 
History Located between the Lincoln Memorial and the U.S. Department of State
and adjacent to the National Academy of Sciences, the site for APhA
headquarters was authorized by an act of Congress in 1932 and is the
only privately owned building on the National Mall.
The original structure has become known as the Pope building, after
the architect John Russell Pope, whose work includes some of the most
famous structures in Washington, DC. Pope was the architect for the
Jefferson Memorial, National Archives, National Gallery of Art, and
Constitution Hall.
The dedication of APhA headquarters was held on May 9, 1934.
Twenty-five years later, in 1959, APhA broke ground for an annex to the
original structure. The annex was completed within a year and dedicated
during the 1960 APhA Annual Meeting. More than 40 years later, plans
were unveiled at the 2001 APhA Annual Meeting to purchase the land
behind APhA headquarters and replace the annex with a new structure. On
January 26, 2007, APhA broke ground on a project that would add more
than 300,000 square feet of space and enhance the historic Pope
building.
The renovation and expansion of APhA headquarters augments the vision
of Henry A.B. Dunning, Chair of the APhA All-Pharmacy Headquarters
Building Campaign, who predicted in the 1934 dedication that
"immediately in the rear of this building, there will begin the erection
of another building" that will provide a venue for pharmacists from all
related associations to gather to explore new opportunities, foster
partnerships, and demonstrate the importance of the profession to the
public, media, and policy makers.
APhA
Convention Badges
This booklet contains a selection of APhA convention badges worn by
meeting registrants from 1880-1939. The name of the attendee did
not appear on the badge until the 1920s. Before then, it was
considered improper for individuals to wear badges displaying their
names. Instead, badges often included a registration
number. The attendees were provided booklets containing the names
of the attendees and their corresponding registration
number. The last badge in the booklet is from
1939. Beginning in 1940, badges consisted of less
imaginative name tags encased in celluloid holders, often provided by a
convention bureau.
A New Home
for the Association
Knowing that the new headquarters building would sit forever in the
midst of Washington's glorious monuments, APhA realized that the
building would have to meet exceptional standards of design excellence.
The prominence of its location on the National Mall and its physical
connection to the historic Pope building mandated that the design pass
muster with all federal and District of Columbia review commissions. To
meet this standard, APhA selected the firm Hartman-Cox Architects,
highly respected for its expertise in neoclassical architecture. With
the skillful guidance of Hartman-Cox, APhA, over a period of several
years, succeeded in winning the approval of both the community and
government review authorities. APhA also chose to meet the challenge of
achieving a Gold rating for "green" building from the United States
Green Building Council.
APhA's new building started off on the right foot when the ground to
the north of the old annex was remediated to remove any trace of the dry
cleaning chemicals dumped in the '40s and '50s by a previous occupant of
the site. Considering its proximity to the Potomac River basin, the
building was designed with exceptional ground water management systems;
however, excavation disclosed that the building sits on a solid rock
shelf. The two lowest levels had to be blasted out of the ground, a very
delicate process in an urban area surrounded by historic structures.
Seismographs were installed in surrounding buildings to ensure that
vibration from blasting was contained within acceptable limits. Under
the elegant exterior, APhA's new headquarters building is built to last.
To meet government occupancy standards, it was necessary to build in
"progressive collapse" — a structural system designed to
allow a building to remain standing if a supporting column fails.
With the construction of the new annex, consisting of six floors
above grade and two below, plus two parking levels, APhA's gross
building area increased from 31,000 square feet to 359,026 square feet.
The additional square footage allows the Association to rent space to
the Department of State.
Dedication: Pharmacy's classic space on the National Mall
Pharmacy's enlarged footprint on the National Mall in Washington,
DC — also known as the APhA building — was
dedicated on November 13th, 2009 when some 400 people
associated with the profession gathered at 2215 Constitution Avenue.
Recalling the purpose of pharmacy — to bring hope, help, and
health to people — speakers and attendees marked the occasion
with enthusiasm that seemed to draw from the wind and rain that swirled
during an hour-long ceremony on the steps of the historic APhA
building.
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