Layoffs could threaten historic Atlanta federal buildings and art, staff say

The affected workers include all of the office’s fine arts and preservation; architect and engineering staff, multiple employees told the AJC.

Employees requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation while awaiting severance packages.

The March 3 announcement followed earlier efforts by the administration to lay off probationary workers, who have shorter tenures in government and lack employment protections of more experienced staff. In total, two employees who spoke to the AJC estimated that of the roughly 300 workers in the Southeast office, more than half will lose their jobs.

The Trump administration, led by the Department of Government Efficiency initiative headed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is working to slash government departments and has been analyzing federal properties and leases.

Former and current GSA staff members who spoke to the AJC feared that without experts in the special regulations and security measures needed for federal buildings, Atlanta could see the neglect of historical landmarks and the artwork within them. This includes the King and Nunn office complexes and the Tuttle appeals court building.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

David Mitchell, the executive director of the nonprofit Atlanta Preservation Center, said he fears the loss of institutional knowledge and expertise could lead to the eventual demolition of many buildings, and inevitably, pieces of the city’s cultural identity.

“You don’t hire a butcher to do plumbing,” he said. “These people provide an instrumental service to the way we view ourselves as a country. These buildings are anchors of our cultural experience, our narratives.”

GSA declined to confirm the number of employees laid off across the agency and in the Southeast regional office, but said that it was continuing its reduction in force. Cathy Rineer-Garber, a GSA spokesperson, said the agency is in contact with customer agencies that were impacted by the layoffs and plans to “partner with best-in-class commercial services.”

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

“GSA is looking across all of our components and making decisions to optimize the workforce for our future mission, and remains committed to supporting impacted employees as they transition from federal service,” Rineer-Garber said.

GSA was one of the first agencies targeted by the Trump administration in its efforts to reduce the federal workforce. The Office of Personnel Management offered employees a “deferred resignation program” in late January. Weeks later, the Trump administration laid off dozens of probationary employees who were pressured to resign, according to multiple employees.

In its latest move, the Trump administration eliminated hundreds of staffers nationally from the GSA’s Public Buildings Service, which manages the federal government’s real estate portfolio, across various regional offices in early March, according to Federal News Network.

Former and current government employees familiar with the matter said the March 3 reduction-in-force notices came abruptly, affording employees no time to off-load work and share important project developments with managers. They added that the agency did not address how it would manage more than 140 federal buildings in the Southeast — 28 of which are in Georgia — as well as its public art collection, which is one of the largest and oldest in the U.S.

The King building is a converted post office that opened in 1933 and has been renovated. The Nunn complex, which was completed in 1997, endured a rodent infestation during the pandemic. GSA inked a $3.2 million contract in 2022 to rid the campus of the unwanted creatures, the AJC reported at the time. The contract also included campus cleaning.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

A former employee said their planning and zoning team of approximately 25 was already “sorely understaffed.” The former employee did not believe the regional office would be able to manage all its assets after the entire team was axed on March 3.

After 25 years at the GSA and feeling “numb” to constant restructuring every administration, the way the recent reduction in force notices were rolled out and the lack of planning came as a shock, the former employee added.

An employee placed on administrative leave who worked in fine arts and preservation in another city said the division was operating a “skeleton staff” of 30 to manage more than 26,000 art pieces across the U.S. With about half of the agency’s fine arts positions now eliminated, including all those that were based in Atlanta, the employee warned of decay, destruction and potential theft of artwork.

“This is our history, a record of who we are and what we made,” the employee said.

Days after the layoff notices went out, the GSA published and subsequently removed a list of 443 office complexes, courthouses and other operation centers it deemed “noncore assets” that it could potentially sell. Of those properties, 17 were in Georgia, including the King Building and Nunn campus.

The GSA spokesperson said the agency anticipates it will republish the list in the near future and consider “compelling offers” from buyers.

Michael Peters, commissioner of the GSA’s Public Buildings Service, said in January that the agency is looking to slash its total real estate portfolio in half over the coming years. GSA also plans to eliminate more positions by early May, according to the Federal News Network.

“These buildings are not simply ‘watch a video on YouTube and you can fix this,‘” said Mitchell with the Atlanta Preservation Center. “There is a reason that you spend cultivating a craft and skill … and when you remove that, what you have is nothing more than something slowly dying. And I do not wish to see the city put in some slow, cancerous dynamic of our historic fabric.”