water, we’re going to make it."

Despite the difficulties, Landis takes great pride in his firm’s opportunity to serve the Marines. Although the project may be unique, he says the design-build team’s approach was no different. "We’re an equal performance deliverer," he says. "We’ve tried to meet our client’s goals and they pretty much laid out what they thought we should be doing."

The author has provided communications services to the industry for more than 20 years, working with general contractors, subcontractors and trade groups.

All photos courtesy of NAVFAC.

Click here for features archives >>