6:00 AM PST 1/25/2021
by
Alex Weprin
NBC had been based at 4001 Nebraska Ave. in northwest Washington for more than 60 years, with President Eisenhower attending the building’s dedication in 1958.
After a month of non-stop news culminating with President Joe Biden’s inauguration, NBC News this weekend officially moved in to its long-planned new Washington D.C. bureau and studios.
The new building, in the works for nearly two years, is located near Capitol Hill, much, much closer to the action than its previous D.C. headquarters.
“If you were to build a Washington, D.C. network news operation from scratch, this is the place you would build it,” says NBC News Washington bureau chief Ken Strickland. “We’re close to news events and steps away from Washington decision-makers, benefitting not only our reporting but making it easier for the newsmakers to, one day, appear back in studio.”
Nine regularly-scheduled programs will originate from the new studios, led by Meet The Press with Chuck Todd, and Weekend Today with Peter Alexander and Kristen Welker. Other programs set to originate from the studios this year will include MTP Daily, The ReidOut, Way Too Early, MSNBC Live, and Andrea Mitchell Reports among others. The new bureau will also serve as the home for special coverage for NBC Nightly News, Today, and MSNBC programming.
The company says more than 400 staff will work from the bureau once the move is complete (and once COVID-19 concerns have dissipated). Reporting teams calling the new bureau their home base will include NBC’s White House team, the Capitol Hill and politics teams, NBC’s investigative unit, and its national security and DOJ units, among others.
“This is an outstanding new home for our Washington-based journalism and broadcasting,” NBC News Group chairman Cesar Conde said in a statement. “Bringing together our teams across NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC and Noticias Telemundo best positions us to cover every storyline coming out of D.C. I’m looking forward to the day when we can all safely collaborate and work together in person in these new spaces. Until then, we will continue to adapt and innovate, producing stellar reporting and programming with the majority of our workforce operating remotely.”
NBC had been based at 4001 Nebraska Ave. in northwest Washington for more than 60 years, with President Eisenhower attending the building’s dedication in 1958. The building and studios are a significant part of TV history, serving as the home of the longest-running TV show in U.S. history, Meet The Press, and the local TV station where The Muppets first debuted (on Jim Henson’s WRC-TV program Sam And Friends). It also played host to the second Nixon-Kennedy debate.
Nestled adjacent to the Department of Homeland Security headquarters, and down the street from American University, the original building and campus will continue to serve as the home for NBC’s Washington D.C. station WRC-TV.
The new national bureau is based on “neoclassical and federal-style architecture,” the network says, and includes a coffered ceiling reminiscent of nearby Union Station. The first-floor studio also includes floor-to-ceiling windows, similar to Studio 1 A in New York. Columns and walls in the newsroom space include quotes lauding journalism and the press, and words like “accuracy,” “truth,” “courage” and “freedom.”
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