Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-03
WAR AND NAVY SITE
ISSUE UP FRIDAY
Commission to Seek Final
Decision on Location
of Structures.

The vexed question of the location of
the new War and Navy Department
Buildings will be tackled again by the
Public Buildings Commission when it
meets on Friday in an effort to reach q
final solution.
The commission will have before it
for consideration the recommendations
of three bodies, which urge that the
structures be located in different parts
of the city.
The Fine Arts Commission Is on rec
ord in favor of the erection of the
service structures west Of Seventeenth
street on Pennsylvania avenue, to bal
ance the development that Is going
forward in the triangle bounded by
Fifteenth street, Pennsylvania avenue
and B street. The supervising archi-
tect's Office Of the Treasury Department
has urged that the Army and Navy
buildings be placed in the southwest
triangle. while the National Capital
Park and Planning Commission has
sided with the aspirations of the two
in the vicinity Of the Interior Depart
ment and near the Naval Hospital, on
an eminence overlooking the Airing
ton Memorial Bridge development.
Say Boulevard Would BE MARRIED.
A sketch prepared by Treasury De-
partment ofiicials, to show what might
be done in the Southwest triangle, 10
Gated near the Capitol, explains that
two Army and one Navy building might
be placed in the group there. In one
study, the central portion would be
two stories higher than the rest of the
structures.
Opponents Of the Southwest site urge
that buildings erected there would mar
the view from the Mount Vernon Memo
rial Highway, looking toward the Capt.
toll Building.
Lieut.. Col. q. S. Grant, Sd, execu-
dive and disbursing offlcer of the Public
Buildings Commission, said today that
1t was gathered from photographs made
of balloons fixed at the height of the
IL placed IN the Southwest triangle,
would cut off the view Of the Capitol
Building. but would not screen the
dome. Col. Grant, who is also a menu
Der of the District Zoning Commission,
explained that there Is a 60-foot limit
for coming In the Southwest, with a
90-foot limit along the railroad, provid-
ing for open construction in the abb
sence Of mass building. He explained,
II
Is not subject TO the coming regulation,
but questioned the advisability of it
doing anything that might interfere
with this law. The buildings in the
Southwest triangle would probably be
about 123 feet in height.
Early DECISION Sought.
The necessity for deciding soon on
the exact location of the new Army and
Navy buildings Is brought about by
tentative plans for the further expan-
sion Of the Governments building pro-
gram. Remodeling Of the State, War
and Navy Building, at Seventeenth
street and Pennsylvania avenue is soon
to be undertaken at g cost of some
IS, 900 900, so that 1t may conform,
enthusiastically, to the Treasury Depart
ment, east Of the White House. When
this work Is done, the State Department
win use the whole building.
The new Department of Commerce
Building, under construction at Fiji
tenth and b streets, will be finished
about November, under tentative plans,
and when this Is occupied, 1t will re-
lease room in the present Department
of Commerce Building at Nineteenth
street and Pennsylvania avenue. This
latter building VIII be taken over by the
War Department, under current plans.
The Public Buildings Commission, at
its forthcoming meeting, will consider
the location for a new Court of Claims
building. but this seems to be over
Swallowed by the fight over where the
new Army and Navy Buildings shall go.