it remained until its move to the current Supreme Court building. President William Howard Taft proposed a new Supreme Court building in 1912. After becoming Chief Justice in 1921 he argued successfully for the Court to have its own headquarters to distance itself from Congress as an independent branch of government. In 1929, the government purchased the National Women's Party headquarters and razed it for the new building. The court was finally designed by architect Cass Gilbert, who was a friend to Taft. The building was completed by his son Cass Gilbert Jr. following the elder Gilbert's death in 1934. Motivations for creation From 1860 to 1935, the Supreme Court Justices were designated to conduct their work within the cramped space of the old Senate Chamber alongside other federal government employees. This environment discouraged the Supreme Court Justices from travelling to Washington, so they conducted most of their work from their homes. Before the Supreme Court building was approved, Charles Evans Hughes, who had been an Associate Justice from 1910 to 1916, was vocally outspoken about the poor conditions of the justices' working environment and described the Old Senate Chamber as small, overheated, and barren. Through the rigorous lobbying efforts of Chief Justice Taft, he was able to secure the funding needed from Congress for a Supreme Court building in 1929. Taft's motivations for a Supreme Court building were fueled by the relationship between the judicial branch and the other branches of government, as well as the drastic differences in his working environment from when he served as President of the United States to when he served as Chief Justice. Taft envisioned the judicial branch of government to embody a persona of independence, and therefore saw the Supreme Court building as a means of establishing his vision. The Supreme Court building would not have been completed without the further commitment of Charles Evans Hughes, who succeeded Taft as Chief Justice in 1930. Opposition Chief Justice Edward Douglass White, nominated by Taft in 1910 (and later succeeded by him in 1921), was part of the initial resistance to the idea of a Supreme Court building. He argued that the Supreme Court obtained its relevance because of its location within the Capitol. Many justices in addition to Chief Justice White refused to conduct their work within the building, and remained in their homes. The familiarity of their work spaces at home naturally