Competition Yields Radically Different Visions for Prime D.C. Site

Three teams of real estate and finance graduate students from Cornell, Georgetown and MIT emerged as the finalists in an ideas competition for the 6.66 acre site of the unloved Hoover building, which has been serving as FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The three teams provided very different takes on the balance of uses, possible anchor tenants, and relationship to surrounding context and parking, with the Cornell team's proposal selected as the winner by a panel of industry professionals. 

Jonathan O'Connell provides the details of each proposal down to the square footage, including the jury's partiality toward the proposal that valued the site the highest at $600 million. Georgetown, the local bidder, which claims to have an inside perspective on what mix of uses would thrive in this location on highly visible Pennsylvania Avenue, valued the site at $110 million, the lowest of the three finalists.