Evening star., 1948-04-11
u. 5. May Be Forced
To Reoccupy Buildings
Returned 10 Owners
By Nelson M. Shepard

By Nelson N. Shepard
Continued demands on Federal
Office space as result of the I'M
settled postwar period caused off,
cials to admit yesterday that the
Government may be compelled to
reoccupy some of the 153 leased
buildings it has returned to private
owners here since VJ-day.
The achievement of the Public
Buildings Administration in releas-
ing so many buildings during the
past two years now threatens to
boomerang For this reason. and
in anticipation of a big national
defense hiring program in the next
few months, PBA officials now are
engaged in an intensive survey of
every large Government-occupied
building in hopes of finding space
which has not been utilized fully.
Space control officials successfully
hurdled their first big problem in
assigning five floors of the new
Maiatico Building at Connecticut
avenue and H street to the Economic
Cooperation Administration headed
by Paul g. Hoffman.
NLRB Loses Claim.
In doing so, however, PBA dis
closed yesterday it had deprived the
National Labor Relations Board of
it's prior claim to those five floors.
The labor board, whose personnel
force is expected to double during
the next fiscal year. was Modified
somewhat by an assignment of equal
space in the Federal Security Build
ing South at Third and C streets
S.W. The agency now is located at
815 Connecticut avenue, just above
the Maiatico Building.
Labor board officials said the
boards force now is composed of
$50 employees but that it is going
up" During the next fiscal year
it is expected to expand to between
800 and 900 employees.
Space requirements for the ECA
Offices were based on estimates
ranging from 500 to 1000 employees,
it was claimed.
Any substantial increase in Fed
eral employment in Washington as
a result Of the proposed national
defense program, officials said,
would severely tax present Office
accommodations in the city 1t may
mean more than 5000 additional
employees for whom desk space must
be found in buildings that now are
fairly crowded.
ITS all guess work." one official
explained. 1--WE won't know how
many employees to plan for until
the program is enacted into law.
Sometimes our guesses are pretty
accurate"
May Keep $500 in Baltimore.
This much already is definitely
known:
Enactment of the defense pro-
gram would kill the little existing
hope that the more than $500 de-
partmental employees of the Social
Security Administration in Balti-
more can be transferred to Wash
ington soon. Before the European
situation became so acute, PBA off,
cials were exploring the possibility
of making this transfer.
Secondly, it would mean further
postponement of the time when the
Government can begin thinking
seriously about removing the un-
slightly and in many cases under
sirably located temporary wartime
buildings. About $4,000 employees
now are occupying these buildings
which were supposed to be on the
way out within two years after the
official end of the war. Technically,
the war has not yet ended.
For months, the Office of National
Capital Parks has been unable to
get any satisfactory answer from
the Navy Department or Public
Buildings Administration. for in
stance, about the removal of tenn
porary buildings in West Potomac
Park.
Some of these are cluttering the
park grounds south of the Lincoln
Memorial Rejecting Pool, desired by
! Mop officials as the site for the new
Rose gardens and the proposed Nc
MILAN memorial fountain.
Well Under Reduction Goal.
The rose gardens were planned to
replace the ones destroyed by the
construction of approaches to the
new Fourteenth street bridges. They
| attracted thousands of sightseersI
annually.
PBA had made such good progress
in releasing buildings since the war
that it is now well under its goal of
reducing the amount of rented
space to 100000 square feet by
June 80. It has just about hit rock
bottom" officials explained.