page_title: Federal Triangle
section_title: Plan
hierarchical_section_title: Federal Triangle / Genesis and design / Plan
caption_attribution_description: English: Original Caption: Aerial Photograph of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC including the District Building and the Post Office Building, 1923 U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 18-AA-151-58 From: "Airscapes" of American and Foreign Areas, compiled 1917 - 1964 Created By: War Department. Army Air Forces. (06/20/1941 - 09/26/1947) Production Date: 1923 Scope and Content: This photograph was taken by the Army Air Corps stationed at Bolling Field and looks east across Pennsylvania Avenue. Persistent URL: research.archives.gov/description/7851119 Repository: National Archives at College Park - Still Pictures (RD-DC-S) For information about ordering reproductions of photographs held by the Still Picture Unit, visit: www.archives.gov/research/order/still-pictures.html Reproductions may be ordered via an independent vendor. NARA maintains a list of vendors at www.archives.gov/research/order/vendors-photos-maps-dc.html
context_page_description: The Federal Triangle is a triangular area in Washington, D.C. formed by 15th Street NW, Constitution Avenue NW, Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and E Street NW. Federal Triangle is occupied by 10 large city and federal office buildings, all of which are part of the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site. Seven of the buildings in Federal Triangle were built by the U.S. federal government in the early and mid-1930s as part of a coordinated construction plan that has been called "one of the greatest building projects ever undertaken" and all seven buildings are now designated as architecturally historic. The Federal Triangle Washington Metro station serves Federal Triangle and the surrounding area.
context_section_description: The Senate Park Commission (also known as the "McMillan Commission") was formed by the United States Congress in 1900 to reconcile competing visions for the development of Washington, D.C. and especially the National Mall and nearby areas. The Commission's plan for development, the McMillan Plan, proposed the razing of all residences and other buildings on Lafayette Square and building tall, Neoclassical government office buildings with facades of white marble around the park to house executive branch offices. While the demolition of some nearby buildings occurred (notably the Hay-Adams Houses, Corcoran House, and a portion of the Decatur House grounds), the rapid expansion in the size and number of executive branch agencies in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s made the McMillan Plan's development of Lafayette Square impractical.
  Congressional and local support for the redevelopment of Lafayette Square waned significantly. Over the next few years, the President and Congress established several new agencies to supervise the approval, design, and construction of new buildings in the District of Columbia: The Commission of Fine Arts in 1910 (to approve the design of new structures), the Public Buildings Commission in 1916 (to make recommendations regarding the housing of federal agencies and offices), and the National Capital Parks and Planning Commission in 1924 (to oversee planning for the District). In the mid-1910s, Congress appropriated and the government spent $7 million to acquire land on Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 14th and 15th Streets NW and several blocks south. No demolition or construction took place during that period, and the government merely collected rent from the tenants in the area. In 1924, the Public Buildings Commission recommended that a new series of federal office buildings be built near the White House. The plan called for a complex of buildings to be built at Murder Bay—a muddy, flood-prone, malaria-ridden, poverty-stricken region lacking in paved roads, sewer system, and running water and almost exclusively home to numerous brothels and an extensive criminal underclass.
caption: The Federal Triangle area in 1923, looking east with Pennsylvania Avenue in the left, the District Building in the foreground and the Post Office building and Center Market in the background
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