For those of you lucky enough to be driving on Silver Hill Road in Suitland, Maryland, past the Suitland Federal Center, you can see the Census Bureau Headquarters. Constructed between 2003 and 2007, it is not your typical-looking federal building. What makes it so special? Its dramatic wood “veil,” made up of 16,000 curving wood fins, each 13 feet long and 11 inches wide, and bolted in rows to the side of the eight-story building, covering the windows with a chaotic yet elegant sunshade.

My appreciation for this unique design element grew when I learned of the lengths to which the builder had to go to find a company that could mill the lumber and bend it into its unique shapes. After a long search, they enlisted the help of a WWII-era shipbuilder, Maurice Rhude, and the craftsmen of Sentinal Structures in Peshtigo, Wisconsin to construct the fins. Although the company had long ago ceased shipbuilding, Sentinel’s mill worked for two straight years, methodically milling, gluing, and bending white oak into the required undulating forms.

For more information about the design and construction of the “Census sticks,” see the article by Dave Barista entitled “Handcrafting the Census Bureau’s Hardwood Veil” in the May 2007 edition of Building Design+Construction.