{"id":179302,"date":"2025-12-12T00:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/179302\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T00:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:52:11","slug":"trump-takes-steps-toward-demolishing-four-federal-buildings-preservationist-alleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/179302\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump takes steps toward demolishing four federal buildings, preservationist alleges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n After demolishing the White House\u2019s East Wing<\/a>, President Donald Trump<\/a> is now eying four federal buildings for the same treatment and is circumventing a key government agency with his plans, according to a historic preservationist raising the alarm.\n <\/p>\n

\n Mydelle \u201cMina\u201d Wright, a former senior official at the General Services Administration, wrote in a sworn court declaration this week that the White House is \u201cacting on its own and not through the GSA,\u201d which oversees government property, to solicit bids \u201cto analyze and recommend for demolition four historic federal buildings in DC.\u201d The administration, though, asserted in a court filing that the government was contemplating transferring ownership of the buildings, not destroying them.\n <\/p>\n

\n The buildings in question \u2014 many of which feature architectural styles that don\u2019t fit Trump\u2019s stated preferences \u2014 include the Robert C. Weaver Building, which serves as headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; the New Deal-era Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building; the GSA Regional Office Building; and the Liberty Loan Building, although the GSA announced plans<\/a> to dispose of that building last year, which could include transferring control to a new owner.\n <\/p>\n

\n In a court filing Wednesday evening responding to the declaration, the Trump administration called Wright\u2019s assertions \u201cimpermissible and factually inaccurate.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt is based on hearsay, not personal knowledge, and it is wrong,\u201d principal deputy assistant attorney general Adam Gustafson and deputy chief Marissa Piropato wrote.\n <\/p>\n

\n GSA, they said, \u201cis currently evaluating those assets not for demolition but for disposal\u2014meaning conveyance out of federal ownership,\u201d adding that GSA is following the necessary regulations.\n <\/p>\n

\n The White House did not respond to CNN\u2019s request for comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n Since returning to the White House this year, Trump has leaned into his background as a real estate developer and has taken major steps to apply his vision to Washington: paving over the White House Rose Garden<\/a> and decorating it to mirror his Mar-a-Lago patio; adorning the Oval Office<\/a>, Cabinet Room and West Colonnade with gilded features; and launching construction of a $300 million ballroom that he says is privately funded.\n <\/p>\n

\n But his new plans, Wright said in her declaration, present an \u201cuntenable situation\u201d for GSA leadership attempting to navigate the president\u2019s hands-on involvement.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cFor the first time of which I am aware, a President is personally involved in facilitating end-runs around the agency\u2019s obligations to the buildings that are our national heritage, and who in the agency is going to tell him \u2018No?\u2019\u201d said Wright, who added that she first learned of the effort Friday and that it only recently came to the attention of key GSA officials, who usually have to work within strict legal guidelines and historic preservation and environmental policy.\n <\/p>\n

\n As he attempts to put his mark on the nation\u2019s capital<\/a> \u2014 from Kennedy Center renovations<\/a> to plans for a new triumphal arch<\/a> and stadium \u2014 Trump is taking aim at buildings with historical significance, preservationists warn.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Weaver building follows former President John F. Kennedy\u2019s \u201cGuiding Principles for Federal Architecture\u201d and is on the National Register of Historic Places<\/a>. But its precast concrete is an example of the brutalist architecture of the 1960s \u2014 for which Trump has made his distaste known.\n <\/p>\n

\n Earlier this year, the president signed an executive order<\/a> mandating that all federal buildings \u201cembrace classical architecture,\u201d specifically targeting modernist and brutalist buildings.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Cohen building features New Deal murals and sculpture and is an example of Egyptian Revival and Stripped Classicism architecture, according to the GSA. Historian Michael Austin has warned<\/a> that Liberty Loan, an example of \u201ctempo\u201d federal buildings that popped up in the 20th century, is an \u201cirreplaceable piece of Washington history.\u201d The GSA Regional Office Building is another New Deal-era building.\n <\/p>\n

\n Wright\u2019s declaration comes amid a broader court battle over Trump\u2019s efforts to paint the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, a sprawling and ornate federal building next door to the White House.\n <\/p>\n

\n In an interview last month, Trump told Fox News he was exploring painting the distinctive building a bright white, adding, \u201cGray is for funerals.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n A group of preservationists sued<\/a> Trump to halt any changes to the building unless a standard review process is followed, warning the structure could be \u201cirreversibly damaged.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In a hearing this week, the Trump administration argued that the EEOB was exempt from that review process, but agreed to refrain from any painting until March amid the ongoing the legal process.\n <\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, Trump\u2019s renovation and construction projects continue at the White House. Last week, he hired<\/a> a new architect for the ballroom amid disputes with the project\u2019s original architect over its size and scope.\n <\/p>\n

\n The project has drawn outcry from preservationists for the administration\u2019s failure to seek approval from the commission overseeing construction on federal buildings before demolition. The White House has said it will submit plans for the ballroom construction to the National Capital Planning Commission, but it insisted the body doesn\u2019t have purview over the East Wing.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After demolishing the White House\u2019s East Wing, President Donald Trump is now eying four federal buildings for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-179302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}