Housing Secretary Scott Turner wants to move the Department of Housing and Urban Development out of “the ugliest building in D.C.,” he said in an interview with Fox News on Monday.
He cited the brutalist structure in Southwest D.C. as a factor behind a culture of “mediocrity” within the agency.
“HUD is known as the ugliest building in D.C.,” Turner told Fox News’ Bret Baier. “The culture, the complacency … over the last couple of years, and even over the last decade, it has kind of settled in that mediocrity is OK.”
He made his remarks after he showed Baier around the building, including some taped-off sections that the Fox News host said were unable to be used due to disrepair.
Trending
“When I was in the NFL, a lot of times some guys when they left one team and went to another team, just that move alone reinvigorated that player … we are a team at HUD and we gotta get better facilities,” Turner, who was best known for his time as a football player prior to being confirmed as the housing secretary, said.
President Donald Trump has long been a critic of brutalist architecture in Washington, as The New York Times has reported. The HUD building was among those singled out in an executive order signed by Trump during his first term that aimed to promote “beautiful federal civic architecture.” He signed a similar order after returning to office.
Turner said he is “working closely” with the General Services Administration to determine a new location where the agency can operate. A spokesperson for the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what sort of timeline could be expected.
“I think we could be very efficient in a different place,” Turner said. “What it does mean is to create a different paradigm, create a different culture.”
He made his remarks in the context of broader changes at the agency, including a massive reduction of staff as part of an effort to shrink the agency’s footprint. Like the Trump administration more broadly, HUD is also drastically scaling back its spending, which means an unclear number of grants and programs are getting cut.
“When things change and it brings an uncomfortable situation, growth happens,” Turner said.
—
Amelia Benavides-Colón is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
Author
