Editing Federal Triangle (section)

===Cancellation, completion, and opening===
[[File:Ronald Reagan Building atrium.jpg|thumb|The interior atrium of the [[Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center|Ronald Reagan Building]] on Federal Triangle serves as a major event space.]]
Significant cost increases led to the project being mothballed by the [[George H. W. Bush]] administration. The General Services Administration refused to sign the draft lease, arguing that the building's rental costs were too high and would cost (rather than save) the government $18 million to $24 million a year.<ref name="Ballooning">Hilzenrath, David S. "Ballooning Costs Delay Federal Triangle Project." ''Washington Post.'' July 20, 1990.</ref> Although Pei Cobb Freed agreed to investigate design changes to make the project less costly, at least one member of Congress declared the project dead.<ref name="Ballooning" /> In September 1990, the architectural team made changes which cut $82 million from the cost of the building (including the elimination of two theaters, scaling down the reception hall, using plaster rather than stone, substituting aluminum for bronze in the trim, and reducing the size of interior doors), reducing the price tag to $656 million.<ref name="Flourish">Hilzenrath, David S. "$656 Million Building Set for Federal Triangle." ''Washington Post.'' September 22, 1990.</ref> Delta Partnership, a development consortium led by New York developer William Zeckendorf Jr., was chosen to operate the building and lease it to the government.<ref name="Flourish" /> Another design change came in January 1991, when the number of parking spaces rose by 12.6 percent to 2,500 spaces.<ref>Camp, Margaret. "Parking Push Comes To Shove." ''Washington Post.'' January 10, 1991.</ref> But the changes did not resolve the controversies enveloping the project. Design committee member Donald A. Brown quit the committee in late 1991, complaining that the Bush administration was meddling in the project's design.<ref>Lewis, Nancy. "Developer Quits Federal Triangle Trade Center Panel." ''Washington Post.'' January 1, 1992.</ref> Two days later, [[Eleanor Holmes Norton]], D.C.'s delegate to Congress, repeated these charges.<ref>Jenkins, Jr., Kent. "Norton Names 'Villains' In D.C. Trade Center Fight." ''Washington Post.'' January 3, 1992; Pyatt, Jr., Rudoph A. "In Dubious Battle for a Boondoggle." ''Washington Post.'' January 13, 1992.</ref> On January 19, 1992, even as the foundation for the trade center was being dug, the GSA said the building would not achieve financial self-sufficiency.<ref>"A Harder Look at the ICTC." ''Washington Post.'' January 20, 1992; "Boondoggle on 'America's Main Street'." ''Washington Post.'' January 24, 1992.</ref> A separate report commissioned by the Bush administration reached similar conclusions.<ref name="Scraps">Spolar, Christine. "White House Scraps D.C. Trade Center." ''Washington Post.'' January 26, 1992.</ref> On January 25, 1992, the Bush administration cancelled the international trade center construction project.<ref name="Scraps" /> Days later, a [[United States district court]] ruled that Delta Partnership had been chosen in violation of federal contracting guidelines, although the court also refused to overturn the award after finding no bias in the award process.<ref>Pyatt, Jr., Rudloph A. "Flawed Selection Process Taints Downtown Federal Complex." ''Washington Post.'' January 30, 1992.</ref> Construction experts decried the decision, saying that the building's costs could balloon to more than $1.2 billion if construction were resumed at a later time.<ref>Grimsley, Kirstin Downey. "Federal Triangle's Points of Contention." ''Washington Post.'' December 5, 1993.</ref>

The decision to cancel the building was reversed on December 2, 1993, by the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton administration]].<ref name="Revived">Hamilton, Martha M. and Grimsley, Kirstin Downey. "International Trade Center Plan Revived." ''Washington Post.'' December 3, 1993.</ref> Although the building was originally designed to be a major tourist destination and provide a boost to economic development in the downtown area, the building was repurposed to be a simple office building.<ref name="Revived" /> Rather than a mix of federal and private renters, federal agencies were now scheduled to occupy 80 percent of the office space.<ref name="Progress">Duggan, Paul. "Progress on a Massive Scale." ''Washington Post.'' September 17, 1995.</ref> By January 1995, the structure was two years behind schedule.<ref>Haggerty, Maryann. "Hard Floors and Soft Numbers at Federal Triangle Construction." ''Washington Post.'' January 9, 1995.</ref> By September 1995, a tentative occupancy date of December 1996 had been set.<ref name="Progress" /> The building was named for former President Ronald Reagan in October 1995.<ref>"Federal Building May Be Named In Reagan's Honor." ''Washington Post.'' October 13, 1995.</ref> There were still occasional design glitches.  For example, the GSA approved two major sculptures for the Woodrow Wilson Plaza in 1994, abruptly ordered a halt to work on the sculptures in June 1996, and then ordered work to proceed again in July 1996.<ref>Trescott, Jacqueline. "Federal Agency Halts Art Project." ''Washington Post.'' June 22, 1996; Trescott, Jacqueline. "Sculptors Put Back to Work." ''Washington Post.'' July 30, 1996.</ref> Construction slipped further, and by January 1997 occupancy was scheduled for the following summer.<ref>Haggery, Maryann. "At Federal Triangle, a Pretty Facade on an Unfinished Work." ''Washington Post.'' January 21, 1997.</ref> Construction continued to fall behind schedule, with completion not expected until summer 1998.<ref name="NearsDebut">Behr, Peter and Lelen, Kenneth. "Reagan Building Nears Its Debut." ''Washington Post.'' June 5, 1997.</ref> Nonetheless, federal officials planned to move more than 480 Environmental Protection Agency employees into the building in July 1997.<ref name="NearsDebut" /><ref>Barr, Stephen. "Grand Tour of Reagan Building Reinforces Facility's Grand Scale." ''Washington Post.'' June 6, 1997.</ref> By this time, security concerns had led to several additional design changes (including a reduction in the number of parking spaces to just 1,900), and the cost of the structure had risen to $738 million.<ref name="NearsDebut" />

The Ronald Reagan Building opened on May 5, 1998.<ref name="Nostalgia"/> President Bill Clinton and former First Lady [[Nancy Reagan]] dedicated the building.<ref name="Nostalgia">Montgomery, David and Wheeler, Linda. "A Soaring Reagan Tribute." ''Washington Post.'' May 6, 1998.</ref> Three large pieces of artwork were included in the building. The first, by sculptor and D.C. native Stephen Robin, is a gigantic rose with stem and a lily, both made out of cast aluminum and lying on stone pedestals.<ref name="Capstone">Forgey, Benjamin. "The Capstone of the Federal Triangle." ''Washington Post.'' April 25, 1998.</ref> The second, by [[African American]] D.C. native [[Martin Puryear]], is a [[Minimalism|Minimalist]] tower of brown welded metal titled "Bearing Witness" which stands in Woodrow Wilson Plaza.<ref name="Capstone" /> The third, located inside the building's atrium, is a multi-story neon installation by [[Keith Sonnier]] titled "Route Zenith."<ref name="Capstone" /> The structure's final cost was $818 million.<ref name="Nostalgia" />