Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-09-25
The Great Building Program.

In steady stages the project for
the construction of a great group of
Government buildings to house the
departments and bureaus Of the
Federal administration in this city
is developing. Plans have been
drawn for the first two units of the
group which will accommodate the
Department of Commerce and the
Internal Revenue Bureau. The Com
mission Of Fine Arts will on We'd
nesday hold special session in New
York City to confer with architects
and consider these plans for final
approval If the sketches are APP
proved. they will be returned to the
Treasury Department for last
scrutiny by the Secretary and will
then be submitted to the Public
Buildings Commission and to Con-
gress. In the event the Fine Arts
Commission sanctions the plans it
Is to be assumed that they will be
definitely adopted and that work on
the constructions will begin as soon
as the sites can be prepared.
While 1t may seem that much time
has been spent in planning and ap-
proving, 1t has not been wasted. For
this program of Government con-
structions is for all time and 1t is
vitality important that the scheme
adopted be the best possible, that
each unit Of the group be not only
practically suitable for it's uses, but
should be a component of an har-
monious array of constructions.
II has taken nearly a quarter Of
a century to get this great work
started, on the basis of a unified
group of public structures. Only
within the past two years has a def
mite start been made in the enact
ment of a general public buildings
law which appropriates fifty million
dollars for these purposes in Wash
ington. This amount, however. is
not believed to be the limit of ex-
penditures for this purpose at the
Capital. No estimate has been made
of the cost of the buildings already
in contemplation, those for the De-
partments OF Commerce, Justice,
Labor and Agriculture. and for bu-
reaus such as the Internal Revenue
and for the Hall of Archives, which
comprise theeimmediStely, prospective
constructions IT. is quite possible
that these will exhaust the fifty mill
lion dollars, the appropriation Of
which has been authorized in general
terms. Others will be needed. A new
home for the Supreme Court and an
other building for the accommoda-
ton of members of the House
OF Representatives are on the pro-
gram. Whether these are considered
as falling within the fifty million
dollar project is not certain.
In connection with the final ex-
animation of the plans for the
structures first to be erected, 1t is
announced that sketches have been
prepared for the landscape treatment
of the approaches and the interior
courts. The buildings will have
park setting. The northwest corner
Of the Mall-Avenue triangle will not
be built upon, but will be treated as
a garden frontage for the building
that Is to occupy the ''fiye-square
site" which TANKS the triangle on the
west. This policy Of yielding space for
landscape effects will yield the most
satisfa ctory results.
Within five years there will be
tangible proof of the Greater Wash
ington of long cherished hopes. 1t
is possible that in that period two
buildings will have been completed
within the Mall-Ayenue triangle and
that perhaps the Department of
Agriculture will likewise have been
erected and put into commission.
Others will doubtless have been
started. Perhaps work will have
begun upon the municipal center on
the north side Of the middle stretch
Of Pennsylvania avenue between the
Capitol and the Treasury. The pros
pect Is indeed one to gladden. the
hearts of all Washington.