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 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

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

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links