The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-07-03
BUILDING PLANS
ARE MADE PUBLIC
4Architecturally, They Will Sup
plement Design Prevalent
in Washington.
COST WILL BE SS,00O,OOO
Homes for Departments of State,
Commerce and Labor and
Justice.
COST WILL BE 100000

Especial to The Times Dispatch.1
washington d. c., July 1.-THE Off
oially approved plans for the new gov
eminent buildings advocated by the
present administration have been made
public. They provide for the erec-
ton of buildings for the Departments
of State. Commerce and Labor and JUS
tice. on a site that lies between Four
teenth and Fifteenth Streets and eX-
tends from Pennsylvania Avenue south
to the Mall. which runs from the Capt.
tol to the Washington Monument. Ar
chitecturally. the new buildings will
supplement the building design now
prevalent in Washington. The cost
Will be 100000.
Though the actual amount of money
to be spent in the erection of these
new buildings is insignificant in COM
parison to the vast sums annually
spent for Federal and State Office
buildings throughout the United States.
great interest is attached to the pro-
1ect, for 1t is considered by experts the
greatest building project in the coun-
try, and one of the greatest in the
world. because 1t looks toward The
erection OF group rather than single
unit, with harmony in the aggregate
as Its ultimate result
In seeking plans for the buildings
the government inaugurated a competi-
tive contest sending Invitations to
sixty of the leading architects of
America, asking them to submit de-
signs.
These plans were then placed before
sne board of examining architects who
selected three of the most suitable and
artistic, awarding to Dom Barber. the
iDepartment of Justice; to York II
sawyer, the Department OF Commerce
Lar n n RI - f,rlI
the Department of State. These ,hree
architects were then called together
BY the Secretary of the Treasury and
given instructions to develop their i'm
dividual designs with the heads OF the
buildings for which they We're intend
cd, having constantly in view ut the
same time the reconciliation of the de-
signs to each other and the harmony
OF tho group as whole
In exterior design the three build
ings are similar in character each en-
ploying columns three stories in height
set upon windowed wall, and archi-
tectural basement" This wall is one
story high in the case of the end
ouiidinss and two stories high in tho
central one. thus correcting the dip Of
the ground and raising the three col
onnades to the same level
While orna mental in appearance, the
buildings are of the utmost simplicity
and no fancied needs OF architectural
expressions have been allowed to in
tertere with the practical requirements
OF lighting and arrangement
From Pennsylvania Avenue on the
north the principal feature OF the front
Will be the entrance portico of the
department. of Justice; from the monu-
ment grounds of the Mall, that of the
State Department.
The building OF Commerce and Labor.
FORMING the connecting link, is a SIM
pie rcctanGle. it's lines being unbroken
by any dominating feature Its main
entrance Is on Fifteenth Street but its
entrances for the employees are from
the sidewalk of Fourteenth Street on
level with the car lines. 1t probably
will be two years before the new
buildings are completed.