ARCHITECTURAL SPACE AND THE
TREASURY BUILDING

When humans build, be it a tool-shed in the back yard or a building as large and complex as the Treasury Department, we create physical containers of space. The act of building creates the space in which we live, in which we work, play, or eat. Each of these functions, and myriad others, have different needs and thus demand different spaces. An office needs different spaces, and differently shaped and sized spaces, than does a cathedral. In response to the role that we assign to a particular space, we design and construct a building to contain and give shape to that space.

This 1985 photograph of the first floor center corridor shows a barrel vault, one method of enclosing space used by Robert Mills in the construction of the East and Center wings of the Treasury Building. Any time you see the barrel vault icon (to the left) throughout the rest of this exhibit, you'll know that you're looking at images of and information about spaces in this part of the Treasury Building. Photograph by Gary K. Griffin; drawing from Sara E. Wermiel. The Fireproof Building: Technology and Public Safety in the Nineteenth-Century American City. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. 13.

In the history of the American workplace, the Treasury Department’s spatial needs have often been unique. The multiple roles and requirements of the Department influenced the design and construction of the building and juxtaposed manufacturing with office space at a time when separation of these functions was increasingly the norm. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in America, industrial, commercial, governmental, and residential functions shifted more and more into distinct spaces. The Treasury Department, however, for much of its history resisted this trend. From the offices of the East and Center wings, built by Robert Mills between 1836 and 1851, to the offices and workrooms of the South, West, and North wings, built by Ammi B. Young, Isaiah Rogers, and Alfred B. Mullett, respectively, between 1855 and 1869, the many functions that the Treasury required of its building created the spaces that are our legacy today.

This 1985 photograph of the first floor west corridor shows the spatial results of the iron-beam-and-arch construction used in the South, West, and North wings by Ammi B. Young, Isaiah Rogers, and Alfred B. Mullett. Any time you see the post-and-lintel icon (to the left) throughout the rest of this exhibit, you'll know that you're looking at images of and information about spaces in this part of the Treasury Building. Photograph by Gary K. Griffin.

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