WASHINGTON (DTN) -- As the Trump administration reorganizes the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sending the bulk of the department's capital region staff to various regional offices, the future of USDA's main downtown office building may emerge as one of the agency's most significant long-term challenges -- likely extending well beyond the current administration.

Once considered the largest office building in the world and a symbol of federal ambition during FDR's New Deal, USDA's South Building is now facing a far different legacy: an underused, aging complex burdened with a maintenance backlog topping $1.6 billion -- among the highest of any federal building.

After decades of deferred upkeep, shifting workforce patterns, and budget constraints, USDA officials say the math no longer works to keep it open.

"For its time, it was state-of-the-art and indeed beautifully constructed back during the Great Depression, but what you see today is a building that hasn't kept up with modern needs," said USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden.

Vaden took time earlier this month to give DTN a lengthy tour of the South Building, pointing to a range of structural and operational challenges tied to the building's age and low daily occupancy.

Taking all of USDA's space into account, the department has room for more than 10,000 people in downtown Washington, but has a current local workforce of just over 4,000 people. The building has its complications, as Vaden described how several employee vehicles were recently damaged by ice falling off the building in winter snowstorms; pedestrians walking by were hit as well.

"Those are some of the interesting features that inclement weather actually pose a risk to our employees," Vaden said. He added, "The facility staff are doing their best. You know they take a lot of pride, but it's things where there are cracks and holes in the tile and everywhere. And this is just a massive building as you walk it."

USDA now plans at some point to vacate the 90-year-old South Building and turn it back over to the General Services Administration (GSA), which will then look at how to get it off the government's books.

Built between 1930 and 1936 to put the broad array of USDA agency staff under one roof, the South Building was upheld as a construction marvel. At roughly 2.25 million square feet, the building has 7 miles of nearly identical corridors across seven wings and five floors with 4,500 offices and meeting rooms. It was built to hold more than 7,000 workers daily.

While a lot of federal buildings have maintenance backlogs, Vaden said problems with the South Building became exacerbated during the 1990s when the Clinton administration reached a deal that transferred the responsibility for upkeep over to USDA's budget from the General Services Administration.

"The bet they made in the 1990s was that the Department of Agriculture would have better luck securing monies for the upkeep and modernization as part of its budget process," Vaden said. "Unfortunately, that turned out to be a disastrously wrong bet. And even though USDA, through administrations from both parties, repeatedly made requests for upkeep funds, both also modernization funds, the monies were never sufficient to maintain, much less improve the footprint."

GOVERNMENT FACES A DEFERRED MAINTENANCE CRISIS

The South Building reflects a broader federal problem with aging government infrastructure.

Vaden said the $1.6 billion maintenance backlog is the largest in the federal government.

Actually, the nearby Department of Energy's James V. Forrestal Federal Building needs an estimated $2 billion in repairs, according to recent reports. Like USDA, the Energy Department also plans to vacate the Forrestal building and move its staff.

The Public Buildings Reform Board in March sounded alarm on $50 billion in immediate liability across federal buildings. Within a decade, the backlog will approach $550 billion in unmet costs. The board suggests the federal government needs to shrink its volume of large, aging office buildings by as much as 80%.

AGING OUT IN CHANGING TIMES

Even if repairs were funded, officials say the building is far larger than USDA needs today.

Daily staff occupancy has fallen dramatically since the pandemic. On a given day now, there might be 2,000 people throughout the building -- less than 30% maximum capacity. Many of the amenities of the building, including an underground mall of shops for staff, have largely closed.

"The main thing is that this is a decision made not out of spite or out of emotion or anything like that, but basically out of succumbing to the physical reality and the facts that if we were to try to keep everything, and then if you add on top of that, the space is mostly empty," Vaden said, adding "And it just doesn't make sense."

The building's once bustling cafeteria also has closed because of lack of demand. Some of that was driven by USDA policies that limited visitor access to the building.

"If you came before it close, it was a ghost," Vaden said.

Still, another challenge with getting rid of the South Building is that's USDA's headquarters across the street, the Whitten Building, also relies on the South Building for its HVAC systems. Other adjacent federal buildings in the area do as well.

Along with that, USDA has two historic arches and skywalks on Independence Avenue that connect the South Building to Whitten. It's unclear how those will be handled if the building is sold to private developers.

POINTING TO THE COTTON ANNEX EXPERIENCE

Vaden noted the redevelopment of the Cotton Annex, just down the block from the South Building. Built in 1937, the Cotton Annex was where USDA initially classified and standardized both cotton and tobacco, but the annex was vacated in 2007.

It took nearly two decades, but the group Carmel Partners added onto the Cotton Annex and began marketing more than 500 high-end apartments in late 2024.

Vaden sees a similar outcome possible for the South Building. Private sector money could spur some area redevelopment, he said, particularly given how many wings there are if the building were subdivided.

"Under the right private-sector owner or group of owners, it could really bring some vibrancy to this neighborhood," Vaden said. "When everyone goes home after the government workday ends, it's kind of a dead zone around here, except during the cherry blossoms."

Asked if a future administration might reclaim it, Vaden said he thought that would be difficult given the budgetary impact.

Val Dolcini, who served as Farm Service Agency (FSA) administrator during the Obama administration, said modern technology has reduced the need for centralized office space, though he noted the building once fostered a lot of cross-agency collaboration.

"I know at the time I was there, there was a fairly long list of things that needed to be done either to modernize or equip the South Building with appropriate new HVAC systems," Dolcini said. "There was just a long list of things that needed to be done to bring the South Building up to code or up to snuff for housing a modern federal workforce. And I don't think we can, you know, be tied too much to sentiment when it comes to these buildings."

Spiro Stefanou, who served as administrator of the Economic Research Service (ERS) from 2021-2025, said there were significant efforts to modernize the South Building in recent years. Two wings of the building home to ERS were renovated for staff.

"We modernized it as best as we could within the constraints of the nearly 100-year-old building," Stefanou said. "We did the mitigation of radon, lead and asbestos, and we blew out as many walls as we could to let more light in. We had very contemporary workspaces."

To idle and sell the South Building, the federal government would not only have to cope with the rules of the National Historic Registry, but also all of the mitigation issues that could from issues such as asbestos removal.

"It depends on who's paying for it, but you are going to have to continue to have basic maintenance costs on this building until you hand it over to a private party," Stefanou said. "You've got to keep it heated and cooled and the other things. You don't want trees growing into the windowsills until you sell it."

A TREASURY TROVE OF HISTORY

Wayne Connelly has roughly 38 years of history working as a USDA budget analyst. He continued coming into work during the pandemic. At that time, Connelly also began a personal mission of accumulating items that tell the story of USDA's history. Over time, Connelly acknowledged he's developed an attachment to the South Building, its halls and history.

To display those items, which now reach more than 3,000 pieces, Connelly started taking over his boss's office and other adjacent offices in the South Building as well. He put out a museum sign in the hallway. In 2023, the Wall Street Journal described Connelly's USDA collection "may be the most exclusive museum in the U.S."

"I had a lot of time, so I just started acquiring things," Connelly said.

The museum's collection includes everything from farmer bulletins in the 1890s to details about USDA's film office, a plow from 1906 tied to George Washington Carver, Depression-era radio programs and photos by Dorthea Lange, dozens of USDA promotional and education posters over the years, and even trophies from department baseball teams in the early 1900s.

At one time, Connelly noted few people realize the South Building once held more than 15,000 animals for a zoo and research laboratory. That included monkeys that would test any food that was given to the White House.

Connelly keeps accumulating more materials. A family of a career meat grader in Georgia recently donated 11 boxes of items, which included a unique, 100-year-old USDA banner now hanging in the museum. Connelly frequently gets calls from staff in other parts of the building who have come across other stored materials that risk being thrown out.

Connelly said he has gotten assurances that USDA officials will find a new space for the museum when the South Building is eventually shuttered.

"I'm working on a historical walking tour of the building before it closes, identifying what I call 'pioneers behind closed doors.' There are so many pioneers who have sat in this building and who did incredible things," Connelly said. "So, this building is scheduled to be closed, yes, it's underutilized, yes, but it's a historic landmark."

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

Follow him on social platform X @ChrisClaytonDTN

(c) Copyright 2026 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.