Evening star., 1934-10-06
BALANCED DESIGN
FOR CITY IS URGED
Approaches to Capitol
Should Be Improved,
Architect Says.
Continued From First Page.)

Continued From First Page)
Capitol contrast strikingly with the
meanness and disorder which char
acterize the areas lying along the
northern, eastern, and southern axes
Of the city plan.
'Northward from the Capitol to
the Soldiers Home extends mar
row congested street, crowded by
street car tracks, bordered by in
significant buildings, and hideously
dominated by the great red brick
mass of the Government Printing
Office. Eastward another street of
mean proportions and indeterminate
architectural treatment terminates in
a jungle and precipice.
"Southward, Delaware avenue,
South Capitol street and New Jer-
Sey avenue pass through a region Of
slums, warehouses and weed-covered
vacancy, until one dies away in
tumble of streets before the entrance
to the Army War College, another
deSpairingly ends its career on the
river bank, and the third hurls it
self hopelessly against the wire fence
surrounding an immense factory which
occupies the very site where LEnfant
Visioned The Great Commercial Ex-
change and Its Attendant Buildings.
Railroad tracks ramble at will
throughout the section. Over large
areas freight is piled in the open. A
siding, where the city'S daily output
of garbage is transferred from trucks
- in1 iS SifIofnd almost
precisely south of the Capitol itself;
and numerous chimney stacks, ris-
ing between the waterfront and the
dome of the Capitol, interrupt what
should be the most striking and
effective vista of its graceful sill
houette, and what, in spite of every
thing that has been done and not
done, remains the most important
and impressive approach to the Cap
ital City.
Mall Area Plan.
For many years past the efforts
of all interested activities have been
rightfuly concentrated on the ef-
fort to insure the complete and sue
cessful execution of the Mcmillan
Commissions plans for the Mall area.
This plan is now we'll on the way to
completion, and there exists no un-
certainty that in the course of time
it will be completed to the final de-
tail.
1T is appropriate, therefore, that
the claim of the other principal axes
of the city plan to be given an equiv
alent treatment, harmonious with the
Mall, and of equal beauty and inter-
est, should now be given serious con-
sideration."
No immediate program of extrava-
CANT expenditure need be undertaken,
according to Mr.. Sullivan.
1T has taken 80 years to bring
the reconstruction of the Mall to its
present stage of partial completion,
and 1t may require many years and
even generations to realize complete
ly the ideal of having the approaches
to the Capitol from every point Of the
compass harmonized and co-ordinated
into a spacious and dignified whole"
he explains. 1T is, however, by no
means too early to propose this
eventual end, and to begin to work
kOWdI0 us
The very existence of plans of this
nature act as an encouragement to
the gradual evolution of the areas
which they cover along the desired
lines of development, and stand as
protection against the encroach-
ment of inharmonious structures.
IF the working out of the studies
of the Mcmillan Commission had
been postponed for 10 or 20 years,
it is probable that, in the meantime,
SO many buildings inconsistent in
type and haphazard in arrangement,
would have been constructed in the
Mall area that the proper solution of
the problem would have been found
impossible.
Danger In Construction.
"Until plans are prepared and
adopted for East Capitol street. North
Capitol street, and the area south Of
t<se Capitol, there is continual danger
that new construction in these areas
will seriously hamper their proper
treatment in the future. While the
complete fulfillment of any such plan
may be q matter of the far distant
future, it requires no great foresight to
see that the utilization of the prop
critics in these portions of the city as
sites for buildings of public or semi
public nature may not be a remote
necessity.
The blocks between the Mall and
Pennsylvania avenue northwest are
rapidly being pre-emptied and at the
same time there is an increasing tend
ency for great national, professional,
and industrial organizations to make
their headquarters in the Capital City |
and to build permanent structures for |
that purpose.
Such buildings as those of the |
National Academy of Science and the |
American Pharmaceutical Society con-
tribute greatly to the beauty and ar
chitectural interest of Washington,
and if assured of a suitable environ
ment, many of these might be ap-
propriately placed in proximity to the
Folger Shakespeare Library, the new |
Supreme Court Building, and the |