The aging Hoover Building complex is home to Department of Commerce headquarters, the National Park Service's White House Visitor Center and the National Aquarium. It was built seven decades ago and consists of 1.85 million sf of space, or 37 acres of floor space and eight miles of corridors. According to the GSA's solicitation notice for the project, "the building's imposing size and scale was designed to symbolize both the importance of commerce in the economic development of the US, and the ideals of City Beautiful planning promoted by Federal Triangle planners."

Renovations will take place in six different phases resulting in replacement of the interior, restoration of the corridors, structural upgrades, as wells as modernization of the mechanical and electrical distribution. Approximately 4,000 employees are housed at the complex, but that number will increase, as the project will result in enough added space to allow Commerce to consolidate several leased offices elsewhere. "Upon completion of the proposed modernization," the GSA says, "the building will be a modern office building capable of serving well past another 50 years."