"The GSA intends to break ground on the building on March 19," 3D/I senior vice president Lee Evey tells GlobeSt.com. "The process of completing the project is expected to take about two-and-one-half years."

NOAA's new complex will be a state-of-the-art facility consisting of 208,000 of space spread out within a three-story structure. The development will occupy a 15-acre parcel of land within the Suitland Federal Center.

NOAA's National Environmental Satellite Data & Information Services Satellite Operations & Data Processing center will make its home within the tower, while NOAA offices will occupy the dome-roofed space beneath the tower. There will be about 550 NOAA employees working at the new building, and an additional 100 staff members are expected to work in the structure come 2021.

A two-company partnership involving architectural firms Morphosis and Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture & Engineering is behind the building's unconventional design. "The extraordinary futuristic design makes a stirring architectural statement that reflects the state-of-the-art work which will go on inside," 3D/I senior vice president Jerry Raeder explains in a statement.

Indeed, the walls of the new structure will contain a cache of computer equipment valued at $50 million. And the environmental satellites that employees will operate from the new locale are worth over $3 billion. Outside the building, there will be more unique spaces. The roof of the building will be a "green" roof; a 140,000-sf lawn, of sorts, covered with seasonal plants and skylights.