U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters

Located on St. Elizabeth’s West Campus, the site of the US Coast Guard Headquarters Building posed a significant design challenge due to a 120-foot change in elevation on the 176-acre site making stormwater management a paramount concern.

Soltesz provided civil engineering services for the design-build team lead by Clark Construction. The US Coast Guard Headquarters building features an 11-story office building that provides a 1.2 million sq. ft. facility for 3,900+ employees, a separate central utility plant, and two 7-story parking garages.

The headquarters building’s design took advantage of the natural topography and stepped down the 120-foot change in elevation. Soltesz designed a central stormwater facility at the lowest portion of the site that collected and treated all of the drainage. Conveyance to this facility was critical and to ensure a non-erosive sustainable design. Soltesz designed a series of stepped plunge pools leading to the central facility. The main building features approximately 400,000 sq. ft. green roof.

To achieve groundbreaking and the tight schedule challenge, Soltesz graded the entire site at one time taking into account possible future design changes to the building design, and permitted a rough grading plan through the District of Columbia’s Department of the Environment in time for the critical groundbreaking.