engineering

J.J. Pickle Federal Building

J.J. Pickle Federal Building is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand J.J. Pickle Federal Building rather than just read about it. In short: The J.J. Pickle Federal Building is one of the largest mid-century modern buildings in Texas and has a rich political history.

Key takeaways

J.J. Pickle Federal Building belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect J.J. Pickle Federal Building to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of J.J. Pickle Federal Building from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The J.J. Pickle Federal Building is one of the largest mid-century modern buildings in Texas and has a rich political history. The eleven-story structure is a quintessential specimen of mid-century high-rises with its vertically oriented, uniform exterior grid that "reflects a golden age for civic architecture in the 1950s and 1960s". The building is known for its famous occupants, including Congressman J. J. Pickle and President Lyndon B. Johnson. The building occupies the entire block on 8th street between San Jacinto Boulevard and Trinity Street in downtown Austin, Texas. There is an outdoor plaza on the north half of the site that connects to the first floor. The ground floor is at street level on 8th street.

Construction Construction on the J.J. Pickle Federal building and the neighboring Homer Thornberry Building was completed in 1965. The two buildings are connected via a tunnel under 9th street. The buildings were funded by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) at the same time as many other federal buildings after the Public Buildings Act of 1949 consolidated federal building programs into the GSA. The design was a joint venture between architecture firms Page-Sotherland-Page and Brooks & Bar, and the construction was done by Warrior Construction Inc. The total cost of constructing the J.J. Pickle Federal Building was $9,800,739.

Architecture

The building is a single rectilinear volume set on a podium-like ground floor, surrounded by a concourse. The exterior walls are concrete, and the ground floor is polished granite. All four sides of the building are wrapped with a uniform exterior grid that frames the window openings with rows and columns of T-shaped concrete sections. The concrete openings taper to create a vertically oriented oblong hexagonal shape. This strategy "both softens and animates the building with enriched patterns of light and shadow". The building has nine floors of office space, including the former offices of President Lyndon B. Johnson. There was a helipad on the roof for the president until it was removed in the 1980s. The ground floor combines additional office space and a small covered parking lot.

Famous occupants

J. J. Pickle In 1998 the previously unnamed federal building was named after politician J. J. Pickle, who worked in the building for almost thirty years. Pickle was an American congressman for over 25 years and was active in Austin's local politics.

President Lyndon B. Johnson The building is perhaps best known for housing the offices of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who used 13 offices on the western half of the 9th floor while he was president of the United States. The president's personal office, located in the northwest corner of the top floor, featured sweeping views of the city. The suite includes offices, a living space for the president, and a kitchen. All of the rooms are finished with dark stained-wood paneling and orange carpeting. At the president's request, almost every room had televisions to watch news broadcasts, including the restroom. The president also requested high-pressure shower heads. Lyndon B. Johnson hosted the USSR for talks on SALT in these offices on December 6, 1966.

George W. Bush George W. Bush had his campaign office in the J.J. Pickle Federal Building while running for office as the president of the United States.

Preservation Lyndon B. Johnson's suites on the 9th floor have been dutifully preserved with their 1960s furniture and décor. The entrance and hallways have also been preserved, with the only major changes to the building consisting of adding bricks to the plaza and solar panels to the roof.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with J.J. Pickle Federal Building

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what J.J. Pickle Federal Building claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to J.J. Pickle Federal Building before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about J.J. Pickle Federal Building ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of J.J. Pickle Federal Building

In research: J.J. Pickle Federal Building appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses J.J. Pickle Federal Building in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: J.J. Pickle Federal Building is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Buildings and structures completed in 1965, Buildings and structures in Austin, Texas, Federal buildings in the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for J.J. Pickle Federal Building outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study J.J. Pickle Federal Building in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what J.J. Pickle Federal Building means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain J.J. Pickle Federal Building out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is J.J. Pickle Federal Building in simple terms?

The J.J. Pickle Federal Building is one of the largest mid-century modern buildings in Texas and has a rich political history.

Why does J.J. Pickle Federal Building matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study J.J. Pickle Federal Building?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on J.J. Pickle Federal Building.