1150 17th Street

1150 17th Street NW MCI Building 1150 17th St NW demolition.jpg 1150 17th Street undergoing demolition in 2017 38.9053 -77.0388 type:landmark inline,title Modernist 1970 2016 2017 Vornado/Charles E. Smith 12 Edwin Weihe 1150 17th Street NW, known prior to 1981 as the MCI Building, was an office building in downtown Washington, D.C. It was known for being the headquarters for several conservative movement organizations, particularly the American Enterprise Institute, which occupied the top three floors of the building from 1971 until 2016. Other conservative organizations and media outlets based in the building were The Weekly Standard, the Project for the New American Century and the Philanthropy Roundtable. The building was noted by commentators as being an "intellectual hub" for conservative ideas, particularly during the presidency of George W. Bush, when AEI and Weekly Standard personnel influenced the administration's Iraq War policy and tax policy, among other issues. Located on the southwest corner of 17th and M Streets NW, 1150 17th Street was built by developer Charles Smith and completed in 1970. Prior to 1981, it was the headquarters for MCI Communications. AEI moved to the building in 1971. After AEI acquired a new facility and vacated its space in 2016, the building was closed, demolished and replaced with a new office building. History 1150 17th Street was built in 1970 to a design by Edwin Weihe.1150 17th Street http://gbig-ruby-2.gbig.org/activities/energy-star-national-building-competition-2670 GBIG 7 October 2026 https://web.archive.org/web/20250123063658/http://gbig-ruby-2.gbig.org/activities/energy-star-national-building-competition-2670 23 January 202517th street, NW, Washington, DC Boris Feldblyum Architectural Photography http://www.bfcollection.net/cities/usa/dc/17th_nw/17th_nw.html October 7, 2026 It was one of several commercial office buildings in the Washington area developed by Charles Smith.Haggerty Maryann COMING ATTRACTION: AMC AT A DOWNTOWN MULTIPLEX The Washington Post November 23, 1998 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1998/11/23/coming-attraction-amc-at-a-downtown-multiplex/573283fc-5cf7-4931-82e4-8f7eb49d1068/ October 7, 2026 Prior to 1981, the building served as the headquarters of MCI Communications and was known as the MCI Building.MCI building interior at 1150 17th St. (Wash. D.C.) https://digital.hagley.org/2000239_00265?solr_nav[id]=64fa1d187e9ca3d46a8a&solr_nav[page]=0&solr_nav[offset]=4 Digital Archives Hagley Museum and Library 7 October 2026 In the 1980s, the National Geographic Society (whose headquarters was located across 17th Street) leased space in the building.Real Estate Notes The Washington Post February 12, 1983 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/realestate/1983/02/12/real-estate-notes/3276d3bf-bfbd-4f98-9ae0-391fe182c1fe/ October 7, 2026 The building was owned by Charles E. Smith, later part of the Vornado Realty Trust. The American Enterprise Institute moved to the building in 1971.Bowman Karlyn Kosten Joseph From the AEI Archives: Growing Influence in the 1970s American Enterprise Institute - AEI December 20, 2023 https://www.aei.org/social-cultural-and-constitutional-studies/society-and-culture/from-the-aei-archives-growing-influence-in-the-1970s/ October 7, 2026 During his years affiliated with AEI during his post-presidency, former U.S. President Gerald Ford worked in the building.Sidey Hugh Nos. 37, 38 and 39, All Onstage Time May 30, 1977 https://time.com/archive/6848684/the-presidency-by-hugh-sidey-nos-37-38-and-39-all-onstage/ October 7, 2026 AEI occupied the top three floors—the 10th, 11th and 12th. The institute announced in 2013 that it had purchased the Andrew Mellon Building for its headquarters and that it would be vacating its space at 1150 17th Street.O'Connell Jonathan Preservation group selling Dupont Circle headquarters to think tank The Washington Post February 17, 2013 https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/preservation-group-selling-dupont-circle-headquarters-to-think-tank/2013/02/15/1cf7681e-779b-11e2-95e4-6148e45d7adb_story.html October 7, 2026 AEI vacated 1150 17th Street in August 2016, and the building was closed to prepare for demolition and replacement by a new building.Vornado Realty Trust Prospectus Edgar March 31, 2017 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1689796/000104746917004268/a2232527zex-99_1.htm October 7, 2026 117 As the building was being prepared for demolition in 2016, the building caught fire on the night Donald Trump was elected president of the United States.Kabaservice Geoff The century-long war for American conservatism, with Matthew Continetti Niskanen Center August 29, 2023 https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-century-long-war-for-american-conservatism-with-matthew-continetti/ October 7, 2026 Tenants thumb|Vice President Dick Cheney delivers an address on the Iraq War at AEI in 2005. thumb|Photographers capture an antiwar protest outside 1150 17th Street in 2009. 1150 17th Street was known for being the location of several conservative movement organizations, principally AEI, but also The Weekly Standard, the Project for the New American Century, the Foreign Policy Initiative, the Philanthropy Roundtable, the Searle Freedom Trust and the Committee on the Present Danger.Continetti Matthew The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism Basic Books 2022 978-1-5416-0052-2 https://books.google.com/books?id=6k07EAAAQBAJ October 7, 2026 Micklethwait John Wooldridge Adrian The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America Penguin Publishing Group 2005 978-0-14-303539-8 https://books.google.com/books?id=Ho9PEAAAQBAJ October 7, 2026 153-156Noah Timothy Dick Cheney's cult of no compromise. Slate May 21, 2009 https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/05/dick-cheney-s-cult-of-no-compromise.html October 7, 2026Death Notice: DANIEL C. SEARLE Chicago Tribune November 4, 2007 https://www.chicagotribune.com/2007/11/04/death-notice-daniel-c-searle/ October 7, 2026 The offices of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, The Public Interest and the Hoover Institution's Policy Review were located in adjacent or nearby buildings. Commentators from both right and left have described the building as a center for conservative ideas. In The Right, Matthew Continetti described arriving for his first day of work at The Weekly Standard and called 1150 17th Street "more than an office building. It was an intellectual hub—the frontal cortex of the American right. . . . From 1150 Seventeenth Street emanated the ideas that shaped the Republican White House and Congress and then the world. . . . Taxes had been cut, welfare reformed, social programs redesigned and governments toppled because of the intellection that took place within the walls of 1150 Seventeenth Street." John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge of The Economist said that the building's appearance as a standard-issue office building was belied by "contain[ing] more conservative brainpower than the average European country." Slate'''s Timothy Noah described the building as "the Alamo of American conservatism" and said that "[w]hat the corner of Haight and Ashbury was to the Summer of Love, 17th and M is to the Autumn of Pre-emption." During the George W. Bush administration, organizations based at 1150 17th Street reached the zenith of influence. AEI and The Weekly Standard helped build the case for the Iraq War and, later, the Iraq War troop surge strategy. AEI economic policy staff helped design the 2003 tax cuts, and AEI's Leon Kass chaired the President's Council on Bioethics. Vice President Dick Cheney sent a staffer to the building each week to pick up 30 copies of the Standard. Cheney also used AEI as a venue for a major 2009 speech criticizing the Barack Obama administration's approach to counterterrorism. However, the influence of organizations based at 1150 17th Street waned during the Barack Obama presidency and the rise of Donald Trump. Continetti said the 2016 fire was a metaphor for the fate of the conservative establishment represented by AEI and other institutions based at 1150 17th Street.Kabaservice Geoff The century-long war for American conservatism, with Matthew Continetti Niskanen Center August 29, 2023 https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-century-long-war-for-american-conservatism-with-matthew-continetti/ October 7, 2026 "The center of gravity of American conservatism drifted toward Capitol Hill, where the Heritage Foundation, the Kirby Center of Hillsdale College and the Claremont Institute's Center for the American Way of Life hosted scholars and speakers friendly to the administration of former President Donald Trump," Continetti wrote. "The right became more populist than it was in 2003. To define oneself as a conservative in the 2020s was to reject the ideas and practices of the 'establishment' that 1150 Seventeenth Street had come to represent." Left-of-center Slate magazine's first D.C. bureau was subleased from AEI in the building in an arrangement brokered by longtime AEI scholar and Slate'' contributor Herbert Stein.Allen Jodie Former Slate staffers remember the magazine's early years. Slate September 30, 2016 https://www.slate.com/articles/slate_plus/the_first_20/2016/09/former_slate_staffers_remember_the_magazine_s_early_years.html October 7, 2026 The National Air Traffic Controllers Association was also a tenant in the building.May 12, 2017 // Photo Album: Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maine, Denver, Las Vegas, Seattle, New Hampshire, Charlotte: Places NATCA is making a difference across the country this week NATCA May 12, 2017 https://natca.org/2017/05/12/may-12-2017-photo-album-washington-d-c-virginia-maine-denver-las-vegas-seattle-new-hampshire-charlotte-places-natca-is-making-a-difference-across-the-country-this-week/ October 7, 2026 References Category:Office buildings completed in 1970 Category:Skyscraper office buildings in Washington, D.C. Category:Demolished buildings and structures in Washington, D.C. Category:American Enterprise Institute Category:MCI Communications Category:Downtown (Washington, D.C.)