A New for the 21st Century Photogr aph by

W A S H I N G T O N I A N 5 8 J U L Y 2 0 0 6 A New National Mall for the 21st Century

A BOLD PLAN EXPANDS IT INTO THE WITH THE SUPREME COURT AS ITS CENTERPIECE BY ARTHUR COTTON MOORE aph by Photogr

The new section of the National Mall would extend south of the . It would move the Supreme Court from its Capitol Hill location and create space for the new museums and memorials that inevitably will be built here.

W A S H I N G T O N I A N 5 9 J U L Y 2 0 0 6 All artwork courtesy of Arthur Cotton Moore

Shown above is a proposal for a new Maryland Avenue— the great missing avenue of the L’Enfant Plan. ashington has two new challenges that when seen to- According to L’Enfant’s plan, Maryland Avenue was to gether should bring about a rethinking of the city’s be the mirror of Pennsylvania Avenue, bracketing the Mall. monumental core. One of the great realizations of the 1901 McMillan Plan was One challenge is the pressure for more memorials removing the trains and train station from the middle of the Mall. In the process of creating Union Station, which opened and museums on the Mall. Despite a congressional in 1907, the train lines were fi xed to where Maryland m Woratorium, supporters of the recently approved African-American mu- Avenue was planned to be, were left exposed, and are now seum insisted that it go on the Mall. accessible to attack. Many more memorials and museums wait in the wings, ready to fl at- By enclosing the railroad in a hardened structure, we could reduce the vulnerability of the rail lines and complete ten the Mall’s grass and trees under hundreds of columns, statues, car- Maryland Avenue—the missing part of L’Enfant’s plan. touches, caryatids, cenotaphs, acroteria, effi gies, laurels, obelisks, pedes- tals, steles, and pediments. In response to the memorial tsunami, a group has been formed, chaired by Judy Scott Feldman and coordinated by W. Kent Cooper, called the National Coalition to Save Our Mall. It has concluded that the Mall must expand, an idea the coalition calls the Third Century Initiative. The Mall has been expanded before: In the fi rst century of Washington’s existence, the Mall ran from the Capitol to the Washington Monument; in the second century, the McMillan Commission pushed the river westward, extending the Mall to accommodate the Refl ecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial. Now, in Washington’s third century, we need to do it again. Some believe Congress should stand fi rm on its 2003 moratorium. But ask politicians, and they will tell you about the many groups who fervent- ly want their memorial on their Mall. They ask why we have a National Mall if it is not a place to memorialize our great people and events. Another challenge is protecting federal offi ces from terrorism. The most susceptible place in the country for a damaging terrorist attack is Existing along the railroad lines running through the southwest part of DC just land to be removed

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A BIGGER MALL FOR DC’s THIRD CENTURY

and use the Tourmobile or Metro. signaling the beginning of the monumental Eight Reasons to Do It core of the nation’s capital. 3. Washington Monument area linked to the 1. Room for more memorials expanded Mall By the addition of another canal, the northern 6. Protest plaza The plan envisions a pedestrian bridge, like the portion of would be shaped The plan envisions—between the Jefferson one across the Thames in London, facilitating as an ellipse similar to the ellipse south of the Memorial and the Supreme Court—a kind of access between the Washington Monument White House, providing an area for 24 smaller Speakers’ Corner where people could shake area and the expanded Mall and marking the statuarylike memorials. The plan envisions the their fists at or salute the White House, the centerline of the axis across the . island as a monument-fi lled garden similar to Capitol, or the court. Il Prato della Valle in Padua, Italy; it also would 4. Increased water frontage provide a link to the Banneker Overlook at the The plan’s additional waterfronts, marinas, and 7. Increased recreation end of the L’Enfant Promenade and a bridge to waterfront restaurants would foster a livelier We now use the Mall for softball, soccer, polo, M Street in Southwest DC. engagement with the river, as in Vancouver or volleyball, ice skating, and more. By expanding a bit like Venice. it, we increase the potential for recreational use. 2. Visitors’ hub The cavities under the hill between the high- 5. A monumental sculpture 8. Reconnecting the city ways and rail lines would house a Metro sta- The plan envisions a monumental fi gure at the The southwest quadrant of DC is cut off by the tion (the Yellow Line runs through the new end of the expanded Mall. On a much smaller Southeast-Southwest Freeway and the railroad expansion), visitors center, Tourmobile station, scale, it would act like the Statue of Liberty, lines. This plan provides much greater access and parking so visitors would leave their cars greeting boats coming up the Potomac and to Southwest DC and its waterfronts.

W A S H I N G T O N I A N 6 1 J U L Y 2 0 0 6 The new Supreme Court and Mall expansion would span the highways and railways as they enter the city. Between each of these arteries would be spaces for a visitor center, a Metro stop, a Tourmobile stop, and parking. below the Mall. A terrorist could stand on lowed ground. trak, Virginia Railway Express, and CSX. any of our bridges—for instance, on 12th The Mall’s east-west axis—the Lincoln The messy infrastructure dips at this point, Street—or on the L’Enfant Promenade Memorial to the Capitol—cannot be ex- allowing the creation of a gently sloping and shoot at one of the chlorine tankers on panded. But its north-south axis—the landscaped hill to span over and hide it. the freight line below. The resulting chlo- White House to the Jefferson Memorial— Then out of land now used largely for Park rine-gas cloud could kill 100,000 people can expand to the south. Service parking lots, there could be a Mall and disable the national government. Just below the Jefferson Memorial is a expansion about equal to half of the pres- spaghetti of highways and rail lines—the ent Mall. There would be space for up to his 21st-century plan is a logical segue confl uence of the George Mason Memo- 20 new memorials and museums, depend- Tof the basic geometry of the McMil- rial and Rochambeau bridges, I-395 feed- ing on size. lan and L’Enfant plans. Its detailed design ing into 14th Street and the Southwest Because the expanded Mall would pro- should maintain the same sense of hal- Freeway, and the rail lines of Metro, Am- trude into the Potomac River, the small

A Pyramid of Remembrance for A memorial to the teaching Is There Room on soldiers who died in peacekeep - profession the Mall for . . . ing, covert work, and more Tiananmen Square Memorial Park A memorial to Native Americans A memorial to Raoul Wallenberg Here are some of the memorials and A memorial to the Cold War A monument to honor the American museums that have been proposed A memorial to children of the ! ag and display the world’s largest for the National Mall under the American Revolution A memorial to the Merchant Marines Commemorative Works Acts. A memorial to Hispanic Vietnam A memorial to members of the veterans American press A memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. A memorial to Thomas Paine A memorial to those killed while A memorial to John Adams A National Peace Garden covering a war or other armed A memorial to victims of A memorial to black Revolutionary con! ict communism War patriots A memorial to Hispanic-American A memorial to Benjamin Banneker A memorial to women who served members of the armed forces A memorial to Dwight D. in Vietnam A memorial to American astronauts Eisenhower Middle Passage National Monument The National Museum of the A memorial to American veterans A memorial to Ralph David American Latino Community disabled for life Abernathy The National Women’s History A memorial to Frederick Douglass A memorial to Draza Mihailovich Museum A memorial to Ukrainian genocide A memorial to Davy Crockett The National Health Museum A memorial to Ronald Reagan A memorial to Peace Corps The National Museum of African- A memorial to slavery volunteers American History and Culture

W A S H I N G T O N I A N 6 2 J U L Y 2 0 0 6 barrier island at Roaches Run could be the Capitol; realizing this critical feature aspirations that its symbolic façade should removed and its single road to the airport would also connect the Capitol to the ex- be moved to the new location. Because the relocated to the west to open up the throat panded Mall. building was made from small pieces, its of the Potomac. Part of the end of this exterior could be reassembled—the same portion of the expanded Mall could be on he 21st-century plan envisions the way it was built—while its utilitarian spaces pilings, depending on water-fl ow analysis, TSupreme Court as the anchor of the would be newly constructed. and provide a concession for covered boat expanded Mall. In keeping with the sym- The Library of Congress could use the slips. bolism of planning in Washington, it bal- vacated site. A contractor who special- If all this seems too grand, it is less than ances the executive branch at the north izes in this kind of disassemble/reassemble a third the scope of what the Army Corps end of the monumental core, the leg- monumental work has estimated a cost of of Engineers accomplished following the islature at the east end, and the judicial $30 million. That is about 5 percent of 1901 McMillan plan when it created East branch at the south end—presenting the what is being spent across the street for the Potomac Park, , the three pillars of our democracy in a monu- Capitol Visitors Center. land for the Lincoln Memorial, and the mental triangle. Located on the new Judiciary Hill, the Tidal Basin. We have been manipulating The Supreme Court heads the only Supreme Court would have the presence, the eastern edge of the river ever since the branch of government whose obligations majesty, and symbolism commensurate early 1800s, when water lapped at the land and organizational structure were not spe- with its role in our lives. where the Ellipse is now, right below the cifi cally set out in the Constitution, and its To expand the Mall, something like White House. wanderings refl ected its early lack of power the McMillan Commission needs to be The plan provides ways to reconnect our and how it evolved. formed. Compromises and changes and waterways so the river can be used more For 145 years, the court moved about, consensus are how we do business in Wash- for recreation and transportation. Wash- meeting briefl y in a private home but most- ington, but the basic ideas in this plan ad- ington Channel is a dead end because of ly in two spaces in the Capitol. In 1929, dress real needs: We have to protect the rail the long distance around Hains Point, President Taft proposed building a sepa- lines—they are the spinal nerve system of frustrating any kind of ferry or water-taxi rate court building. Lore has it that when the East Coast. And we have to deal with transit system. The plan also provides ca- the architect Cass Gilbert asked where was the political pressures to build more me- nals joining the north end of the channel the grassy hill on which he would build a morials and museums on the Mall. to the river, defining the expanded Mall suitable structure for the Supreme Court, Every century or so in Washington there while preserving the Hains Point golf and he was told to fi t it in across the street. It is a moment when a door opens and lets recreation area, enriched by waterside res- sits in the shadow of the Capitol, between the future in. That time is now. taurants and marinas. the Library of Congress and the Method- The McMillan plan called for building ist Building and opposite small apartment and extending Maryland Avenue beyond buildings on Second Street. 14th Street to a circle around a monument Completed in 1935, the Supreme Arthur Cotton Moore is an architect and plan- (now the Jefferson Memorial) that would Court’s exterior has become so iconic as ner. He is also the great-grandnephew of Senator connect—visually and functionally—to the backdrop of our confrontations and McMillan of the 1901 McMillan Commission.

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