Housing secretary wants to move out of 'ugliest building in DC'
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner is no fan of the massive Weaver office building that houses his agency, and he is hoping to relocate.
"You know, HUD is known as the ugliest building in D.C., which is not a mantra I like," Turner told Fox News'S Bret Baier in a Monday interview at the HUD headquarters south of the National Mall. "We want to create an environment here — including our building — where people want to be proud of where they come to work and carry out the mission and the assignment that we have."
Asked if that meant "moving everybody out" to a new location, Turner said yes and said he's had discussions with the General Services Administration, which manages federal office space, among other duties.
The GSA didn't immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment.
Turner, who spent nearly a decade playing in the NFL, was confirmed to lead the federal housing authority in February. He was head of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during President Trump's previous administration and served four years in Congress.
"We're focused on the main thing here at HUD, but what it does mean is to create a different paradigm, create a different culture?" he told Baier. "When I was in the NFL, a lot of times, guys, when they left one team and went to another, just that move alone reinvigorated that player when they went from one team to the next. Well, we're a team here at HUD, and we got to get better facilities."
The Trump administration has set out on a major overhaul of the federal government intended to cut costs and promote efficiency, including a review of federal office space. Turner said HUD has a "great relationship" with the Department of Government Efficiency, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, that's been tasked with rooting out government waste and fraud.
The 10-story Robert C. Weaver Federal Building off L’Enfant Plaza opened in 1968 as the headquarters for HUD, which former President Johnson made a Cabinet agency a few years prior. It is now named for Robert C. Weaver, the first HUD secretary and the first African American Cabinet member.
The New York Times wrote of the Brutalist architecture-styled, curved X-shaped building at the time of its opening: "The house that HUD built is a handsome, functional structure that adds quality design and genuine 20th-century style to a city badly in need of both."
Johnson described the building, designed by internationally recognized architect Marcel Breuer, as "bold and beautiful," and then-GSA head Lawson Knott called it "a lasting architectural asset to our capital city and our country."
But in 2008 — the year it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, The Washington Post listed it as among the ugliest buildings and landmarks in the District, quoting a La Plata, Md., resident who called it “a terrible eyesore.”
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