Cohen Federal Building: Davis Reliefs - Washington DC

State:: WASHINGTON-DC
Site Type:: Art Works, Sculpture and Bas Relief
New Deal Agencies:: Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA), Federal & Military Operations, Arts Programs, Treasury Department
Completed:: 1941
Artist:: Emma Lou (Lu) Davis
Quality of Information:: Very Good
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Wilbur J. Cohen building, originally built for the Social Security Administration in 1938-1940, is home to a magnificent collection of social security themed artworks funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

Two of the artworks are exterior bas-reliefs over entrances by Emma Lou Davis, “Family Group” and “Unemployment Compensation” (1941).

The Social Security Administration never occupied the building, which was turned over to the War Department in 1941. After the war, the Federal Security Agency (FSA), under which the Social Security Board had been placed in 1939, moved into the building. In 1953, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, succeeded the FSA and subsequently became part of the Department of Health and Human Services in 1980. In 1988, the building was renamed in honor of Wilbur J. Cohen, the first employee of the Social Security Board and later Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.