Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium

Designed by San Francisco architect Arthur Brown, Jr., and erected between 1932- 1934, the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium serves as the central focus of his tripartite building group. Like other buildings in the Federal Triangle, Brown’s trio of buildings is constructed of steel frames clad in Indiana limestone. Red terra-cotta tiles clad the roof of the seven-story auditorium building. Colonnades resting on arched portals connect the temple-form auditorium to symmetrically flanking buildings occupied by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), Department of Labor, and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) encompassing nearly six acres and extending 1,000 feet along Constitution Avenue. However, in contrast to the horizontality of the adjacent office buildings, the Auditorium has a strong vertical emphasis. This verticality is countered by a classical, tripartite division of the facade consisting of a 2-story rusticated base, a mid-section of 3 stories, and an attic consisting of a monumental cornice and pediment.