Robert C. Weaver Federal Building

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Robert C. Weaver Federal Building
Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, headquarters of HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, D.C., LCCN2011633627.tiff
Location map Washington, D.C. central 2.svg
Red pog.svg
Alternative namesDepartment of Housing and Urban Development Headquarters
General information
TypeGovernment office building
Architectural style Brutalist [1] [2] [3]
Location451 7th Street SW, Washington, D.C.
Coordinates 38°53′02″N77°01′21″W / 38.88389°N 77.02250°W / 38.88389; -77.02250 (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)
Construction started1965
CompletedSeptember 9, 1968
Design and construction
Architect Marcel Breuer [4]
Other designers Herbert Beckhard; firm of Nolen-Swinburne [4] [5] [6]
Main contractor John McShain, Inc.
Website
HUD.gov
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
USA District of Columbia location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location451 7th St., SW., Washington, DC
Area5.5 acres (2.2 ha)
Built1963 (1963)
ArchitectBreuer, Marcel; Beckhard, Herbert
Architectural styleModern Movement, Expressionism
NRHP reference No. 08000824 [7]
Added to NRHPAugust 26, 2008

The Robert C. Weaver Federal Building is a 10-story office building in Washington, D.C., owned by the federal government of the United States. Built by the General Services Administration, it serves as the headquarters of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It was completed in 1968 and designed by Marcel Breuer in the Brutalist style. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Contents

The building was first conceived in 1962, when President John F. Kennedy established the Ad Hoc Committee on Federal Office Space. Work began after Kennedy's successor Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965. A cornerstone-laying ceremony took place in November 1966, and the building was formally dedicated on September 21, 1968. The plaza was redesigned in the 1990s by Martha Schwartz. The structure was renamed for Dr. Robert C. Weaver, the first Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the first African American Cabinet member, in 2000. After HUD announced plans to move out of the building in 2025, the federal government considered demolishing it.

The Weaver Building is one of two buildings in the District of Columbia designed by Marcel Breuer, along with the Hubert H. Humphrey Building. Inspired by some of Breuer's previous structures, it has a curvilinear precast concrete facade shaped like the letter "X", with an elongated spine and four bilateral, symmetrical, curving arms. Breuer designed a 6-acre (2.4 ha) plaza, which serves as the roof for an underground parking garage. The facade, containing deeply recessed rectangular windows, carried the building's weight; the first floor is recessed. As built, there were 10 stories of offices above ground, and another two floors below ground. Although the building's design received some praise when it was built, its Brutalist style and the unoriginality of its design have also received negative commentary, especially from several HUD secretaries.

Development

Conception and design

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy established the Ad Hoc Committee on Federal Office Space and charged it with developing new guidelines for the design of federal office buildings. [8] On May 23, 1962, the Ad Hoc Committee issued a one-page report, Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture, which established these new design principles. [8] The document encouraged federal planners to consider and build structures that "reflect the dignity, enterprise, vigor and stability of the American National Government" and "embody the finest contemporary American architectural thought." [9] [10]

In 1965, major revisions to federal housing policy resulted in the creation of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The United States Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 on August 10, 1965, which President Johnson called "the single most important breakthrough" in federal housing policy since the 1920s. [11] The legislation greatly expanded funding for existing federal housing programs, and added new programs to provide rent subsidies for the elderly and disabled; housing rehabilitation grants to poor homeowners; provisions for veterans to make very low down-payments to obtain mortgages; new authority for families qualifying for public housing to be placed in empty private housing (along with subsidies to landlords); and matching grants to localities for the construction of water and sewer facilities, construction of community centers in low-income areas, and urban beautification. [11] [12] Just four weeks later, on September 9, President Johnson signed legislation establishing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. [13]

Design work on the future HUD building began immediately. Karel Yasko, Assistant Commissioner for Design and Construction in the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), oversaw the design process in accordance with the Ad Hoc Committee's guidelines. [14] In 1946, the Congress had passed the District of Columbia Redevelopment Act, which established the District of Columbia Redevelopment Land Agency and provided for clearance of land and redevelopment funds in the capital. [15] After a decade of discussion, public comment, and negotiations with landowners and developers, the Southwest Urban Renewal Plan was approved in November 1956. [16] In part, the plan cleared the way for GSA to build new large federal office buildings between Independence Avenue SW and Southeast Freeway to its south. [17] The HUD building, the only office building south of the railroad tracks (which bifurcated the area on an east–west axis), was designed to be a showcase for the Ad Hoc Committee's design guidelines. [6] [17] [18] Internationally known architect Marcel Breuer submitted the building's winning design. [4] [18] Breuer became the building's lead architect, assisted by his associate Herbert Beckhard and the firm of Nolen-Swinburne. [4] [5] [6]

Construction

The project was expected to cost $32 million, although only $29 million was appropriated by Congress for construction. [4] Title to the land under the future HUD building was held by the D.C. Redevelopment Land Agency, and site preparation began in November 1965. [19] Groundbreaking and construction had already begun by the spring of 1966. [20] John McShain, Inc., one of the largest federal building contractors in the Washington metro area, was named the lead construction contractor. [19] A strike by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America temporarily delayed construction in May 1966. [20]

The building's cornerstone was laid by Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey in November 1966. [21] During the HUD building's construction, the footings for the western portion of the building were accidentally built 1.5 to 3.5 feet (0.46 to 1.07 m) over the property line. [19] [22] The 3-foot (0.91 m)-thick footings were 23 feet (7.0 m) underground. [19] [22] When L'Enfant Properties, leaseholder of the property abutting the HUD site, began construction of L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in 1971, the company was forced to sue John McShain, Inc. and the Redevelopment Land Agency for removal of the footings, stabilization of the HUD structure, and associated costs. [19] [22] The action spawned several lengthy court battles which lasted through the 1970s. [19]

Post-completion

The HUD headquarters building was formally dedicated on September 21, 1968. [4] President Johnson and HUD Secretary Robert C. Weaver attended the ceremony. [4] The final cost was just $26 million (about $162 million in 2010 dollars). [4]

Main plaza reconstruction

The plaza was originally supposed to contain a flagstone pavement with lights, benches, and bollards, though these features were not included in the original construction. [23] The building's plaza was roundly criticized by HUD employees. Not a single positive comment about the plaza was given by HUD workers in a 1979 survey, and employees strongly criticized the lack of seating in the space. [24] The plaza as a whole, one urban planning group concluded, was bleak and unwelcoming. [25] Signage, lighting, identification of entrances, and the regulation of pedestrian traffic in the plaza, the Project for Public Spaces told HUD (which had commissioned a study of the building), were so poor that they were characterized as a "disaster". [25]

The donut-shaped, white canopies on the Weaver Building's main plaza at night. The exit from the parking garage can be seen under the canopies, and the lighted entrance to the Main (South) Lobby in the middle-left distance. US Housing and Urban Development bldg 2010-02-12.jpg
The donut-shaped, white canopies on the Weaver Building's main plaza at night. The exit from the parking garage can be seen under the canopies, and the lighted entrance to the Main (South) Lobby in the middle-left distance.

In the late 1980s, the plaza began leaking water into the building's underground parking garage. [26] Rather than merely fix the leak, HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros encouraged GSA to renovate or reconstruct the plaza to make it more worker- and pedestrian-friendly. [26] In 1990, Martha Schwartz, a nationally recognized Massachusetts-based landscape architect known for her unconventional and colorful designs, was commissioned to redesign the plaza. Schwartz initially envisioned low, round, concrete planters containing grass that would double as seating, and donut-shaped canopies of brightly colored plastic (lit from within at night) set upon 18-foot steel poles to provide shelter from the sun and rain. [27] [28] Schwartz developed her design in 1994 after receiving public feedback during a workshop sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. [27] Although the design had passed through the GSA's rigorous planning and design process and had the support of J. Carter Brown (then-chairman of the United States Commission of Fine Arts, which had co-approval over the design) and HUD Secretary Cisneros (a trained urban planner), GSA Commissioner Robert A. Peck strongly disliked it. [27] [28] By the time Schwartz's design was ready for installation, Cisneros had left HUD and Andrew M. Cuomo was the new Secretary. Cuomo is alleged to have disliked the canopies and feared that the brightly colored plastic would draw public ridicule, and so pressed for alterations. [27] [28] In a compromise, the canopies were retained but colored a neutral white. [27] [28] Schwartz also designed a back-lit mural composed of images of HUD-financed building projects to be installed on the granite wall under the loggia, but this was canceled due to cost concerns. [28]

Renaming and proposed demolition

In 2000, the HUD building was officially renamed the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building in honor of Dr. Robert C. Weaver, the first HUD Secretary and the first African American Cabinet member. [1] [29] The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 26, 2008. [23] [7] The same year, the Weaver Building was added to the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites, [30] which cited the structure as the first federal building to adhere to Kennedy's Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture. [10]

HUD laid off many of the building's staff when the second presidency of Donald Trump began in 2025. The agency announced in April that it would try to sell the Weaver Building, citing deferred maintenance costs and a desire to relocate to a smaller space, [31] [32] and it announced in June that it would move to Alexandria, Virginia. [33] In conjunction with HUD's move, the GSA placed the Weaver Building on its list of buildings targeted for "accelerated disposition". [34] [35] That December, in an unrelated lawsuit involving the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, a former HUD official testified the Trump administration was considering demolishing the Weaver Building without receiving requisite approval from the GSA, though Trump administration officials denied the allegations. [36] [37] Preservationists expressed concerns at the allegations, as Trump had previously expressed disdain for brutalist structures and had recently demolished the White House's East Wing without much public consultation. [38] At that time, some HUD staff still worked in the Weaver Building, [37] and employees complained of maintenance issues such as broken toilets and mold infestations. [38]

Design

The Robert C. Weaver Federal Building is one of two buildings in Washington, D.C., designed by Marcel Breuer (the other is the Hubert H. Humphrey Building). [39] Breuer drew on many of his previous buildings for inspiration for HUD Headquarters. He had built curvilinear precast concrete buildings before in France: UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and the IBM Research Center in La Gaude. [40] The curvilinear shape allowed the maximum amount of natural light to reach the maximum number of offices. [6] [40] This design also reflected much of the architectural style adopted during the early 1960s in Washington, D.C., (notably at the Watergate complex). [41] The final design resembles that of a giant capital letter "X" with an elongated spine and four bilateral, symmetrical, curving arms. [3] [42] [43] The four arms created four spaces. The northern space was given over to gigantic HVAC vents. [43] The western space was planted with grass and with low concrete benches lining the semicircular space. [24]

Exterior

GSA's design specifications required that extensive underground parking be incorporated into the building. Breuer designed a lightweight, 6-acre (2.4 ha) plaza to fit as a sort of roof over the underground parking garage. [42] [43] [26] The plaza surface would be covered in masonry "stones", with a curving driveway (mimicking the building facade) to lead vehicular traffic into the garage entrance and exit (which were situated in the center of the plaza). [4] An offshoot of the driveway (set off by bollards) came up to the front doors to allow the limousines of high-ranking visitors to pull up directly to the building's front doors. [4] Because the weight of the plaza/roof had to be kept light, no plantings (lawns, trees, shrubs, etc.) were envisioned for the plaza. [4] Although the plaza was devoid of plants, its shape and vast expanse were designed to relate aesthetically to the nearby National Mall. [6]

Deep-set windows in rectilinear shapes, a Breuer trademark, were planned for the facade. [44] The window frames were made of precast concrete. The building was the first Breuer-designed structure in the United States to use a precast concrete facade, [45] and this was the first federal building to be built of precast concrete. [46] [47] [48] The facade was designed to be load-bearing, with the panels on the second, third, and fourth floors designed to carry the weight of the building. [45] The window frames on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors were slightly thinner, because although they were not load-bearing they had to contain HVAC piping. [45] The panels on the middle floors required the least amount of fabrication, according to architect Herbert Beckhard (an associate in Breuer's firm who helped design the building), as they did not need to bear as much load nor contain much piping. [45] The windows do not meet at the corner of the concrete frame. Pipes from the I-395 tunnel (which runs below the building) run up through the building's walls and vent at the corners of the window frames, dispersing automobile exhaust fumes high in the air. [47] Each concrete unit is 3 feet (0.91 m) thick and weighs almost 13 tons (11.8 metric tonnes). [49] The firm which supplied the window frames had no previous experience producing architectural concrete, but instead had supplied precast forms for bridges and parking garages. [45]

West-facing facade of the Weaver Building with load-bearing concrete pilotis on the first floor and 4 upper floors. WeaverBuilding Facade.jpg
West-facing facade of the Weaver Building with load-bearing concrete pilotis on the first floor and 4 upper floors.

The base of the building was designed to look much different from the upper nine floors. The building's first floor is recessed, with load-bearing concrete pilotis (piers) supporting the upper floors at intervals around the building. [42] [46] The V-shaped columns taper to a narrow base that creates a more open, "lighter" appearance at ground level and whose angularity contrasts with the building's curving facade. [3] [46] The walls of the recessed first floor are not bare concrete but rather sheathed in granite. [3] [49] No abrasive blasting or acid etching of the visible exterior concrete was used to smooth the appearance of the structure, as Breuer and Beckhard believed concrete casting techniques had advanced sufficiently to no longer require it. [45]

Interior

As built, the structure contained 700,000 square feet (65,000 m2) of office space. [4] [50] There were 10 stories of offices above ground, and another two floors below ground. [50] The structure's interior floors were made precast concrete. [45] However, the floors were almost made of more than-traditional materials. Late in the design process, GSA accountants estimated that the cost of precast concrete for the flooring would be exceptionally high, and GSA threatened to change the architectural plans. [45] But after extensive discussions between GSA and Breuer, GSA relented. The plans were let to bid as designed, and the floors were fabricated for significantly less than estimated. [45]

An Oscar Stonorov bust of Catherine Bauer Wurster, an influential public housing advocate in the 1930s, adorns the building's Main (South) lobby. [4] [51]

Critical assessment

The Weaver Building is considered a prime example of Breuer's "soft" Brutalist aesthetic. [3] Critics say it "set new civic standards for architectural design", [14] and have called it a masterpiece of Modern architecture. [27] At the structure's dedication, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared it "bold and beautiful," HUD Secretary Robert C. Weaver said it was "urban and urbane," and GSA Administrator Lawson B. Knott Jr., praised it as "a lasting architectural asset to our capital city and our country". [4] The New York Times said the building "is a handsome, functional structure that adds quality design and genuine 20th century style to a city badly in need of both." [4] In 1998, The Washington Post architectural critic called the building "impressive...a brooding, strangely graceful concrete honeycomb." [28] Architecture critic Carole Rifkind called it "compelling by virtue of the swaggering efficiency of the construction system." [52]

Yet, the building is not admired by many. The building had very little grass or garden space where employees could eat or relax during lunch, and very little of that planted space contained seating—which caused extensive employee resentment. [24] The garden areas had such small trash containers that they overflowed every workday afternoon. [24] The building's interior spaces were also strongly critiqued by the late 1970s. According to the Project for Public Spaces, which studied the building on HUD's behalf:

The lack of welcome extends into the building lobbies, where there is a need for information of nearly every kind. ...there are no public maps; outdoor directional signs are too few and too small; the Metro signposts are so discreet they are hard to find;...there is no indication of where visitors should enter; the entrances are hard to find;...the main reception desk is in the south lobby, though more people enter through the north; information boards are not where people look for them; house phones are not clearly labeled; cafeteria entrances and the HUD information center are hidden. Finally, the lobbies themselves are so dimly lit—especially in contrast to the glaring front plaza—that this, too, adds to the confusion. [25]

One historian of urban planning called the building an "out-of-towner's 'ego trip'". [53] An architectural critic for The Washington Times wrote in 2007, "They are two of the ugliest buildings in town: the austere, concrete hulk of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on 7th Street Southwest and its counterpart, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Independence Avenue Southwest. ... Mr. Breuer's sculptural style, named 'brutalism' for 'béton brut' (French for 'raw concrete'), has come to represent the worst aspects of modern architecture: stark, unfriendly buildings fronted by empty plazas." [54] The Washington City Paper said the building "sits up on stilts that look like rhinoceros feet, aloof from everything around it." [27] Critics argued that Breuer's design is unoriginal, and essentially mimicked his earlier UNESCO Headquarters and IBM La Gaude. [46] [55]

The building also received criticism from HUD secretaries under multiple administrations. [56] Jack Kemp, who served as secretary under George W. Bush, once described the building as "10 floors of basement". [2] [30] His successor Shaun Donovan, appointed by Barack Obama, called it "among the most reviled in all of Washington—and with good reason". [56] [57] Scott Turner, HUD's secretary under Donald Trump's second administration, characterized it as "the ugliest building in D.C." [31] [58] A writer for the Architectural Record said in 2024 that the negative sentiment toward the Weaver Building was part of a trend of antipathy toward Brutalist-style U.S. federal buildings. [56]

Plaza commentary

The Schwartz-designed plaza received mixed commentary. [30] "It looks as though a battalion of seven flying saucers has floated down to Earth in front of the Department of Housing and Urban Development," wrote the Washington City Paper. "[W]hat stands on HUD's plaza today is not so much the homage to shelter Schwartz originally intended as a token of capitulation." [27] The canopies have been criticized for being too far from the round seating area/planters and not close enough to the street, thus rendering them useless as the shelter they were designed to be. [3] [28] The Project for Public Spaces rated the plaza the eighth-worst public plaza in the world in 2004. [59] Others have praised the plaza's new design. The Washington Post said the canopies provide "a pleasant shock... Seven ghostly spaceships appear to be hovering comfortably above its front yard, keeping watch over an orderly gathering of white-rimmed, ground-hugging disks shouldering healthy mounds of grass." [28]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 Phillips-Fein, Kim (December 22, 2008). "Living for the City: Robert Clifton Weaver's Liberalism". The Nation. Archived from the original on December 24, 2008. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  2. 1 2 Connelly, Joel (January 21, 2012). "As suburbs reach limit, people are moving back to the cities". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Archived from the original on January 21, 2012. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Moeller, Gerard Martin; Weeks, Christopher (2006). AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C. . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 61. ISBN   978-0-8018-8467-2.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Huxtable, Ada Louise (September 22, 1968). "The House That HUD Built". The New York Times. Retrieved December 28, 2024.
  5. 1 2 Hagel, Jack (2001). "Herbert H. Swinburne, 88, a noted Philadelphia architect". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 64. Retrieved December 23, 2025.Saxon, Wolfgang (October 27, 2003). "Herbert Beckhard, 77, Architect Who Worked With Bauhaus Master". The New York Times. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Wasserman, Paul; Hausrath, Don (2003). Washington, DC from A to Z: The Traveler's Look-up Source for the Nation's Capital . Sterling, Va: Capital Books. pp. 92–93. ISBN   978-1-931868-07-5.
  7. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010. Accessed 2013-12-25.
  8. 1 2 Gutheim & Lee 2006 , p. 410.
  9. ↑ "An Eyeful of Washington Eyesores". The Washington Post. December 21, 2008. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  10. 1 2 "This was the first federal building built under the Kennedy-era "Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture."". DC Historic Sites. June 26, 2008. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  11. 1 2 Semple, Robert B. Jr. (August 11, 1965). "$7.5 Billion Bill, With a Rent Subsidy Proviso, Signed by Johnson; $7.5 Billion Housing Measure With Rent Subsidy Plan Signed". The New York Times. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  12. ↑ Pritchett 2008 , pp. 256–259.
  13. ↑ Pritchett 2008 , p. 262.
  14. 1 2 Gutheim & Lee 2006 , p. 301.
  15. ↑ Committee on the District of Columbia 1978 , p. 112.
  16. ↑ Committee on the District of Columbia 1978 , p. 46.
  17. 1 2 Gutheim & Lee 2006 , p. 274.
  18. 1 2 Grooms 1997 , p. 108.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 L'Enfant Plaza Properties, Inc. v. United States, 645 F.2d 886.
  20. 1 2 Corrigan, Richard. "Carpenters' Talks Break Off." Washington Post. May 3, 1966.
  21. ↑ "Today in Washington," Washington Post, November 10, 1966.
  22. 1 2 3 L'Enfant Plaza East, Inc. v. John McShain, Inc. 359 A.2d 5.
  23. 1 2 "Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, Headquarters for Department of Housing and Urban Development". Docomomo. August 26, 2008. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  24. 1 2 3 4 See, generally, Project for Public Spaces (1979). The HUD Building, Washington, D.C.: A Public Space Improvement Plan.
  25. 1 2 3 Project for Public Spaces (1979). The HUD Building, Washington, D.C.: A Public Space Improvement Plan. New York: Project for Public Spaces. p. 13.
  26. 1 2 3 Grooms 1997 , pp. 108–110.
  27. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 McKee, Bradford (May 22, 1998). "The Battle for Pep-O-Mint Plaza". Washington City Paper. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  28. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Forgey, Benjamin (June 6, 1998). "Flying Saucers at HUD". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  29. ↑ Barron, James (July 19, 1997). "Robert C. Weaver, 89, First Black Cabinet Member, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved December 23, 2025.Muhammad, Alverda Ann (July 19, 2000). "HUD Building Renamed In Honor of Robert C. Weaver". Washington Informer. "Black History Month salutes black leaders, astronauts, billionaires". News-Reporter. February 1, 2007. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  30. 1 2 3 Madsen, Deane (March 2, 2017). "Brutalist Beauty or 10 Floors of Basement?". Architect Magazine. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  31. 1 2 Ludden, Jennifer (April 17, 2025). "As Trump jettisons its staff, HUD puts its D.C. headquarters up for sale". NPR. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  32. ↑ Korte, Gregory; Capps, Kriston (April 17, 2025). "HUD Building Put Up for Sale as Trump Looks to Unload Properties". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  33. ↑ Kronzer, Jessica (June 25, 2025). "HUD plans move to Alexandria, booting National Science Foundation from headquarters". WTOP News. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  34. ↑ Hickman, Matt (April 23, 2025). "GSA and HUD Seek to Offload Marcel Breuer–designed Weaver Federal Building". Architectural Record. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  35. ↑ Trombola, Nick (April 17, 2025). "HUD's Headquarters in D.C. For Sale". Commercial Observer. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  36. ↑ Grumbach, Gary; Perlmutter-Gumbiner, Elyse (December 12, 2025). "Trump administration considers demolition of 4 federal buildings, former GSA official says". NBC4 Washington. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  37. 1 2 Roche, Daniel Jonas (December 10, 2025). "HUD headquarters, Cohen Building, and two other historic federal buildings may be demolished". The Architect's Newspaper. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  38. 1 2 "Donald Trump has it in for Brutalism". The Economist. December 24, 2025. Retrieved December 25, 2025.
  39. ↑ Conroy, Sarah Booth (July 3, 1981). "Marcel Breuer, Architect, Pioneer of Modern Furniture Design, Dies". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  40. 1 2 Hodges, Allan A.; Hodges, Carol A. (1980). Washington on Foot: 23 Walking Tours of Washington, D.C., Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, and Historic Annapolis, Maryland. Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 41. ISBN   978-0-87474-527-6.
  41. ↑ Kennon, Donald R.; Striner, Richard (1987). Washington Past and Present: A Guide to the Nation's Capital . Washington, D.C. : United States Capitol Historical Society. p. 71. ISBN   978-0-916200-08-4.
  42. 1 2 3 Schwartz, Martha; Meyer, Elizabeth K.; Landecker, Heidi; Vance, Sarah (1997). Martha Schwartz: Transfiguration of the Commonplace . Washington, DC : Spacemaker Press. p. 162. ISBN   978-1-888931-01-3.
  43. 1 2 3 Porter, Lawrence (July 2001). "Disillusioned in D.C.: I Was Dazzled By The Virtual HUD Plaza—Then I Saw the Real Thing". Landscape Architecture.
  44. ↑ Williams, Paul K. (2006). Southwest Washington. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing. p. 67. ISBN   978-0-7385-4219-5.
  45. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Beckhard, Herbert (1991). "The Breuer-Beckhard Precast Facades". In Donaldson, Barry (ed.). Exterior Wall Systems: Glass and Concrete Technology, Design, and Construction. ASTM International. p. 158. ISBN   978-0-8031-1424-1.
  46. 1 2 3 4 Goldberger, Paul (July 2, 1981). "Marcel Breuer, 79, Dies; Architect and Designer". The New York Times. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  47. 1 2 Nelson, Michael, ed. (2002). Guide to the Presidency . Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. p. 972. ISBN   978-1-56802-714-2.
  48. ↑ Scott, Pamela; Lee, Antoinette Josephine (1993). Buildings of the District of Columbia . New York: Oxford University Press. p. 239. ISBN   978-0-19-506146-8.
  49. 1 2 "Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, Washington, DC: Building Overview," August 4, 2009.
  50. 1 2 "HUD Building Seen As Turning Point for Department and Public Architecture," Journal of Housing, 1968.
  51. ↑ "Bust of Late Catherine Bauer Wurster Placed in HUD Building," Journal of Housing, 1968.
  52. ↑ Rifkind, Carole (1998). A Field Guide to Contemporary American Architecture . New York: Dutton. p. 124. ISBN   978-0-525-94008-1.
  53. ↑ Gournay, Isabelle (2006). "Washington: The DC's History of Unresolved Planning Conflicts". In Gordon, David L.A. (ed.). Planning Twentieth Century Capital Cities . Florence, Ky.: Routledge. p. 122. ISBN   0-415-28061-3.
  54. ↑ Dietsch, Deborah K. (November 3, 2007). "Benign Breuer: Exhibit Ignores Bauhaus Architect's Mistakes". The Washington Times.
  55. ↑ Davis, Barbara (1989). Remaking Cities: Proceedings of the 1988 International Conference in Pittsburgh . Pittsburgh, Pa.: Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. p. 12. ISBN   978-0-8229-6906-8.
  56. 1 2 3 Pearson, Clifford A. (June 17, 2024). "Exhibitions at the National Building Museum Explore D.C. Brutalism and Frank Lloyd Wright in Pennsylvania". Architectural Record. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  57. ↑ Donovan, Shaun. "Prepared Remarks for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan at the HUD Summer Intern Event". hud.gov. Archived from the original on September 10, 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  58. ↑ Crisp, Elizabeth (March 18, 2025). "Housing secretary wants to move out of 'ugliest building in DC'". The Hill. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  59. ↑ "The World's Best and Worst Parks". Making Places. September 2004. Archived from the original on February 7, 2007. Retrieved December 23, 2025.

Bibliography

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