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The leadership of the FBI has declared a historic move: the bureau will permanently close its current headquarters and relocate personnel to different office spaces.

A New Chapter for the Top Investigative Organization

According to a latest statement, the aging J. Edgar Hoover Building, a fixture in downtown DC, will be shut down. The staff will be based in already built buildings in other parts of the city.

This operational change will see a portion of agents and staff occupying space within the Reagan Building, which previously housed another federal agency.

“Following decades of unsuccessful plans, we finalized a plan to completely vacate the FBI’s Hoover headquarters and move the workforce into a secure and contemporary building,” the statement said.

Modernization and Homeland Defense Focus

The move is framed as a way to redirect public resources. Leadership noted that this plan focuses spending appropriately: on combating threats, crushing violent crime, and safeguarding the country.

It is also touted as providing the agency's personnel with enhanced capabilities for much less money compared to maintaining the outdated building.

Political Controversies and the Headquarters' Legacy

This announcement comes after previous legal controversies concerning the agency's future home. Earlier, state leaders had sued over the cancellation of prior plans to move the main offices to their jurisdiction, arguing that funds had already been approved by lawmakers for that relocation.

The J. Edgar Hoover Building itself is a notable example of concrete-heavy design, conceived and built in the 1960s. Its aesthetic has long been a point of controversy, as it broke with the look of most federal buildings in the capital.

Its own former director, J. Edgar Hoover, was famously critical of the building, once deriding it as “a terrible eyesore ever built in the history of Washington.”