Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-05-31
GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS
How the Capitals Beauty Might Be De-
veloped by Harmonious Plan.
The Policy of Placing Public Build
ings on Reservations Deprecated
Future of Pennsylvania Avenue.


Written for The Evening Star.
The present agitation concerning the
location of The government printing house
brings very plainly to view the need of
new policy to be adopted by the government
N the matter OF the location of public
buildings and the promotion of the beauty
Of the national capital That Washington
is the handsome city that it is is all owing
to the far-seeing sagacity of two men,
Washington and his civil engineer. Len
FAINT. Had II not been for the plan adopted
by them and adhered to afterward by sue
cessive Congresses the fate of the city
would have been left to the haphazard
tastes and purposes OF dealers in corner
lots. Everything would have been sold for
a price" and every holder of land would
have divided and shaped and used it so as
to best promote his private ends. What
those two men did a century ago let not
the unwisdom of any. least o. all. of our
national legislators, now undo. Rather let
the government adopt the same policy with
regard 20 locating and designing the gov
eminent buildings which Washington laid
down with regard to the streets ana squares:
that is. let TINS all be comprised in con-
sistent and far-seeing plan, which shall so
! place the public buildings that they shall be
constantly forming a symmetrical ana i'm
posing whole. as beautiful ana as impress
sive that of the recent ideal and Yet real
structure OF pure art at Chicago.
The beauty and grandeur OF the white
city of the worlds rair was not thing of
accident, any more than Washingtons
present streets and squares are. 1t was
an artistic conception. And if Washington
grows to be the city OF grandeur. dignity
and superior architectural beauty that II
ought TO be. il will not be by accident nor
by piece legislation but by the wise adop-
tiCn by Congress OF an artistic ana noble
architectural plan, formed by proper COM
mission q bureau be 81 n
view. not only in the location of the public
buildings, but In the style of their architec-
ture. II the government is 10 spend a large
sum of money on any building worthy OF a
place in this capital city that building
should be INTELLECTUALLY so handsome as
20 deserve q place where il can be seen by
all, and not hidden away in some obscure
corner OF a PARK, while our most con-
spicuous avenue is given up to inferior
shops.
The manifest destiny of Pennsylvania
avenue Is that of grand nationar thor
oGghfare. lined on either side with a con-
tinuous row Of government palaces devoted
to the various departments and bureaus
and the sooner Congress adopts this plan
and ceases TO threaten either TO absorb
the PARK reservations or TO hide its build
ings away in obscure because cheap places
the sooner the nations capital viii begin
10 assume INTELLECTUALLY that distinguished
place among the worlds great capitals,
which, for the want of such concerted plan,
il has failed thus far to attain. For
while the department buildings are for the
most part noble structures, they are lost
amid commonplace surroundings, aad we
have not single continuous street nor
square which shows a handsome or dignl-
fled architectural ensemble. 1t IS in the
power of Congress always to help this
and especially now would be the fit time
to begin. and the place, the Capito. ond OF
the avenue say, between Isl ana 81 streets
on the north side, or between Sd and 4 L.
streets, on the south side. Place here the
new government printing building. and in
stead OF building deep quadrangle build
a continuous street block couple of
blocks, IL necessary. with handsome IA
cade, including a broad colonEside or shaded
walk to be continued along the avenue
ultimately like that of The Rue Rivon in
Paris.
The idea has been preached that the
government printing house must necessarily
be SO ugly building as to deserve only TO
be put out of sight somewhere. There
could be nothing more absurd than such a
notion. A civilized government with archi-
tectural taste ana skill at its command is
not to be pardoned IL IL erects an ugly
building anywhere. ard there is certainly no
reason why the building TO be devoted to
the noble art of printing, the glory of our
age, and a building Likely to be the largest
printing establishment in the world, should
not be structure OF commanding beauty
and dignity. II one would see an example
OF printing house, whose business was
not thought by its builders to be foreign TO
all that is beautiful, let him look at the
New York Herald building in New York at
the intersection OF Broadway and Sixth
avenue, veritable Venetian palace set
down in the midst of the crowded and busy
city, with its delicate tracery and marble
mosaics as fine IL for a palace for row
atty. There is not the slightest doubt but
that the government will appropriate money
enough TO build a building, such as. in the
proper hands. may be made a delight to
look upon, as well as to serve all its most
practical uses.
No government building even for a print