Although Wood designed and remodeled numerous private residences, his reputation rested primarily on his larger commissions, such as banks, commercial offices, and government buildings.

The first was Metropolitan Railroad's East Capitol Street Car Barn, which he helped to design with engineer A.N.

[citation needed] In 1906, Wood, Donn & Deming became the first Washington, D.C., architectural firm to design a bank high-rise in their city: the Union Trust Building, now home to the New America Foundation and Joe's, the DC location of a high-end steak and seafood chain.

[citation needed] In addition to the Masonic lodge hall, the building originally housed professional offices, the George Washington University law library, and a movie theater.

"[3] Despite the successes of Wood, Donn and Deming, his use of occult masonic symbolism and features was not universally appreciated and the firm was dissolved in 1912.

In a 1922 article authored by Wood and published in Country Life magazine, he stated that architecture was "frozen history" and evidence of our past.

His promotion of the Colonial Revival extended beyond the romantic view of the link between our past and present to the economic sensibilities of the early 20th century.

He argued that the heavy articulation of the Craftsman style was much more costly than the Colonial Revival which is more delicate and simplified.

[citation needed] His greatest work is the Department of the Interior Headquarters Building in Washington, DC.

Then Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes personally selected Waddy Wood as architect and worked very closely with him to ensure comfort and efficiency in the innovative new building.

[citation needed] The central corridor contains the Grand Staircase and has a checkered marble floor, bronze railings and a coffered plaster ceiling.

A pair of marble bas reliefs by Boris Gilbertson adorn the walls: one of moose and the other of buffalo.

The buffalo motif is found throughout the building including in the Departmental Seal and on the doorknobs of the Secretary of the Interior's Executive Suite.

[citation needed] In addition to his work, Waddy Wood served as the president of the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

In that capacity, he said in a 1928 speech "We will eventually build up a modern style of architecture based on evolution and not revolution, which has to rest, as all civilization does, on a foundation of precedent.