I think it really says something impressive that the F.B.I. is preparing to abandon the Hoover building. Opened in 1975, pretty universally reviled, and has bec

I think it really says something impressive that the F.B.I. is preparing to abandon the Hoover building. Opened in 1975, pretty universally reviled, and has become such a maintenance nightmare that the government is finding it cheaper to site a new location, build an all new headquarters and then move the Bureau out of D.C. than to just maintain it. That's correct, it's only 40 years old. Actually, it was determined the building was already in a dreadful state 15 years ago, when the building was only 25 years old, and it was literally starting to fall apart by 2006. The review that came after that determined that the cost to repair the building and get it back up to usable was not justifiable. In 2008 the building was appraised and it was determined that even if all $660 million in repairs and renovations were made, the quality of the original building was so poor it would still not be classified as "Class A" space. By 2011, the renovation estimate increased to $1.7 billion. It would be cheaper, at $850m to simply demolish the building and put up a new one. I think it's one thing to experiment a bit with architecture, it's totally another to keep building poorly designed ugly garbage piles. The world will be a slightly better place when that building is demolished. Even if it was replaced with an empty lot. People actively dislike these kinds of urban spaces. They don't visit them, photograph them, enjoy them. They avoid them. But that isn't the only hideous building in D.C. [2] Here's one of the best talks on this issue [3] 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover_Building https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover_Building 2 - http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson/the-7-most-heinously-ugly-government-buildings-in-washington#.lwRng6k9Yg http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson/the-7-most-heinously-ug... 3 - http://www.ted.com/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_suburbia http://www.ted.com/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_subu...