The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-04
UNCLE SAM BUILDS
 ON IMMENSE SCALE
New Architectural Plan Will Make Him Master Builder
 of the World

It appears to he Uncle Sams ambi- ton to become the great master build CT of the world. and the execution of plans to which he affixed his o. K. the other day will in all likelihood earn him. that title, says the Chicago Record Herald
 The architectural scheme that has been inaugurated is not only the great est building project in the national capital, but also the greatest In the United States and one of the most mag nificent the world has ever seen. It consists of new structures for the de- partment of state, of commerce and labor. and of justice. The plans have been approved by the President and the national fine arts commission
 Seldom if ever in the history of the world has the group plan of public building been applied with such great precision. every feature in each indi- vidual building having been subordi- mated to the harmony of the whole. This, rather than the expenditure of $S, 900 00O an amount not infrequent- ly exceeded in the construction of sin Slt IttlSIdl UT SAdte buildihsSt lAiohNS this project remarkable.
 The buildings will occupy site be- tween Fourteenth and Fifteenth streets and extending from Pennsylvania ave- hue south to the Mall. The department of justice building will occupy the north end of this site, fronting on Pennsyl- vania avenue, and diagonally across from the south front of the treasury. The building of the department of commerce and labor comes next, eX- tending nearly to the Mall. The state department building will flank the group on the other end, facing south on the Mall, its front on a line with the south front of the National Mu- scum.
 To obtain the best possible designs for the buildings, three separate com petitions were inaugurated by the treasury department. Sixty of the lead ing architects of the country were in- vited to submit plans, 320 for each building. F'ifty-seven sets of six or seven drawings were sent in, a total of about 360 drawings. one for every day in the year. Probably the 20 best sets cost their authors more than 5000 apiece, and the rest an average of $500 The drawings themselves. therefore, represented an expenditure of nearly $40,000, This expenditure falls upon the architects and is not borne by the government.
 Three separate juries of architects were chosen for the great task of eX- amining this mass of material and rendering decisions so just as to be acceptable to the officials of the de- partments and the public, and to justify themselves even to the unsuccessful competitors. Within week of the sub mission of the plans, three telegrams were dispatched by Franklin MacVeagh. Secretary of the Treasury, announcing to the winning architects the jury's decision.
 The design of the building for the department of justice was awarded to Dom Barber; for the department of commerce and labor to York x Sawyer and for the department of state to Arnold W. Brunner. These three archi . tects were then called together by MT. MacNeagh and given instructions to develop their individual buildings and consult with the heads of the depart ments for which they are intended, the object being the reconciliation of the designs and the harmony of the group as a whole.
 The entire group was then drawn for the first time, the three buildings be- ing placed side by side upon their rel ative grades their relation to the treasury, the monument. the municipal building and their surroundings were studied and the buildings themselves were modified at each step to conform closely to each other.
 In exterior design the three build ings are similar in character, each employing columns three stories in hatc oh Gnt t,,1 I architectural basement" This wall Is one story high in the end buildings and two stories high in the central one, thus correcting the dip of the ground and raising the three colonnades to the same level.