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A R C H I V E S
c1
5
U S I N G T E C H N O L O G Y
T O S A F E G U A R D
A R C H I V A L R E C O R D S
II
A R C H I V E S
N A T I O N A L A R C H I V E S A T C O L L E G E P A R K T H E N A T I O N A L A R C H I V E S A N D R E C O R D S A D M I N I S T R A T I O N (NARA) completed construction of a new facility, the
National Archives at College Park, in 1993. Informally known as Archives II, it is the largest and most technical-
ly advanced archives building in the world. As it was built primarily to protect the Nations records, extreme care
was taken to design and construct a building that would offer the best possible conditions for the storage,
preservation, and use of the archival materials.
The historic National Archives Building, located on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, was completed in
1935 and reached its records storage capacity by 1970. To alleviate the space shortage, more than 500,000
cubic feet of records received since 1970 were diverted to the Washington National Records Center in Suitland,
MD, and to a leased building in Alexandria, VA. However, these temporary facilities did not meet the criteria set
by the National Institute of Standards and Technology for the storage of archival records. Repeated attempts to
obtain official support for a new archives building were unsuccessful until after the National Archives regained its
status as an independent Federal agency in 1985. In 1987, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer, with the aid of Maryland
Senators Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes, persuaded the University of Maryland to donate 33 acres of land
for a new archives building and initiated the legislative process to authorize and finance it. On September 22,
1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the public law authorizing NARA to construct and finance a new archives
facility. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on October 17, 1989. The George Hyman Construction
Company completed the construction of Archives II in July 1993, and the first NARA staff moved into the building
that October.
Designed by Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum, architects, and Ellerbe Becket, engineers, the 1.8 million-square-
foot building includes records processing and storage areas (stacks), a five-level research center, conservation
and special media laboratories, offices, conference and training facilities, an auditorium, a cafeteria, a day care
center, and an exercise facility. The central focus of the Archives II design was to create a building with state-of-
the-art systems and environments that adhered to the strict conditions necessary for the long-term protection of
records. In particular, special attention was given to the design and construction of the records storage environ-
ments, the mobile shelving system, fire protection, and security. In addition, the finishes and materials used in the
construction of the stacks were carefully studied and selected to minimize the exposure of the records to harmful
contaminants. This publication details these design efforts and the resulting systems in operation at Archives II.
C R E D I T S
Photography: Maxwell Mackenzie, Earl McDonald, Larry Glenn, Spacesaver Corporation
Design: Jennifer Stolk, MacVicar Design + Communications, Inc. R e c o rd s S t o r a g e E n v i ro n m e n t s
page 2
A r c h i v a l F i n i s h e s
page 8
H i g h - D e n s i t y M o b i l e S h e l v i n g
page 14
F i r e P r o t e c t i o n
page 18
S e c u r i t y
page 24 2
Why Controlled Environments?
Pleated degas filters remove
gaseous pollutants from the
records storage areas.
A
rchives II can house nearly 2 million cubic feet of the permanently valuable
records of the Federal Government. In order to achieve the best possible
storage conditions, the design effort for the building had to consider the
development of mechanical systems that provided strict environmental
standards in the records storage areas (or stacks). In addition to maintaining stable
and constant temperature and relative humidity levels, the removal of damaging par-
ticulate materials and gasses from the air is particularly important to the preservation
of archival records. Conditions at Archives II follow guidelines established by the
National Academy of Science, the NARA Document Conservation Branch, and other
archivists and scientists. The conditions selected for the Archives II records storage
environments represent what NARA believes to be a fair balance between providing
the best protection for the records and allowing researchers to use and copy them.
RECORDS STORAGE ENVIRONMENTS 3
Temperature and Relative Humidity
Temperature and humidity requirements for the stacks vary, depending on the type of mate-
rials being stored. The crucial design task was to ensure that these different conditions
remain stable and constant.
Record Type
Temperature
Relative Humidity
Textual and cartographic
70°F +/-2
45% +/-5
records
21°C +/-1
45% +/-5
Black-and-white motion picture
65°F +/-2
30% +/-3
film, audiotapes, and sound
18°C +/-1
30% +/-3
recordings
Color motion picture film
25°F +/-2
30% +/-3
-4°C +/-1
30% +/-3
Black-and-white photographs,
65°F +/-2
35% +/-3
glass plate negatives,
18°C +/-1
35% +/-3
negatives, slides, and posters
Aerial film
38°F +/-2
35% +/-3
3°C +/-1
35% +/-3
Magnetic media
65°F +/-2
35% +/-3
18°C +/-1
35% +/-3
Nixon Presidential textual
65°F +/-2
35% +/-3
records, gifts, and
18°C +/-1
35% +/-3
audiovisual records
Acclimatization rooms for
50°F +/-2
30% +/-3
color motion picture film
10°C +/-1
30% +/-3
Acclimatization rooms for
55°F +/-2
35% +/-3
color photographs and
13°C +/-1
35% +/-3
aerial film
Pressure-reducing
stations at various
points in the building
reduce the steam
pressure from 110
pounds per square inch
to 15 pounds per
square inch for use in
heat exchangers,
heating coils, and some
humidifiers.
Chilled water and
glycol systems cool the
air in both the outside
air and stack air
handling units. 4
Air Filtration
Removal of harmful particulate materials and gaseous
pollutants from the air of the records storage areas was
a priority design element. Gas removal presented the
greatest challenge because NARA wanted to filter
gasses such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone,
and aldehydes to levels ranging from 1 to 12.5 parts per
billion. The outside air provided to the stacks for ven-
tilation and pressurization had to be filtered, as did the
stack return air, which contained gasses originating
from the stored archival materials.
Air Handling System
The Archives II air distribution system consists of both
an outside air handling system and a stack recirculating
air handling system. Both deliver a consistent-volume
air supply in order to maintain uniform temperatures
and humidity levels in the stacks. The air in the stacks
is primarily recirculated, but it does receive up to 10-
percent fresh air from the outside units.
The archival storage areas, totaling 691,572 square
feet, are arranged horizontally and vertically like shoe
boxes. There are five storage spaces at the base, with as
many as five storage spaces stacked above them.
Mechanical rooms are found at three locations on each
floor between the stacks. The mechanical rooms are
similarly stacked above one another and contain air
handling units that provide air to the adjacent stacks.
The heating and cooling distribution piping that serves
these units extends vertically from a tunnel area
through these mechanical rooms to the mechanical
penthouses (which contain 100-percent outside air
handling units).
The atrium spaces in Archives II
are designed with their own air
handling systems. 5
The stacked mechanical rooms between storage areas
contain two air handling units, each serving the adja-
cent storage space. Each pair of air handling units has
interconnecting bypass supply-and-return ductwork
and dampers. Opening and closing the dampers allows
limited back up supply-and-return air capability to a
storage space during those times when the adjacent
unit servicing that area is deactivated for maintenance
or repairs.
To maintain these varied temperatures and relative
humidities, the design had to incorporate means of pre-
venting moisture migration through the structure,
removing moisture from the outside air used for venti-
lation, and removing excess moisture in the stacks.
Moisture migration from the exterior was addressed by
using precast concrete panels backed by metal, double-