Ordinarily, a 2.4-million-sq-ft, highly complex construction project would be hard to overlook. As it nears completion in September, the new National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s East Campus at Ft. Belvoir, Va., has stayed largely under the radar, as its owner prefers.
Within the U.S. Defense Dept., NGA provides geospatial images and data for national security, including the May 2 Osama Bin Laden raid. From site selection to operations, managing the 98-acre project in four years challenged the Corps of Engineers. “Given the tight schedule and NGA’s need to be closely engaged with every stage of the project, neither design-bid-build nor design-build would have worked,” says Corps program manager Michael Rogers. He says those approaches could have cost NGA the expertise of its design team, led by RTKL and KlingStubbins, which was well-versed in agency requirements.