Renovations will begin soon on a 1960s-era laboratory building in southwest Washington that will become new office space for about 2,000 employees in the executive and legislative branches.

The General Services Administration awarded a $73 million contract Wednesday to Turner Construction, based in Arlington, Va., to renovate Federal Office Building 8, a former Food and Drug Administration laboratory building that's been vacant for years.

The 547,000-square-foot building occupies the entire block at 2nd and C streets southwest in an area called Federal Center Southwest. The building is between the Health and Human Services Department headquarters and the Ford House Office Building.

About 2,000 House committee staff members and HHS employees will move into the renovated office building by October 2012, GSA spokesman Mike McGill said.

The National Capital Planning Commission approved plans for the building renovation at its Jan. 7 meeting, clearing the way for GSA to award the contract and begin the renovations. Plans for landscaping and perimeter security, such as bollards and planters, will be considered by the commission at a later date, McGill said.

The generic-looking office building will receive substantial improvements inside and out. The interior office space will be flooded with natural light with the addition of two atriums that will cut through the full height of the building, glass curtain walls on each end of the building and projected window bays on the north and south facades.

Perhaps the most noticeable change to the building's footprint will be the addition of a glass and granite security pavilion for screening visitors to the building. The planning commission objected to the pavilion at its October 2007 meeting because it will protrude from the front of the building, but ultimately decided to approve the addition after GSA reduced the size of the structure.