Evening star., 1900-09-18
A BROAD SCHEME E
Architect Glenn Browns Plan for
Mall Improvement.
BUILDING SITES PROVIDED
Suggestions for the Future Adorn-
ment Of the Capital.
Nj ON L NJ z n II A L 2 r OBJECTS
Nj ON L NJ z y II A l. 2 r OBJECTS
nm Brown in the Architectural Review.

NJ - \ L Nj Il \ L A IL + IL y j. IL CT :
| Glenn Brown in the Architectural Review
The tendency during the past ninety
years to locate government buildings and
statuary according to individual whim has
been great misfortune to the art interests
of this country
The selection 6f designs and sites for
buildings and statuary has been carried
or during this period without a definite
plan and without taking into consideration
what great advantages could be obtained
by a proper and artistic grouping
In Washington parks have been utilized
TO save the expense of a site. Buildings
have been placed directly on the street in
many instances. SO as to utilize .the total
area of the ground. An endeavor to group
and harmoniEe the buildings with the sur
roundings and maintain the vistas original
ly contemplated does not appear to have
presented itself to the minds of any one
of the separate departments which have
heen In charge of such work. This unfor-
tunate state of affairs is not remarkable
when 1t is remembered that the appropria-
tlonS for such additions to the capital city
are expended through many departments
each selecting the site and controlling the
character of the designs for the building
Jurisdiction, although during the last few
years experts have been called in to advise
ana act on Juries. The tastes and capaci-
ues or committees, who form a ma jority
OF the Juries have been rarely so educat ed
and cultivated to insure a judicfous Sc
lection In several instances, notably the
selection of the Sherman statue the ex-
pert advice has been overruled by the Law
men on the committee, with unhappy re-
suits.
No Broad View
No department since the earliest period
In the history of the city has apparently
gone further than to consider the object
under It's jurisdiction as the one thing to
De considered. What the government has
lost by such varied, diverse authority and
selection will be easily appreciated by a
comparison of what has been done with
what was originally contemplated in the
plan of Washington and l. 'Enfant, the last
In authority to appreciate the effects to be
produced by maSsing so as to obtain a
grand whole, with architecture, landscape
and statuary, each designed so as to har-
monize and enhance the effect of the 9TH
ers. and together make an effective work
OF art The original plan of the city con-
templated. as one of its principal features,
prominent buildings, forming center from
which the avenues radiated; this has been
forgotten or considered of little Importance
The Treasury and War, State and Navy
Departments have been so located that
they interfere with the vistas of the EXecu-
tive Mansion A view of the Executive
Mansion. which was to have been visible
down Pennsylvania avenue from the Capt.
tol. has been completely cut off by the OBJ
strucuon of the treasury, and a similar
vista has been destroyed by the war state
and navy building. which projects out be-
yond the line of New York avenue
The Congressional Library is so placed
that 1t produces decided discord with the
Capitol. From the west the dome of th,
library, as viewed from the mall and Vfr-
glnia. is apparently d gilded dome on one
wing of the Capitol. This unhappy result
is due both to the location of the new build
Ing and to the height of the dome. The
latter was built much higher than contem-
plated in the adopted plan of the library
but 1t is questionable if the first design
would have been low enough to entirely
overcome this objection.
Interferences.
The view down Pennsylvania avenue to-
ward the east has been destroyed in a far
more serious way. Here we have a com
plete tumble of architectural features The
library dome on one side and the dome of
the Capitol apparently perched near the
corner pavilion of the library on the other
side. There is no harmony in line or color
The contemplated vista of the Capitol
down this avenue for miles was one of the
mcst pleasing of sights. which thousands
enjoyed until the erection of the new IL
brary building. There has been propo-
sition for several years to obstruct and
mar this view of the Capitol by the erec-
tlon of a Supreme Court building on a site
similar to the one selected for the Congress
sional Library.
If new buildings had been so placed or of
such a character to give the same eff
feet or q more pleasing one than the orig
inal buildings, the view of which they mar
or completely obllterate, no one could COM
plain, but the selection of their sites pre-
ciudes such views even should we con-
slider the buildings as objects of beauty
They are placed that we only catch
their corners, in most cases an unsatis-
factory view, destroying the brilliant idea
of the original scheme, with its contem-
plated vistas We must acknowledge that
the porticO of the treasury by T. L. Walter
is effective, although it destroys the vista
of the White House.
The Monument Out of Line
The original plan of the city contemplated
a monument to George Washington on the
intersection of the east and west axes of
the Capitol and the north and south axes
of the Presidents House. When a monu-
ment to our first President was com
menced, some fifty or sixty years ago ii
was located about 100 feet south of the
axis of the Capitol and 500 feet east of the
axis of the Executive Mansion. l have
been unable to discover reason for this
change in the site
The most notable suggestion for building
sites the map of l. L'Enfant is the line
which forms the north and south boundary
of the parks between the Capitol and the
monument.
The more the scheme laid out by Wash
ington and l. Enfant is studied the more
forcibly 1t strikes one that a modification
OF this scheme will make the most salts
factory solution of the present problem
1t Is easy to imagine the magnificence of a
boulevard beginning at the Capitol and
ending with the monument. a distance of
nearly mile and a half bounded on both
sides by parks laid out by skilled land
scape architect and adorned by the work
OF capable artists. Looking from the bouie-
ward across the park a continuous line Of
beautifui buildings was to have formed
the background. They were not to have
been deep enough to curtail either the
natural or artistic beauties of the park
or to encroach upon the peoples rights to
an air space. By this time such an avenue
would have acquired worldwide reputa-
ton, If II had been carried out by COM
petent architects, landscape artists and
sculptors. consulting and working in har-
mony with each other The parked por-
ton of the Champs Elysees in Paris, which
is approximately 1900 feet wide and three
quarters of a mile long, would not have
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