An eight-story modern office building in downtown Tucson appears to be headed for auction because of the ongoing federal move to dispose of underused properties.
Located at 300 W. Congress Street, the structure, which has housed offices for the General Services Administration and Department of Labor, among other agencies, was built in 1964 and measures around 116,000 square feet.
The structure was put on an initial list of 440 buildings targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency to be disposed of. Since that list first appeared last month around 120 structures have been removed. But the W. Congress Street building isn’t one of them.
Known simply as the Tucson Federal Building, the structure was designed by the Tucson-based architecture firm of Cain, Nelson, Ware, Cook & Associates, and cost nearly $15 million to complete.
The Brutalist structure, featuring precast concrete panels and deep recessed windows, has as its base four large circular supporting pillars.
In an earlier statement from the DOGE office, it was stated that the federal government has more than 80 million square feet of offices up for disposal. “Decades of funding deficiencies have resulted in many of these buildings becoming functionally obsolete and unsuitable for use by our federal workforce,” said the statement.
A final determination on the W. Congress Street building remains to be announced.
March 11, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of General Services Administration
