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Background of the Project
The Old Post Office Pavilion, historically known as the Old Post Office and Clock Tower, was
completed in 1899. The building is an example of Richardsonian Romanesque, part of
the Romanesque Revival architecture of the nineteenth century United States. It was used as the
city's main post office until 1914. It functioned primarily as an office building afterward, and
was nearly torn down during the construction of the Federal Triangle complex in the 1920s. In
the 1970s, the site was nearly demolished again to make way for expansion of the Federal
Triangle. Major renovations occurred in 1976 and 1983. The 1983 renovation added a food
court and retail space, and the building was renamed the “Old Post Office Pavilion”. Part of this
renovation included the Annex, which was a large addition to the site to operate a shopping mall.
A water event flooded the area known as the Annex, and the Annex was vacated and never used
again as occupied space until the Trump Organization envisioned transforming this space into
Luxurious Ballrooms and High-Profile Meeting Rooms. In 2013, the U.S. General Services
Administration leased the property for 60 years to an association headed by DJT Holdings, LLC,
a holding company owned by Donald Trump through a revocable trust.
The Old Post Office Pavilion is the third-tallest building in Washington, D.C. Its 270-foot-high
open air observation deck in the building's 315-foot high Clock Tower offers distant panoramic
views of the city, with site lines all the way to the United States Capital Building. In some
opinions, these 360-degree open air site lines surpass the views from the Washington Monument.
Prior to the 2014 renovation, National Park Service provided tours of the Observation Deck and
Clock Tower.
After stopping for three years during the tower's renovation, the Trump
Organization has returned the Clock Tower to the National Park Service for tours to resume in
February 2017.
The Trump Organization hired the interior design firm of Hirsch Bedner Associates to work on
the interior of the Old Post Office Building. The $200 million renovation began on May 1, 2014,
with the closure of the Clock Tower. This renovation held many complications that would not
be discovered until the renovation was initiated. From retaining and revitalizing the historic
aspects of the site, the poor condition of the building, to include the added infrastructure required
to provide plumbing and mechanical to each suite, Fire Safety, and Structural Support to add a