The Peck Federal Building, built in 1964, is located in the center of downtown Cincinnatti. Although the GSA had previously invested in extensive upgrades to the systems through an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act project, the building remained underutilized with over 20% vacant space.

The GSA charged Schwartz/Silver with creating a new building standard for tenant space and a better workplace environment through a focus on efficient spaces while pushing back on agency standards and union requirements. With each agency—the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Energy, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Justice’s U.S. Trustee Program—the design process included Town Hall meetings, user interviews, benchmarking analysis, and workshops to show examples of best practices in office planning.

Schwartz/Silver raised the ceiling at the perimeter and exposed the waffle slab, taking advantage of high windows to bring daylight deeper into the building. Planning standards were developed to complement the existing facility, including open offices organized at the windows, with private offices utilizing borrowed light, concentrating daylight and views where people work. Shared amenities, including conference rooms, huddle rooms, and work rooms, are along circulation routes and are used to divide the plan into neighborhoods, creating identity spaces for agencies on each floor.