Major Milestone Celebrated at Virginia General Assembly Building

Gilbane Building Company recently celebrated the leveling out of the Virginia Department of General Services General Assembly Building in downtown Richmond, Virginia. The leveling-out ceremony marked the full demolition of the 420,000-square-foot General Assembly Building, originally built in 1912. All that remains, supported by an intricate framework of steel, is the historic 105-year-old façade.

Located on the corner of Ninth and Broad Streets, the original six-story 1912 building was built with an elaborate exterior limestone façade that features three-story Corinthian-style pilasters. In October 2017, the team began constructing a temporary steel bracing tower to support the soon freestanding façade. This effort involved the erection of nearly 370 tons of steel columns, beams, outriggers and whalers; as well as the drilling and pouring of three-foot diameter concrete caissons approximately 60 feet below the site. Seismographs to monitor vibrations and anchored survey points were installed to the façade during demolition to ensure the limestone façade did not move during this process. By the end of March 2018, the façade had been cut away and was standing on its own for the first time. The historic façade is being preserved throughout construction, and will be incorporated into the new, but classic design.

Construction began in the summer of 2017 after Gilbane constructed 275,000 square-feet of swing-space to house the 140 employees of the Virginia House and Senate. The building is anticipated to complete in 2021.