Pierre Charles L'Enfant notable work Washington, D.C.
Pierre "Peter" Charles L'Enfant (French: [pjɛʁ ʃɑʁl lɑ̃fɑ̃]; August 2, 1754 – June 14, 1825) was an American-French military engineer who in 1791 designed the basic plan for Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. His work is known today as the L'Enfant Plan.  He also inspired the street plan for Detroit, Michigan.Career
Post–Revolutionary War
Following the American Revolutionary War, L'Enfant established a successful and highly profitable civil engineering firm in New York City. He achieved some fame as an architect by redesigning the City Hall in New York for the First Congress of the United States (See: Federal Hall).L'Enfant also designed furniture and houses for the wealthy, as well as coins and medals. Among the medals was the eagle-shaped badge of the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization of former officers of the Continental Army of which he was a founder.  At the request of George Washington, the first President of the Society, L'Enfant had the insignias made in France during a 1783–84 visit to his father and helped to organize a chapter of the Society there.L'Enfant was a friend of Alexander Hamilton. Some of their correspondences from 1793 to 1801 now reside in the Library of Congress.While L'Enfant was in New York City, he was initiated into Freemasonry. His initiation took place on April 17, 1789, at Holland Lodge No. 8, F & A M, which the Grand Lodge of New York F & A M had chartered in 1787. L'Enfant took only the first of three degrees offered by the Lodge and did not progress further in Freemasonry.Honors
In 1942, an American cargo-carrying Liberty ship in World War II, named the S.S. Pierre L'Enfant was launched, part of a series of almost 2,000 ships mass-produced in an "assembly-line" fashion from eleven coastal shipyards. In 1970, she was shipwrecked and abandoned.
L'Enfant Plaza, a complex of office buildings, was dedicated in 1968 and named for the architect. It includes the 1972 headquarters of the United States Postal Service, an adjacent L'Enfant Plaza Hotel, an office building and underground parking garage, and a series of underground corridors with a shopping center, centered around an esplanade ('L'Enfant Promenade") in southwest Washington, D.C.. Meeting rooms in the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel bear the names of French artists, military leaders, and explorers. The central portion of the plaza contains an engraved map of the city by Pierre L'Enfant from 1791. Within the city map is a smaller map that shows the plaza's location.
Beneath L'Enfant Plaza is one of the central Metro subway stops in Washington, D.C., the L'Enfant Plaza station.
In 1980, Western Plaza (subsequently renamed to "Freedom Plaza") opened in downtown Washington, D.C., adjacent to Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. A raised marble inlay in the Plaza's surface depicts parts of L'Enfant's 1791 plan for the City of Washington. The inlay contains an oval bearing the title of the plan followed by the words "By Peter Charles L'Enfant".
In 2003, L'Enfant's 1791 Plan for Washington was commemorated on a USPS commemorative postage stamp. The diamond shape of the stamp reflects the original 100 square miles (259 km2) tract of land selected for the District. Shown is a view along the National Mall, including the Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial. Also portrayed are cherry blossoms around the "Tidal Basin" and row houses from the Shaw neighborhood.
The Government of the District of Columbia commissioned a statue of L'Enfant in 2008 that now resides in the U.S. Capitol as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection as of February 2022. Federal Law only allows U.S. states (and not federal territories, commonwealths, districts or other possessions) to contribute statues to the Collection, which the District of Columbia's Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, Eleanor Holmes Norton, attempted to have Congress change the law to permit the installation of the statue to represent the District in the Statuary Hall. The statue was displayed in the historic John A. Wilson District Building for the municipal government offices on Pennsylvania Avenue prior to the Capitol.
Since 2005, the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. has held an annual "L'Enfant Lecture on City Planning and Design" to draw attention to critical issues in city and regional planning in the United States.
The American Planning Association (APA) has created an award named in "L'Enfant's honor" which recognizes excellence in international planning.
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