The building was constructed specifically to house the U.S. Tax Court. The U.S. Tax Court is a federal trial court that adjudicates disputes between the Internal Revenue Service and the people of the United States. The commission called for the creation of a building that was responsive to the \"Principles for Federal Architecture" developed in the Kennedy administration which recommended architecture that would convey the dignity, enterprise, vigor and stability of the American government as well as the initiative of the General Services Administration in the arena of modern architecture.

Surface interior renovations completed in 2001 by the Temple Group.

It houses courtrooms, offices and related spaces for the judges and staff of the U.S. Tax Court.

Good.

Victor Lundy, already known for his use of innovative structural designs, boldly planned a massive cantilevered central element that appears to be resting, unsupported, on a first story podium in his design for the U.S. Tax Court Building. Implementing this design concept required the use of several construction innovations in order to assure the stability of the cantilevered central section. As previously noted, Lundy used compression and post-tensioned bridges, steel cables hidden in the building's walls and six narrow columns to support the cantilevered section of the building. He also incorporated interior compression bridges and under-pavement ice melting systems in a design that Ada Louise Huxtable called \"fully part of the mid twentieth century." The extensive use of precast concrete throughout the building was also a key structural and design element. The technical aspects of this design are considered so important that they are listed among the reasons given for its landmark designation in Washington D.C. and for its acceptance as a National Historic Place, with the staff report indicating that "Lundy's design for the Tax Court building is noted as showing a structural daring without precedent in federal architecture.";"The U.S. Tax Building is socially significant because it was one of the initial episodes in a federal initiative in modern architecture. This initiative was the product of President Kennedy's desire to improve the aesthetics of federal architecture in Washington, D.C. and his establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee on Federal Office Space. The Committee recommended new emphasis on public architecture, as well as the landscaping, site selection and layout of federal buildings. In response, the General Services Administration (GSA), which acts as construction manager for federal buildings, initiated a construction program fostering modernist design of important public buildings. During this period, essentially the 1960s, important commissions for federal buildings were given to modernist architects Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Victor Lundy. In doing this, the federal government demonstrated a growing acceptance of the government's social responsibility to be a leader in support of the arts and a developing understanding of the relationship between public architecture and perception of government.

The tax court is a building designed in the mid-1960s and reflects that era's aesthetic sensibilities. The flat unornamented facades, the interplay of rectilinear volumes, the floating stories above glass can identify the Tax Court Building as a study in modernism. Victor Lundy has described his design concept as a \"monolithic block separated into its constituent functional units within which you will always have a sense of where you are, and of the sky outside." This highly sculptural design has been described by Ada Louise Huxtable, in her 1967 review of Lundy's plan, as a "progressive, sensitive, contemporary solution fully responsive to Washington's classical tradition and yet fully part of the mid-20th century." The design established four related but separately defined volumes tied together by the central hall in the cantilevered central section. It uses a clerestory ceiling in the Hall of Justice and curtain walls of bronzed glass to bring light into the building's four massive granite clad sections. The use of granite to clad the exterior surfaces and the balance and order provided by the symmetries of the two end blocks and entry plaza provide a dignified aesthetic suitable to the building's purpose, while the incorporation of modern technologies as a key design factor and the use of precast reinforced concrete as a structural element is clearly indicative of a modern building. The design is, as Lundy intended, "truth for today and tomorrow.";"Victor Lundy's final design for the Tax Court Building drew praise from all sides. The Fine Arts Commission, in approving the revised design on November 16, 1966, noted that it had \"nothing but admiration" for the design that "superbly solves the problem of limited space." The local press reported that the approval of the building, along with the new buildings in the District designed by van der Rohe and Breuer, assured that "we will have outstanding modern architecture represented in a city thus far dominated by Roman temples and architectural mediocrity." The national architectural press as represented by the comments of Ada Louise Huxtable in the New York Times was equally laudatory. Lundy's design received a GSA Honor Award in the first Design Awards Program held by the agency in 1972.In 1976, Progressive Architecture writer Stanley Abercrombie rated the U.S. Tax Court among the best federal buildings constructed in the previous 50 years and, more recently, a 2003 GSA study of federal government office buildings rated the U.S. Tax Court as one of a small group of buildings that "qualify as Modern masterpieces with high levels of architectural significance." In providing historic designation to the Tax Court in 2008 the District of Columbia Preservation Commission noted that it "is an outstanding example of federal architecture of its time, using the most advanced structural engineering to achieve an expressive purpose" and the National Register nomination of the same year says of the building "the U.S. Tax Court Building is a striking and highly sculptural example of mid-century Modernist architecture.";"Lundy's U.S. Tax Court Building has modernist significance on several levels. When the Court Building was designed it was in the vanguard of modernist public architecture in the United States, and remains a structurally innovative building whose design fully integrated technical and design choices. This building and those of Gropius, van der Rohe and Breuer demonstrate a new attitude toward modernist architecture among government bureaucrats that acknowledged the artistic as well as the functional aspects of the nation's public buildings. Most significantly, The U.S. Tax Court is important because it succeeds in conveying the modernist design aesthetic in a building that is timelessly beautiful.

Huxtable, Ada Louise, "Architecture: Full Speed forward," The New York Times, October 1,1967.

National Archives, Textual Records of the U.S. Tax Court, Archives File 803.5, Washington, D.C.

Quinn Evans Architects, "Historic Structures Report - United States Tax Court Building," Prepared for the General Services Administration, Washington, D.C.: July, 1996.

Robinson, Judith H, National Register of Historic Places, Registration Form for U.S. Tax Court.OMB No.10024-10018. Prepared April 23, 2008.

U.S. General Services Administration, "Growth, Efficiency and Modernism: GSA Buildings of the 1950s, 60s and 70s," Washington, D.C.: U.S. General Service Administration, September, 2003.

U.S. General Services Administration. "U.S. Tax Court Building, Washington, D.C. Building Overview." https://www.gsa.gov/historic-buildings/us-tax-court-building-washington-dc

Von Eckardt, Wolf, "Fine Arts Carping Leads to Excellence in Design," The Washington Post, November 17, 1966.

Williams, Kim. Historic Landmark Designation Case No. 08-14.ö Washington, D.C. Historic Designation Review Board, Staff Designation Report. June 26, 2008.