National Science Foundation employees were told they'll be removed from the agency's headquarters on Tuesday (June 24) with no direction yet for where to go.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development had previously announced its intention to sell its current headquarters, which requires more than $500 million in maintenance repairs.

The National Science Foundation is already in the process of being gutted – in perhaps a not quite as drastic way as its peer biomedical agencies at NIH and elsewhere. But out of the blue yesterday word emerged that the Department of Housing and Urban Development is taking over the NSF’s building,