Evening star., 1935-06-26
BOARD WILL WEIGH
NEED FOR HOUSING
IN j. S. RECTANGLE
Park and Planning Body to
Determine Height of
Buildings.
OLD PENSION OFFICE
REM0DELING OPPOSED
Federal Reserve Board Structure
Will Gust Trade Com
mission.

The future housing needs of the
Federal Government in the rectangle
bounded by Seventeenth street, e
street, Constitution avenue and the
Potomac River. together with the
height of buildings to be erected there,
will be considered tomorrow and FRI
day, when the National Capital Park
and Planning Commission assemblies
in the Navy Building for its June
meeting. The commission also will
discuss the projected remodelling of
the old Pension once Building at
Fifth and G streets, upon which it
does not look with favor.
Construction of the new Federal
Reserve Board building at Twentieth
street and Constitution avenue, which
officials hope to begin in September,
will be discussed. This will oust the
Federal Trade Commission, now in a
temporary building on that site. Where
1t will go has not been decided. The
Fine Arts Commission has approved
preliminary plans for the Federal Re-
serve Board Building.
The Planning Commission will 60
into the problem of the height of sd-
ditional buildings, In relation to the
space requirements for the various de-
partments. The War and Navy De-
partments tentatively have been as
signed land In the Northwest rec
tangle in the vicinity of New York
and Virginia avenues. The commits
sion has already constructed a model
Of the area, showing where the vari-
GUS buildings would go.
Health Building Is Addition.
The new Public Health Service
Building, which has recently been
completed and is now occupied, is the
newest addition to this area of public
and quasi-public buildings such as the
Pan-American Union, the National
Academy Of Sciences, the American
Red Cross and others. The new In
terror Department is slated for erec-
ton shortly at Eighteenth and E
streets. The buildings encumbering
the site are to be torn down soon by
the Procurement Division of the
Treasury Department.
John Nolen, jr.. director of planning
OF the commission, today explained
that the projected remodeling of the
Pension Office is opposed by his COM
mission on two main grounds-it
would be out of architectural rela-
tionship to the projected Police,
Municipal and Juvenile Court Build
ings designed for Judiciary Square,
and would also be out of keeping with
the functional relationship of the
ground, which he said should be re-
served for court purposes. The
planners see in the future a new Dis
trict OF Columbia Supreme Court Build
ing arising on the site of the old Pension
ONCE, which is now occupied by the
General Accounting ONCE. Any re-
modelling Of the present structure
would tend TO discourage the carrying
out of plans for the new District Su-
preme Court. The Senate Appro-
priations Committee now Is holding
hearings on proposed remodeling of
the Pension Once.
mcnOfi8A site sought.
At its two-day meeting the Commits
sion will debate a suitable suite for
the Thomas Jefferson Memorial here.
The body is cooperating with the
Thomas jefferson Memorial Commits
sion. A number of sites are in mind.
In front of the Archives Building,
along Pennsylvania avenue, the Treas
ury Department is interested in re-
vising the curb lines and the plaza
there. The commission will consider
this also.
c. Marshal Finnan, superintendent of
the National Capital Parks; Special
Consultant Bremen Pond of Harvard
University, prominent landscape archi-
tect, and Francis p. Sullivan, local
architect, will discuss with the COM
mission plans for stadium and sports
center on the banks Of the Anacostia
River at the end of East Capitol street.
Mr.. Fnnan will tell the commission
how he proposes to spend the 81 ,00o,-
900 local park Improvement fund re-
Gently granted him by the Public
Works Administration.