The lightness of being—working inside a rectangular, brutalist egg—in DC, deceived by its smooth interior 'lining'

Where Bobby Kennedy finds himself...

(This is Part-1; for Part-2, go here)

The outside of the building is Brutalist.

The inside, not.

The inside is more of…

The feeling of being inside an eggshell—with all the comforting frequencies one imagines that concave shape communing with one’s soul to be—there’s that smoothness—with its attendant calming…

…But then, a flip in the mind occurs: that smoothness—with its attendant calming, boarder-lines into a feeling of eeriness, and maybe, more precisely, a feeling of clinically sterile eeriness. How one would feel upon imagining how a modern-day lunatic asylum would be designed to be—the “workplace psychologists” having extruded the essence of nature’s egg into a ‘rectangular-box’ form-factor. But, having extruded it, have denatured its life force… your subconscious picks up on all this, immediately, even if your conscious never catches on…

And, unlike with certain other Brutalist buildings—those, for example, seen strewn about the lawns of various American university campuses—specifically, those erected in the ‘60s and ‘70s during the movement’s peak—those, wherein their Brutalism is projected not only oppressively outward, but also oppressively inward—austere catacomb-like concrete dungeon-tombs—even when finding yourself looking up at three to four story high ceilings—standing from within… but, even within that cavernous space, one experiencing no ‘lightness of being’-communion at all, strangely… —though, ironically, there being more instances of heavenly streams of natural light encountered than not-at-all from within the ‘asylum’…

…the heavenly streams of natural light hitting the dungeon-tomb’s exposed-concrete walls, as you look up to observe… ultimately inducing a feeling of sadness…

…on the other hand, the 60Hz hum of the asylum’s fluorescents that one hears, when one suddenly finds oneself standing or sitting ‘entirely’ alone within some part of it… ultimately causing a feeling of disassociation… your ‘lightness of being’ being deceived…

The HHS Headquarters building—where Bobby Kennedy works—known officially as the “Hubert H. Humphrey” building—designed by Marcel Breuer (more on him below), opened for business on November 1, 1977. It’s the manifestation of the ‘asylum’-design (my term) of Brutalism. The exposed concrete exterior—as one traverses a small plaza-of-space towards it—inducing a sense of foreboding; coupled with the glass-door entrance—it being the portal, or, in this case, the egg’s ‘membrane’… which trans-ports you into the interior—of travertine stone walls and travertine stone floors (paving)… trans-ports you into the interior of the rectangular, brutalist egg…

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I could imagine Trump saying to Bobby—either while on the phone with him, or in taking him physically aside—either while at the 1792 Neoclassical White House¹ or at the 1927 Andalusian-inspired Mar-a-Lago², “It must be ‘brutal’ working over there. The Hubert Humphrey Building. I hate looking at it, as you know. Same with the HUD building, [Secretary Scott Turner’s building]. I don’t envy Kash, having to work at [the J Edgar] Hoover [Building],… ‘brutal’… Pam has it infinitely better at Justice³… that’s a style of building I like…”

For Trump—who’s been living inside Louis XIV -styled interiors since 1992 (after his divorce from Ivana, he would have the interior of his 5th Avenue penthouse remodeled in gilded gold, and would subsequently marry Marla Maples in December 1993)… and along with his stint in the ‘very colonial’ White House ‘cottage’ since 2017,… one could imagine the above imagined dialog having a double-meaning in Trump’s mind, and soul: part ribbing his subordinates—always, and part mourning—personally, and on daily basis, the greatly receded footprint of America’s architectural beauty—both its exteriors and interiors—from the general public’s daily interactions, over the past 75 years…

How I imagine Bobby Kennedy finds himself physically, mentally, and spiritually bathing within the frequency invoked by the ‘asylum’-design Brutalism…

If there were only the 60Hz hum of the fluorescents in there. But, now, with all the wifi and cellphones, what added demons and subtle disassociations do these additional frequencies make real?

Does Bobby go outside (with his body guards (two?)), frequently, to get his daily doses of Vitamin-D? Is there a weight (exercise) room on the premise? If not, did he commission some friends of his from Gold’s Venice Beach to build one out for him and his employees? In a room on the top floor? In a room in the basement?…

But, can Bobby, as an “information worker,” do his best work from inside such a structure? Even if he takes no conscious notice of his environment? Does the subconscious take a daily toll?

In other words, does Le Corbusier’s architecture manifesto of “no decoration”—in continuous operation since 1925 (which started out partly as a backlash to World War 1?), and imposed upon “information workers” in earnest after the white-flash of the atomic bombs (as a re-packaged ‘official’ Frankfurt School -endorsed backlash to World War 2 fascism?)—the United Nations Organization’s headquarters buildings in Turtle Bay being the first such abomination at scale…

…are these ‘asylum’-style buildings—in conjunction with the fluoridated municipal water flowing into their water bubblers and coffee machines (not being further filtered with heavy-duty charcoal filters at the tap), the start of inducing “autistic-like behaviors” in “information workers” (adults)—that short window of pure-time, in the early 1950s—just before Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine had become mass adopted⁴, and just before the new fangled methotrexate-based chemo—for cancer treatment—was still in limited supply?

The implementors of Le Corbusier’s architecture manifesto unilaterally put the “information workers” into spiritual and mental straitjackets… and the lack of natural sunlight inherent in the design of such buildings would lead to what would be called cases of “chronic fatigue syndrome” in many such workers (More on “‘chronic fatigue syndrome’ induced while working in a modern corporate office building”—in this podcast with host

Roman S Shapoval

and guest Dr. Jack Kruse, here).

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Architect Marcel Breuer (1902—1981):

Which “Fed Operative in DC” let architect Marcel Breuer win the building design contest for the HHS building?

One of Trump-45’s final Executive Orders—and the subsequent reinstatement of it, on Day-1 of Trump-47, gives us a window into the controversy:

Issued on: December 21, 2020: Executive Order on Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture (Note: The first COVID-19 vaccine shots in the US were officially administered on December 14, 2020. The first was given in New York City to Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens. She received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, marking the beginning of the US vaccination campaign.)

[…]

“In the 1950s, the Federal Government largely replaced traditional designs for new construction with modernist ones. This practice became official policy after the Ad Hoc Committee on Federal Office Space proposed what became known as the Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture (Guiding Principles) in 1962 [under president John F. Kennedy]. The Guiding Principles implicitly [or explicitly?] discouraged classical and other traditional designs known for their beauty, declaring instead that the Government should use [so-called] ‘contemporary’ designs.”

“The Federal architecture that ensued, overseen by the General Services Administration (GSA), was often unpopular with Americans. The new buildings ranged from the undistinguished to designs even GSA now admits many in the public found unappealing. In Washington, D.C., new Federal buildings visibly clashed with the existing classical architecture. Some of these structures, such as the Hubert H. Humphrey Department of Health and Human Services [HHS] Building and the Robert C. Weaver Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] Building, were controversial, attracting widespread criticism for their Brutalist designs.” [emphasis added]

[…]

Issued on: January 20, 2025: Memo Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture

“I hereby direct the Administrator of the General Services Administration, […] to submit to me within 60 days [by no later than Fri, March 21, 2025] recommendations to advance the policy that Federal public buildings should be visually identifiable as civic buildings and respect regional, traditional, and classical architectural heritage in order to uplift and beautify public spaces and ennoble the United States and our system of self-government. Such recommendations shall consider appropriate revisions to the Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture and procedures for incorporating community input into Federal building design selections.” [emphasis added]

For the past 80-years, our colleges—in one major respect, have not been sending us their Professional Managerial Class best—those that create the “environment” for our “information workers” to work in… the downstream effects of which blight all of our souls…

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The HHS Building—where Bobby Kennedy works

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From an amalgamation of wikipedia and chatgpt—on Marcel Breuer’s corporate & government office building endeavors, or should I say, shenanigans:

Breuer was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects at their 100th annual convention in 1968 at Portland, Oregon.

In an ironic timing of events, it coincided with general criticism of one of America’s favorite architects—William L. Morrow, for his willingness to design a multi-story office building on top of Grand Central Terminal.

Morrow and Breuer both played a part in the proposal.

The project was never built. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (established in 1965) formally rejected the proposal in August 1969 citing concerns over preserving the [rail] terminal’s historic integrity. GCT had been declared a city landmark, two years prior, in August 1967.

Penn Central, the terminal’s owner, contested this decision, leading to a legal battle that culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June 1978, which upheld the landmark designation and prevented the construction of the proposed tower.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis became actively involved in the preservation efforts in 1975, after returning to New York City (the UES of Manhattan being where she grew up—at the famous 740 Park Avenue building—her childhood home—built by her grandfather James Thomas Lee—an American lawyer, banker, and real estate investor).

Jacqueline’s passionate advocacy, along with public support, played a pivotal role in rallying against the proposed alterations and in favor of preserving the terminal’s historic character.

But then, some “Fed Operative in DC”—at GSA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Federal Office Space, still let Breuer through the door to pitch a design for the HHS building—which he won—and for which construction began in May, 1972. His HUD building started construction in 1965 before the GCT fiasco. He was “doubling-down” with the GCT proposal (shortly after HUD), and then went back to Washington (after NYC public outcry) and doubled-down again…

Architect Marcel Breuer’s fiasco in Manhattan reminds me of another Manhattan fiasco:

This act of “doubling-down” by Breuer reminds me of another “doubling-down” fiasco by another “modern” architect—Paul Rudolph—around the same time (in 1967): The “Lower Manhattan Expressway / City Corridor” fiasco. That will be for another post… but, see the “Architect Paul Rudolph” Addendum below…

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Oval Office; the rest are of the HHS building

Bobby wears the skinny tie [with oxford collar] as a memorial to his assassinated father and assassinated uncle—that tie style being a menswear fashion staple that you would see those two legendary men always wearing…

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Addendum: Architect Paul Rudolph:

Earlier this month, I saw The Met’s Paul Rudolph exhibition: “Materialized Space: The Architecture of Paul Rudolph”. That will be the subject of another post, but I include a tidbit from it, here—since it’s about “medical”-work environments and policies… which ties back to the HHS Secretary and his office—its smooth interior ‘lining’—inside the rectangular, brutalist egg—in DC:

Perspective section drawing of the Burroughs-Wellcome Company Headquarters [designed Architect Paul Rudolph] (demolished [January 2021 (*)]), North Carolina, 1969-72, Ink on vellum / Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Nestled within the pine forest of North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, this corporate campus was a research hub for the pharmaceutical giant Burroughs-Wellcome. [The highly toxic] AZT, then world’s first antiretroviral treatment for HIV/AIDS, was developed here. The drug’s extortionate prices were highly controversial, and in 1989 the AIDS activist group ACT UP [AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power] [(**)] barricaded themselves in [Paul] Rudolph’s building [(***)], demanding equitable access to the lifesaving [sic] [toxic] medication [poison]. The building’s A-frame structure and stacked modular units reflected Rudolph’s concurrent work on the Lower Manhattan Expressway / City Corridor project, and its futuristic appearance made it the ideal setting for the 1983 science-fiction film Brainstorm, shown elsewhere in the exhibition. [Emphasis added in bold]

(*) Demolition.

(**) For more on ACT UP and their AZT, see the following articles by

Celia Farber

here, here, here, and here.

(***) The building was named the Elion-Hitchings Building in 1988. From the ‘Demolition’ article (link above): “The building stood out in [Research] Triangle [Park] [North Carolina] when it opened in 1972. Perched on a small hill overlooking the Durham Freeway, the A-frame structure had terraced floors and angled walls and windows. Some called it innovative and futuristic; others simply found it ugly. /// Burroughs Wellcome built several additions to the original structure in the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1988 it named the building for Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings, research chemists with the company who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine that year. /// Elion and Hitchings pioneered the use of [toxic] drugs to attack the DNA of cancer cells, bacteria and viruses to prevent them from growing and reproducing, starting with a type of leukemia in the early 1950s. Colleagues at Burroughs Wellcome used their approach to develop AZT in the 1960s to treat cancer (it didn’t work), then successfully [sic] applied the [toxic] drug [poison] to HIV [so-called ‘virus’ never scientifically proven to exist let alone cause illness] and AIDS [symptom umbrella label] two decades later.” [Emphasis added in bold]

The Met Museum: "Materialized Space: The Architecture of Paul Rudolph"

“The Elion-Hitchings Building when it was still the headquarters of Burroughs Wellcome. Joseph W. Molitor Columbia University, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Joseph W. Molitor Photograph Collection courtesy the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation”

Demolition, January 2021. Ten months into the COVID Lockdown (and shortly after "Jan 6th"), with another 13 more months to go, for those living in the blue cities. In February 2022, one week before the Ukraine-Russia war kicks off, all the blue cities simultaneously end their COVID Lockdowns---in order to have the public focus on the forthcoming mid-term elections.

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WSJ (3/27/2025): "RFK Jr. Plans 10,000 Job Cuts in Major Restructuring of Health Department; Changes would reshape the nation’s health agencies and close regional offices"

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Recorded during the week leading up to July 4, 2025—Laura Trump for Foxnews, sits down with HHS Sec Bobby for a chat—in Bobby’s office in the HHS building (the rectangular, brutalist egg). This aired on Sat, July 5:

This compensation of 'warm' wood paneling wouldn’t even have been needed in the first place, if the HHS building—the rectangular, brutalist egg were Sec Bobby works, was built, say, to neoclassical standards, instead of to Brutalist standards…

1. Torched by the British on August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812; rebuilt (on the same plot of land) to the same Neoclassical specs of the original 1792 design—designed by James Hoban—the rebuilding also overseen by James Hoban, starting in 1815, and re-opening again in 1817.

2. Now there’s two places to visit—in order to compare and contrast: Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate (architect Marion Sims Wyeth) (originally built for heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post (breakfast cereal magnate)), and the region of Andalusia/Grenada, southern Spain—home to the Alhambra castle—Moorish Nasrid style architecture (the four-leaf-clover style stone portals of the castle, the inspiration for french jewelry designer Van Cleef & Arpels’s timeless alhambra necklace (designed in 1968)—that American national newsreaders, today, on both sides of the aisle, like to wear—as a statement piece. Junior national newsreaders start out typically wearing pieces from David Yurman’s classic line as their statements—including the Chatelaine line.

3. The Beaux-Arts -style Department of Justice Building—built in 1935. Renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building—after Bobby’s father, in 2001—by George W. Bush—on November 20th, RFK’s birthday.

4. “Autistic” behavior was first noticed in children in the 1930s—simultaneously in children (of well-educated upper-middle-class parents (*)) in Maryland—by Dr. Leo Kanner, and in children in Austria—by Dr. Johann Asperger, which coincided with the mass manufacturing of the Diphtheria-Pertussis vaccine wherein mercury was intentionally left in the cocktail (though I believe both Kanner and Asperger never made the causation/correlation(?)). (*) Well-educated upper-middle-class parents being more believing of the wonders of the new allopathic medicine, including vaccines. It was such a ‘scandal’ and great shame, at the time, to have an ‘autistic’ child, because up until that time, and for generations prior, such parents were regarded as good [genetic] breeding stock—in both layman and scientific terms…