When I showed up at the Wilbur J. Cohen Building in Washington DC to see the murals by Ben Shahn and Seymour Fogel, I was told the building wasn’t open to the public. It was September 2025 and I was commencing my research on New Deal art with a visit to these murals as well as the Archives of American Art held by the Smithsonian Institute. I could probably have tried harder to get security to let me see the murals, but my limited charm didn’t work.
The Cohen Building was closed because it is awaiting sale or demolition. Originally constructed between 1939 and 1940 to house the Social Security Board, the building became the headquarters for various wartime agencies and later served as the longstanding base of Voice of America. The building is in need of substantial repairs and renovation work, estimated to cost half a billion dollars, according to the General Services Administration. Not long after Donald Trump began his second term, his administration put the building on the chopping block.
Since my failed attempt at a visit, the media, campaigners, and politicians on the hill have all called attention to the threat posed to the building and the important works of New Deal art it houses. On July 14, 2026, Reps. Dina Titus and Lloyd Doggett introduced a bill called Protecting Resources and Ensuring Stewardship of Enduring Records of Visual Expression, or the PRESERVE Act. Doggett cited the Cohen Building’s “precious artworks that provide a visual history of the struggle, opposition, and ultimately of progress across generations of Americans.” The bill would force the GSA, when attempting to dispose of federal property, to identify artworks in the targeted building and organize efforts to preserve them which may include removal and transfer to museums or other facilities. But it would be difficult if not impossible to relocate the Shahn and Fogel murals, which were done in fresco, painted onto and into the wall itself.