Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-08
WAR-NAVY HOUSING
PROBLEM KNOTTY
Public Buildings Commission
Faces Dispute as Meet
ing Date NearS.

with a difference of opinion under
stood to exist between the War and
Navy Departments as to the best loca-
ton for the new homes for the defense
establishments of the Government, a
knotty problem faces the Public Build
ings Commission when it meets here
for the first time in Fall session prior
to the opening of Congress.
While on authoritative announce
nnent Is forthcoming, there were re-
ports In apparently well informed quar-
ters today that the War Department
preferred location nearer the Capitol
Building, while the Navy Department
felt that position southwest OF the
Interior Department Building, would
be more desirable.
The Public Buildings Commission will
be the Government agency to pass upon
this phase of the Government building
program, when it conveneS here before
long. A substantial report on the whole
question of housing the War Depart
ment and the Navy Department in their
new homes is now being drawn up by
disinterested parties for submission to
the commission.
No Decision Final.
Studies have been made for placing
the Governments great defensive estab-
lishments in new headquarters in that
area of Washington in the general
vicinity between the Interior DEPART
rnent and the Naval Hospital, but they
were only studies and no final decision
has been reached.
Considerable attention also has been
given to the matter of possibility of
placing them In the general vicinity OF
the Capitol Building, to the south and
somewhat west not far from the b.
tauic Gardens, but this project also Is
tentative.
Meantime, plans are rapidly being
pushed forward for remodeling the
structure at Seventeenth and Pennsyl-
vania avenue, which for years has been
known as the State, War and Navy
Building.
Waddy B. Wood, local architect, is
drawing plans to change the exterioJ
of this old building to make it con-
form TO the outlines of the Treasury
Department Building. On account of
the fact that it Is an alteration job, In
which new exterior must be made
TO fit onto the original structure, fit
tings windows and other features of the
original building, this kind of an archi-
tectural feat is considered even more
difficult than designing an entirely new
building.
Two Similar Buildings.
When this Is entirely rebuilt to con-
form to the Treasury, the White House
win be fianked with two similar build
ings, and the remodeled one will be
intended for the exclusive use of the
State Department. New buildings are
proposed for both the War Department
and the Navy Department, under the
huge public building program.
Virtually all of the Navy and much
Of the War Department are housed in
the so-called Navy and Munitions Build
ings, the huge concrete temporary
structures" In the Mall. They have
been doomed to disappear eventually, as
they mar the landscape of the Mall.
but according to present prospects it is
considered by officials as exceedingly
unlikely that the War and Navy De-
partments can be provided with new
buildings and these old buildings torn
down In time for the celebration of the
Washington Bicentennial Celebration In
1882. At the time the buildings were
put up for Munitions and for the Navy
they were intended to be temporary
buildings, but they finally got built Of
concrete and are substantial structures.