Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-10
CAPITAL IS TOPIC
FOR ARCHITECTS
American Institute Session
Here to Take Up Future of
District Planning.

Architectural development Of the
Capital will be the theme of the sixty
second convention Of the American
Institute of Architects, which is to
meet in Washington for four days, be-
ginning April %. Work of the National
Commission of Fine Arts in its re-
lation to beautifying Washington will
be discussed.
Charles Moore, chairman of the Fine
Arts Commission. said that wash
ington today is in a precarious situa-
ton" in the course OF a statement from
the Institute OF Architects announcing
its convention.
People with grand, original ideas
insist on putting them over on the
Nations Capital" he said. and too fire.
ouently the more absurd the idea, the
stronger or at least the more voc1ferouS
its advocacy. Washington now has to
be saved from its friends, or those who
profess to be such.
LEnfant's Services.
'"That is not the way in which the
city was planned and developed. When
President Washington was intrusted
with the task of laying out the National
CAPITAL. he accepted the services OF the
very best man he knew, Pierre Charles
L'Enfant.
Now. LEnfant was brought up at
Versailles, designed as the capital city
of France by lie Notre and the archl-
tects of Louis XIV. Thus the original
plan of the City of Washington was
no evocation of a fertile brain, but
had its roots deep in splendid past;
and was based upon a design that had
stood the supreme test of more than
century.
so. too, the Senate park commission
of 1901, selected with the advice OF the
American Institute of Architects, was
made up entirely of men trained at the
Chicago Worlds Fair and chosen eS-
pecially because of that training. care
was taken to exclude from MEMBER
ship on that commission the lay e1e-
ment. always moved by counsels OF
expediency.
The ideal plan was sought--a larger.
more comprehensive plan than any
Heretofore devised a plan suited to
American demands, and, as time mas
proved, none too large or too fne.
And, again, these able planners
(Burnham, McKin1, Saint Gaudens ana
but for dignity and beauty. They
went back to the L'Enfant plan. They
did more than that They went 10
the very sources of the L'Enfant plan.
They studied together and on the very
ground the works of LIE Notre IN Paris,
at Versailles, Fountainbleau and Vaux
le Vicomte, in Rome and at Hampton
Court.
Architecture in combination with
landscape and landscape adorned with
statuary and fountains; and parks for
beauty and for use the adaptation Of
the works of man to the topography
supplied by nature. Such were the ma
terials of which they made use.
Showed American Spirit.
''They worked in no slavish subservi-
ence to the past. Far from it. STEPPED
in American architectural traditions
that had come down from Colonial
days, deeply conscious Of the history OF
their own country Gas shown IN the par
ticular locations of the Lincoln Memo
rial and the Grant and the Meade STAT
ues), fully alive to the changing con-
ditions of the twentieth century and
with visions of the future akin to those
of George Washington whom they
revered for his wisdom, determination
and foresight), these commissioners i'm
bued their plans with all the elements
which go to make up a. work OF art.
They realized-none better-that
the value of every artistic product Is IN
direct pfOpOrtlOu 10 LIE dlitouAe va
purely intellectual force that goes into
It
And so the Commission Of Fine Arts.
during It's 10 years of existence, has
ever held that the plan OF 1901 Is no
Procrustean bed binding the future:
only when improvements are proposed
such changes shall be as intelligently
and as carefully studied as were the
original plans. This rule has proved to
be eminently safe and sane; it has pre-
vented innovations hastily urged; also
it has made for continuity and progress
sive development along well considered
lines. More than this, 1t has created
confidence in the plan and has made
CONGRESS ready to seek and to follow
the advice of the commission"