WASHINGTON − Mary Okin has never walked along the green marble hallways of the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building.
She's never seen the irreplaceable series of murals by prominent American artists that hang inside as a testament to the New Deal in a building once intended to house the Social Security Administration.
But Okin, a California-based art historian and assistant director of online public archive Living New Deal, is the "grand central station" of a growing effort to block President Donald Trump from selling the Cohen building.
The 1 million-square-foot structure, which the federal government built in 1940 near the National Mall, is one of more than 40 on Trump's list for expeditious sale.
The General Services Administration, an independent agency established in 1949 that manages hundreds of federal properties nationwide, has protocols to maintain ownership of taxpayer-owned art that cannot be removed when the government sells a federal building. But Okin and her coalition of advocates, art historians and members of Congress worry the Trump administration will ignore these and destroy a piece of America's heritage that cannot be replaced.
