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An aging office complex stands at the center of one of the most consequential political battles of the moment. The drama surrounds President Donald Trump’s desire to oust Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell ahead of his term’s conclusion in May 2026, a shakeup Trump has been calling for publicly for months in the face of Powell’s unwillingness to lower interest rates. As the head of an independent federal body, Powell’s job is not legally within the president’s power to touch, unless it can be proven that the chairperson has engaged in abusive or fraudulent behavior. In that case Powell could be fired for cause. That’s why a spotlight has suddenly been placed on a 1930s-era office complex. The buildings in question are the Marriner S. Eccles building and 1951 Constitution Avenue, two adjacent buildings on the National Mall that are part of the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Federal Reserve Board, which Powell oversees. The buildings have been undergoing a major renovation project in recent years, with an estimated cost of $2.5 billion. Trump and members of his administration have zeroed in on the cost of the project (which has risen since it was first proposed in 2017), claiming there are luxurious and unnecessary parts of the design that prove Powell is mismanaging the Fed. The Trump administration is now undertaking a kind of retroactive design review, and making a case that the renovation’s scope has spiraled beyond the public interest, and that Powell should be held accountable. Powell maintains that the project is in compliance with all laws and standards. The renovation stands in the middle, and the future of U.S. monetary policy is at stake. [Image: National Capital Planning Commission] Why the Trump administration is targeting the Feds renovation Trump wants Powell out, and the Fed’s renovation project is a potential avenue to achieve that goal. In a July 10 letter to Powell, Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, called the project an “ostentatious overhaul.” He wrote that the White House has “serious concerns” with the scope of the renovation, citing specific elements, including private dining rooms, rooftop garden terraces, water features, marble decor, and a private elevator. A week later, Powell responded to Vought with his own letter outlining the reasons for the renovation’s high cost, noting that the buildings in question have not undergone comprehensive renovations since they were built in the 1930s. “Both buildings were in need of significant structural repairs and other updates to make the buildings safe, healthy, and effective places to work,” Powell wrote. He also addressed Vought’s specific concerns about the “ostentatious” parts of the design, which, Powell notes, are either merely anodyne design elements that have been misinterpreted as luxury amenities or simply not part of the project at all. Powell explains that the “rooftop garden terraces” Vought targets are either the lawn that will sit above new underground parking or common vegetated roof areas intended to handle stormwater and improve building efficiency. The “private dining rooms” in Vought’s letter are actually conference rooms sometimes used for mealtime meetings. The “private elevator” does not exist, and upgrades are being made to existing elevators for accessibility reasons. “There are no special, private, or VIP elevators being constructed as part of the project,” Powell writes. This showdown between the two sides continues. What the Fed’s renovation entails The $2.5 billion Fed renovation project is a deep upgrading of the guts of the two buildings. The Eccles building was completed in 1937 as the original headquarters of the Fed, and covers 275,000 square feet in the footprint of an H shape. The Constitution Avenue building, originally used by the U.S. Public Health Service, was completed in 1932; it covers 126,000 square feet in the footprint of an E shape. Both are registered historic buildings, and no major renovations have been conducted on either since their original construction. Work to bring the buildings up to date includes a complete replacement of the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems, as well as the fire detection and suppression systems. Plumbing and electrical systems needed upgrading, and lead and asbestos had to be removed. In order to comply with modern building, safety, and accessibility codes, many upgrades had to be made to the interior layout and spaces of the two buildings. [Image: National Capital Planning Commission] Each will have its overall floor area expanded. The Eccles building is getting five-story infill additions in the two open sections of the its H-shape; the Constitution Avenue building will get its own five-story addition, turning its E shape ino a blocky 8. The most complex part of the project is underground. Because Washington, D.C., has strict height limits that cap most buildings at 130 feet, expanding buildings often means building downward. The Fed’s renovation involves rebuilding the foundations and expanding the usable space below grade in both buildings, an especially tricky prospect in D.C.’s swamp-like conditions. The renovation launched in 2017, during Trump’s first term. Design concepts were approved in stages in the following years, with rules and oversight from the National Capital Planning Commission, the Commission on Fine Arts, and the National Park Service, among others. It was designed as a joint venture between Quinn Evans Architects and CallisonRTKL, the latter of which is now part of the large international design and engineering firm Arcadis. (Both firms referred questions about the project to the Federal Reserve Board, which did not respond to an interview request.) The final design was approved in September 2021. Work has been underway on the complex since it was officially approved by the National Capital Planning Commission, the body that oversees urban planning issues in the District of Columbia (and which has come to play an important role in the current drama surrounding the renovation). The upgrades will allow the two buildings to consolidate about 1,750 of the Fed’s roughly 3,400 employees, reducing the need to lease external building space. The project was initially estimated to cost $1.7 billion. [Image: National Capital Planning Commission] Why the cost has risen It’s very common for large building and renovation projects to see their costs rise over time, particularly those involving older buildings that have historic preservation protections in place. And for a project that was proposed before the pandemic, approved during the pandemic, and has largely been built after the pandemic, material and labor costs have surged significantly. In the eight years since the project was originally approved by the Fed Board, the price of steel, for example, has skyrocketed, hitting a peak in 2021, just before construction started. Once work got underway, renovation teams also discovered more asbestos and lead in the building than originally anticipated; naturally, remediation has added to the cost. Builders also found the water table beneath the underground parking construction was higher than expected, leading to additional excavation and shoring to keep the building’s foundation stable. [Image: National Capital Planning Commission] These issues are not ideal, but also not surprising. The Trump administration, though, has suggested that the rise in project costs is actually due to the private dining rooms and extensive marble work Vought outlined in his letter to Powell. During Trump’s first term, some of his appointees to the architecture-focused Commission of Fine Arts called for additional marble to be used on the building’s facade. The Fed itself had called for more glass to be used in the building’s expansiona gesture the architects describe as creating “a literal connection to the Boards goals for more openness and transparency as an organization.” Though Powell has dismissed Vought’s accusations as false or misinterpretations of the plan, the suggestion of wasteful spending lingers and is being used to explore whether the project has violated the rules of the National Capital Planning Commission. Trump recently replaced three members of that commission with White House insiders, including one of Vought’s aides, and as Politico reported, the renovation became an unexpected focus of the commission’s latest meeting. [Image: National Capital Planning Commission] What happens next Work continues on the project, which was originally expected to take more than four years to complete. The sudden scrutiny could add delays to that timeline. Trump officials now serving in the National Capital Planning Commission could continue to make the renovation a target; Vought has already said that administration officials want to visit the buildings to observe the work thats underway. In the face of this pressure, Powell has called for a review by the Fed’s inspector general. This far into a multiyear, multibillion-dollar project, little is expected to change about the actual renovation work underway. The remainder of Powells term at the Fed, however, seems up in the air as Vought and others within the Trump administration seek to use the project against him.
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E-Commerce
Most designers know they have to wait a few years until they crack the six-figure ceiling. But at some organizations, they might not have to wait at all. As Fast Company wrapped up its latest report on the state of the design jobs market, we wondered which companies paid the highest premium for designers who were just starting out in their careers. We looked at the 40,000 job listings wed gathered from Googles job search engine between December 2024 and February 2025 and zeroed in on the salaries that companies were offering to prospective employees with up to one year of previous experience. Heres what we found. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); Architects Somewhat surprisingly, the best place to start high in architecture is to go into local and federal government. Los Angeles offers its junior architects the most, at an average of $131,800 a year, followed by the Navy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. And thats to say nothing of the pensions and health care that comes with working in public service. Graphic Designers The American tobacco market has been flagging for years, but the market for nicotine has never been higher. That has left Altria flush with cash for hiring designers to package the pouches flying off the shelves. Other top-paying companies include food conglomerate Danone, a motley assortment of agencies and, curiously, plumbers. Interior Designers The government is again a top entry-level payer for interior designers, with the Veterans Health Administration offering $103,000 to its junior designers. But, interestingly, its furniture stores that make up the bulk of this list, at least with the salaries theyre promising that designers can make on commission. Li Interiors leads the pack at $112,500 for entry-level talent, rounded out by Furniture Fair, BoConcept, and Ethan Allen. Product Designers As weve written elsewhere, product designers can expect to make the highest salaries overall, and thats just as true for entry-level ones. Ford tops the list with salaries averaging $150,000, followed by insurer Oscar, blockchain startup QuickNode, and Warner Bros. Urban Designers The University of Pittsburgh offers the highest salary for urban designers looking to start out at the top of the income bracketa planner in its planning, design, and construction department fetches $112,600. Several design firms and municipal governments are offering starting salaries that arent far behind. UX Designers Topping the list of companies offering high entry-level UX design salaries is marketing agency Lio, which manages to outdo tech giants Agilent and Oracle. Deloitte, unsurprisingly, is also a top payer. This article is part of Fast Company’s continuing coverage of where the design jobs are, including this year’s comprehensive analysis of 170,000 job listings
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E-Commerce
On Monday morning, January 29, 2024, Christina Vittas posted a nine-word tweet: Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing? Apparently, not so great. Vittas had been managing the social accounts for the beloved Sesame Street superstar since the end of 2020. She hadnt anticipated that Elmos friendly question would tap into a deep vein of national angst: a looming presidential election, inflation, and conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. Christina Vittas: I thought, Strategically, when is the best time for Elmo to post this? Monday morning, right? People are getting back in. How are we doing? is a question that a friend would ask. I posted on X at 10:46 a.m. [Illustration: Antonio Sortino] Aaron Bisman, SVP of Marketing for Sesame Workshop: Vibes werent so hot, and Christina had a sense that this was a great moment to ask this question. We saw that the engagement was very, very fast. Within a couple of hours, we realized we had sparked an important conversation. Vittas: At about 1 p.m., one of my coworkers, [senior social media manager] Eder Reynoso, tapped me on the shoulder in our meeting and was like, Christina, this is going places. Rosemarie Truglio, SVP of Curriculum and Content for Sesame Workshop: I didnt know the tweet was going out, but my office is very close to marketing and communications, so then of course I went online and was surprised by the sheer volume and kinds of responses. Elmo: Elmo didnt realize so many people were having big feelings! By early afternoon, Elmos tweet had become the number one trending topic on X, prompting discussions on Reddit, Instagram, and Facebook. Other Sesame Street characters joined in, sharing links to the Sesame Workshop curriculum. Celebrities like Chance the Rapper and T-Pain also weighed in, culminating in a message from President Biden via the POTUS account: Our friend Elmo is right: We have to be there for each other, offer our help to a neighbor in need, and above all else, ask for help when we need it. Even though its hard, youre never alone. Bisman: We regrouped to discuss what to do with all this attention. Thats when we saw the opportunity to make this a moment to share our emotional well-being resources, an initiative we launched in May 2023. [Illustration: Antonio Sortino] Truglio: The curriculum comes from a developmental and educational perspective. To create it, were listening to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association. Were demystifying mental health. Were providing families with the language and the strategies and the toolbox to manage their feelings. Bisman: Elmos tweet rearticulated a core concept, and now we had a new educational framework for how we teach these things. That helped extend what we could do with it. The conversation continues to this day, reaching its apex, perhaps, on October 18, 2024, when Elmo and Andrew Garfield engaged in a heartfelt video discussion about how the actor continued to process his grief after the passing of his mother in 2019. Bisman: Again, I give Christina full credit. Shes immersed in pop culture and knew that Andrew was talking pretty openly about the loss of his mother. Vittas: That conversation brought additional life to the campaign. Thats the power of the internet, finding something when its truly a great, authentic fit. Elmo: Elmo learned that its very important to check on your friends and see how theyre doing, because maybe theyre not feeling okayand sometimes just being a friend can help. [Illustration: Antonio Sortino] Bisman: We were thinking about whether wed want to do something to mark the one-year anniversary. But after the Andrew Garfield moment, we were thinking, When will it be too much? The worst thing you can do in social is beat a joke or a viral moment to death. We definitely didnt want to do that. To be like, Oh, remember that thing we did a year ago? It didnt feel like the right moment. Vittas: When you bring up Elmo online, people typically know of this moment. I think its an honor that Elmo is connected with checking in on friends. Elmo: Elmo wants everyone to know that they always have a friend on Sesame Street. Elmo loves you!
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E-Commerce
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