Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building (formerly the Social Security Administration Building) is a historic building at 330
Independence Avenue,
Southwest, Washington, D.C.
Southwest (SW or S.W.) is the southwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and is located south of the National Mall and west of South Capitol Street. It is the smallest quadrant of the city, and contains a small n ...
History
The building was designed by
Charles Zeller Klauder
Charles Zeller Klauder (February 9, 1872 – October 30, 1938) was an American architect best known for his work on university buildings and campus designs, especially his Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, the first educa ...
and the
Office of the Supervising Architect The Office of the Supervising Architect was an agency of the United States Treasury Department that designed federal government buildings from 1852 to 1939.
The office handled some of the most important architectural commissions of the nineteen ...
under
Louis A. Simon, in the
Stripped Classical
Stripped Classicism (or "Starved Classicism" or "Grecian Moderne") Jstor is primarily a 20th-century classicist architectural style stripped of most or all ornamentation, frequently employed by governments while designing official buildings. I ...
style in 1939. The building has Egyptian elements as well.
Construction was completed in 1940, but Social Security did not become the building's first occupant. Instead, the threat of war created a need for space for defense agencies, and the building was made available to the War Department and the National Defense Commission. After the war, the
Federal Security Agency
The Federal Security Agency (FSA) was an independent agency of the United States government established in 1939 pursuant to the Reorganization Act of 1939. For a time, the agency oversaw food and drug safety, education funding, administration of ...
, under which the Social Security Board had been placed in 1939, moved into the building. In 1953, FSA's successor, the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...
, part of which became the Department of Health and Human Services in 1980, became the primary occupant.
On April 28, 1988, the building was renamed the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building in honor of the Social Security Board's first professional employee and the former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.
On July 6, 2007, the building was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...
.
Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...
and the
U.S. Agency for Global Media
The United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), formerly the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), is an independent agency of the United States government that broadcasts news and information. It describes its mission, "vital to US nation ...
are the building's principal occupants. VOA has been headquartered in the building since 1954.
Gallery
File:Ssa-bldg-north.jpg, North Side oblique view
File:Voice of America (18183).jpg, North Entrance
File:Ssa-bldg-east entrance.jpg, East Entrance
File:Fr-bldg-south entrance.jpg, South Entrance
File:Ssa-bldg-west entrance.jpg, West Entrance
File:Ssa-bldg-cornerstone.jpg, Cornerstone
See also
*
Railroad Retirement Board Building
The Mary E. Switzer Memorial Building is a federally owned office building located at 330 C Street SW in Washington, D.C. in the United States. The Egyptian Revival structure was originally named the Railroad Retirement Board Building. It was desig ...
– on the same block
References
External links
* {{Commons category-inline
Government buildings completed in 1939
Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C.
Egyptian Revival architecture in the United States
Southwest Federal Center
Federal buildings in the United States