The United States War Department calls for a new headquarters

In May 1941, United States Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson informed President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the War Department urgently required additional office space. The department had experienced rapid administrative expansion following the outbreak of World War II in Europe in September 1939. Its headquarters in the Munitions Building on the National Mall had become overcrowded, while numerous military administrative offices operated from temporary facilities distributed across Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. A recently constructed government building in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood had also failed to resolve these accommodation difficulties and was instead assigned to the Department of State. Stimson's request reflected the increasing logistical requirements of American military preparedness and contributed to the development of plans for a large, centralized military headquarters.