{"id":342513,"date":"2025-12-11T06:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T06:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/342513\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T06:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T06:19:08","slug":"hud-headquarters-cohen-building-and-two-other-historic-federal-buildings-may-be-demolished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/342513\/","title":{"rendered":"HUD headquarters, Cohen Building, and two other historic federal buildings may be demolished"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four historic Washington, D.C.<\/a> buildings may be demolished by the Trump administration, per a court declaration<\/a> filed yesterday.<\/p>\n

The four buildings are: the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building<\/a> designed by Marcel Breuer, where HUD has historically been headquartered; the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building<\/a> by Charles Z. Klauder, known for its Ben Shahn mural; the General Services Administration (GSA) Regional Office Building by Charles Butler; and the Liberty Loan Building by Cass Gilbert.<\/p>\n

Wright, a former White House and GSA employee, was testifying in regard to proposed changes<\/a> to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB). In November, Cultural Heritage Partners<\/a>, a preservation law firm, filed a lawsuit<\/a> against Donald Trump and is now trying to thwart the Trump administration\u2019s proposed alterations to the EEOB together with the DC Preservation League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"exteriorThe Wilbur J. Cohen Building in Washington, D.C.\u2014previously the Social Security Building\u2014is subject to the GSA\u2019s new \u201caccelerated disposals\u201d process. The building is architecturally important and notably includes some of the most important New Deal\u2013era murals. (Carol M. Highsmith\/Library of Congress<\/a>)<\/p>\n

HUD vacated its Breuer-designed headquarters this past summer with plans to move into a new building in Alexandria, Virginia, as reported<\/a> by AN. The GSA has been ordered to terminate leases at 7,500 properties\u2014including Mies van der Rohe, Paul Rudolph, and Victor Lundy buildings<\/a>\u2014as part of the government\u2019s new \u201caccelerated disposals<\/a>\u201d process.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdvancing in the Dark\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is allegedly organizing private contracts outside of the GSA, the agency tasked with maintaining government buildings. As a National Historic Landmark the EEOB, and any renovation work it undergoes, is subject to Section 106<\/a> and Section 110(f) of the NHPA, Wright explained<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President is not free to step around that framework by treating a federal building as personal property\u2014privately \u2018getting bids\u2019 from painters or directing subordinates to move a project forward outside the law,\u201d the plaintiffs said<\/a>\u00a0in regard to the EEOB\u2019s proposed alterations, before adding: \u201cMeanwhile, the White House has made plain the President does not view himself as bound by ordinary statutory guardrails. The record shows an active project advancing in the dark, without the public processes Congress required.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a supplemental declaration<\/a> reviewed by AN, Wright said this is all without precedent. \u201cFor the first time of which I am aware,\u201d Wright noted, \u201ca 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 Wright was the founding director of the EEOB Preservation Office and launched a maintenance program for the building.<\/p>\n

Following yesterday\u2019s court hearing, the judge ordered the defendants to file a response or supplemental declaration addressing the demolition plans of the four buildings mentioned by Wright. The judge indicated she may issue a written or oral ruling<\/a> on the matter in the coming days.<\/p>\n

Living New Deal<\/a>, a nonprofit that spreads awareness about the New Deal\u2019s cultural legacy, is fighting<\/a> to save the Cohen Building from demolition. \u201cThe Social Security Building<\/a> was renamed the Wilbur J. Cohen Building in honor of one of the architects of the Social Security Act and Medicare and Medicaid. It is a symbol of the government providing for the welfare of all Americans,\u201d Living New Deal assistant director Mary Okin affirmed.<\/p>\n

This news comes just days after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced \u201ca new initiative to explore the revitalization of Washington Dulles International Airport<\/a>,\u201d whose main hall and control tower was designed by Eero Saarinen. The initiative may \u201creplace or build on the existing main terminal [by Saarinen] and satellite concourses\u201d at Dulles.<\/p>\n

Judith Levine, of the Today in Fascism<\/a> Substack, was prompted by this fusillade to publish a recent op-ed<\/a> in The Guardian about how Trump is \u201coffloading historic gems\u201d to remake Washington, D.C. align with his administration\u2019s \u201cvalues.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four historic Washington, D.C. buildings may be demolished by the Trump administration, per a court declaration filed yesterday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-342513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}