Opinion: Public Art Murals Under Threat
Ben Shan's mural, "The Meaning of Social Security" in the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, Washington, D.C. Photo:Library of Congress
A significant building in Washington DC, home to the nation’s Social Security Administration (SSA), is under threat from the Trump administration. It’s called the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building and it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a D.C. historic landmark known as the “Sistine Chapel of the New Deal.” It came to my attention as several national organizations have become involved in trying to protect it, such as the Living New Deal and TakeitBack.org.
The latter is an advocacy group, founded in 2015 by former South Dakota Senate candidate Rick Weiland, as an organization “dedicated to taking our country back from the undue influence of wealthy special interests, protecting social security, and putting the country to work again for everyday citizens by promoting progressive reforms in ….healthcare, climate change, immigration, campaign finance, ethics, voting rights, gun safety, and Native American issues.” Weiland has drawn attention to the Trump administration’s recent designation of the Wilbur Cohen building for “accelerated disposal and sale by the GSA” [General Services Administration] that now administers it.
The Cohen building is not the first prominent building in the nation’s capital under threat, as the demolition of the East Wing of the White House and Trump’s plans to mothball the Kennedy Center have also made the news.
…the Cohen building is significant for the way it has revealed that Trump’s administration is actively seeking “to erase the public memory of Social Security…
But Weiland says the Cohen building is significant for the way it has revealed that Trump’s administration is actively seeking “to erase the public memory of Social Security [and]… doing so quite literally” by targeting this particular federal building and its irreplaceable public art.
The Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building was constructed in 1938 to house a number of federal programs that over time included the National Defense Commission, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and the “Voice of America” radio network founded in 1942. When the Voice of America moved in, the artist Seymour Fogel created wonderful murals that came to share space in and around the building with others by fellow artists Ben Shahn (1898-1969) and Philip Guston, featuring the work of the Social Security act.
The architect for the Cohen building was Charles Zeller Klauder who designed it in a streamlined neo-classical style (similar to many Federal buildings of a similar period) with some references to ancient Egyptian design motifs. The building also shares some features with the Brutalist style, which is also well represented in Washington.
It contains wall murals intended to tell the story of the greater protections for the American people created in the inter-war years, including paintings by Ben Shahn called “The Meaning of Social Security” and murals by Seymour Fogel such as “Wealth of the Nation” and “Security of the People,” that demonstrate in visual terms how the country operated before Social Security, when old age could mean poverty, dependence, and fear for many.
Social Security dramatically changed American life. Before it was enacted, roughly half of seniors lived in poverty; today, fewer than one in ten do. It remains the most reliable source of income for millions of retirees, survivors, and people with disabilities — precisely because it is public, guaranteed, and insulated from market chaos.
The Living New Deal Project and other related organizations like Social Security Works have weighed in on the prospect that this building may be razed, mostly, as the arguments go, (see also here and here) that it would be wrong to offer it to a private developer and/or that it would be too expensive to renovate. If you are so moved, there is a link below to a petition to save the building.
Hetty Startup is an architectural historian who lives in Amherst, where she serves on the Historical Commission and the board of DONA (District One Neighborhood Association.) She is a frequent contributor to the Amherst Indy.
Petition to Preserve the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building
Preserving the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building means preserving the truth about why Social Security exists and whom it protects. We must demand that the GSA halt any plans to destroy this public treasure—and reject this cynical effort to erase history in order to dismantle one of our most successful programs ever. The Trump administration is attempting to sever Americans from the lived history of why Social Security exists. This is not only about architecture—it is also about memory, meaning, and power.”