FDA Dedicates Building One at White Oak Research Center

Silver Spring, MD (Dec. 18)-The US Food and Drug Administration dedicated historic Building One at the White Oak Federal Research Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. Originally the headquarters of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Building One now houses portions of FDA’s Office of the Commissioner and related executive functions. The 102,000-ft² building integrates 148 offices, nine conference rooms, and several workstations and shared business areas. The building’s first-floor lobby connects to the campus’s first Central Shared-Use space.

The Building One project was designed and constructed to meet the silver level of the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system. The building may receive a gold designation upon final review by the Council.

FDA and Washington Adventist Hospital, which recently announced plans to relocate its campus next to the FDA campus, have agreed to promote synergistic opportunities further between the two organizations. FDA and Washington Adventist Hospital will exchange information, create educational opportunities, conduct joint meetings, collaborate on research activities, and cooperate on issues related to their common location at White Oak.

“Building One now serves as the focal point of entry to the FDA campus-the most beautiful, environmentally friendly, state-of-the-art infrastructure for regulatory science,” said Andrew C. von Eschenbach, FDA’s commissioner, according to an agency press release. “It shines as a beacon of hope for every single American who can look to this campus and the people who work here and know that their lives and the lives of their children and grandchildren will be better and healthier because it is here.”

Mike Leavitt, secretary of HHS, also took part in the ceremony. “It is a pleasure to be back here at White Oak for the dedication of Building One,” Leavitt said, according to the FDA press release. “This dedication marks an exciting time of accomplishment and change for the FDA. And it will continue to be a time of transformation and growth well into the future.”

Building One is the seventh White Oak structure completed as part of FDA’s consolidation project on the campus. The General Services Administration’s National Capital Region (GSA/NCR) oversaw the site’s renovation. To date, GSA has completed Building Two (a Central Shared-Use facility), Office Buildings 21, 22, and 51, Life-Sciences Laboratory Building 64, and Engineering and Physics Laboratory Building 62. These facilities house portions of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research and the Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

An artist’s depiction of the finished Building One is available here.