布鲁尔设计的华盛顿特区 HUD 总部因作为首座采用预制混凝土的联邦建筑而被列入《国家史迹名录》，但如今内部口碑极差；员工把它称作“十层地下室”，并抱怨黑霉、马桶很少能冲净。还有一组电梯停摆已持续数月。
在大约半个世纪后，特朗普政府今年早些时候表示将出售这栋楼以及另外三处由总务管理局（GSA）管理的首都联邦房产；12 月，一名前 GSA 官员在法庭上指称真实意图是拆除这些建筑，政府予以否认。保育人士在白宫东翼为新宴会厅被突然拆除后拉响警报，担心其会像东翼那样绕过繁琐的保育规则与公众咨询，并尤其担忧四处房产之一中的部分“新政”时期壁画。
粗野主义在 1960 年代因材料低廉而走红；甚至连 1967 年批准 FBI 总部设计的官员也称其为“城里正在建的最吓人的东西”，而特朗普已否决未来联邦项目中任何类似粗野主义的方案。随着后疫情时代写字楼市场低迷、数十亿美元的维护欠账与低入住率并存，翻新或改造往往比新建更昂贵，使得土地价值高于办公楼本体；开发商谈到“混合用途”潜力，另有人回忆曾用 8 年诉讼把一座停用的 GSA 供热厂改成四季公寓。
Marcel Breuer’s Washington, DC HUD headquarters made the National Register of Historic Places as the first federal building of precast concrete, yet it is now widely disliked; employees call it “ten floors of basement” and cite black mould and toilets that rarely flush. One elevator bank has been down for months.
After roughly half a century, the Trump administration said earlier this year it would sell the building along with three other GSA-managed federal properties in the capital; in December, a former GSA official alleged in court that the real plan is demolition, which the government denies. Preservationists, rattled by the sudden demolition of the White House East Wing to build a new ballroom, warn he may again bypass onerous preservation rules and public consultation, and they especially fear for New Deal-era murals in one of the four sites.
Brutalism surged in the 1960s on cheap materials; even the 1967 bureaucrat who approved the FBI headquarters called it “the scariest thing going up in the city,” and Trump has barred anything resembling Brutalism from future federal commissions. With a post-covid office-market slump plus billions of dollars in deferred maintenance and low occupancy, retrofits or conversions often cost more than new construction, shifting value to the land; developers tout “mixed-use” potential, and one recalls an eight-year court fight to turn a decommissioned GSA heating plant into Four Seasons flats.
Source: Donald Trump has it in for Brutalism
Subtitle: This time the president has the capital’s developers on his side, and possibly public opinion too
Dateline: 12月 31, 2025 03:46 上午 | Washington, DC