65 years as the largest office building in the world
With all the massive skyscrapers being built, particularly in
Asia, it may surprise you to know that The Pentagon is in
fact the largest office building by floor area and has been
so for a staggering 65 years. It is the headquarters of the
United States Department of Defence and is located in
Arlington County, Virginia.
Because of the pressing needs of the war, people started
working in the Pentagon before it was completed. The
Pentagon was built one wing at a time, and after the first
wing was finished, employees started to move into that
wing while construction was continuing on the other
wings.
The building was designed by the American architect,
George Bergstrom. Ground was broken for construction
in September 1941 and it was completed in January 1943.
The Pentagon has a total floor area of 600,000 m2, of
which 340,000 m2 are used as offices.
From 1998 to 2011, the Pentagon underwent a major
renovation, known as the Pentagon Renovation Program.
This program, completed in June 2011, involved the
complete gutting and reconstruction of the entire building
in phases to bring the building up to modern standards,
removing asbestos, improving security, providing greater
efficiency for Pentagon tenants, and sealing of all office
windows.
Approximately 28,000 military and civilian employees[and
about 3,000 non-defense support personnel work in the
Pentagon. It has five sides, five floors above ground, two
basement levels, and five ring corridors per floor with a
total of 28.2 km of corridors.
A minimal amount of steel was used as it was in short
supply during World War II. Instead, the Pentagon was
built as a reinforced concrete structure, using 680,000 tons
of sand dredged from the Potomac River, and a lagoon
was created beneath the Pentagon’s river entrance. To
minimize steel, concrete ramps were built rathe