Evening star., 1937-03-21
PLANNERS FAVOR
MEMORIAL SITE;
QUESTION DESIGN
Commissioners Also Want
to Know How Water Flow
Would Be Affected.
LANDSCAPE AND TRAFFIC
ANGLES TO BE STUDIED
Architects Are Interrogated Thor
oughly on Plans in Execu-
tive Session.

The site for the Thomas jefferson
Memorial at the south side of the
Tidal Basin was deemed desirable at
joint meeting yesterday of the Ma
tional Capital Park and Planning
Commission and the Fine Arts Com
mission, but there was not such una
nimity of opinion regarding the pres
ent design by the New York architect,
John Russell Pope, it was learned
The two commissions want a de-
tailed study made of the effect of the
development on the whole layout in
West Potomac Park and will so ad-
wise the jefferson Memorial Commits
sion, which was set up by Congress
and authorized to erect the memorial.
The commissions.wan to know more
about the flow of water in the Tidal
Basin and the effect of the projected
Jefferson Memorial on this. especially
the flushing of the Washington Chan
mel; the correlation of the plans to
the highway system and bridge ap-
proaches, as we'll as landscape treat
ment and other features.
Commission to Be Notified.
Arno B. Cammerer, director of the
National Park Service, who also is
executive officer of the Planning Com
mission. will advise the jefferson Me-
mortal Commission of the joint COM
mission action. General studies of the
area will be made by the members of
the commissions themselves and the
staff of the Planning Commission
but H. P. Caemmerer, eXecutiy officer
O the Fine Arts Commission, ex-
planned the Jefferson Memorial Com
mission is authorized by law to make
its own study.
Pope and his staff, who appeared
before the two commissions yester-
day, were subjected to questions on
every phase Of the problem. The
meeting was held in executive ses-
sion, but it was learned there was a
difference of opinion over Pope's de-
sign, and that even among the mem
bers of the Fine Arts Commission
there was some disagreement on all
points involved
After the session Thomas S. Set
tie, secretary of the Planning Com
mission, acting as spokesman, said
1t was the unanimous opinion that
the Tidal Basin site was desirable for
a major memorial but that the two
commissions did not have sufficient
data on the plans" He pointed out
that yesterday was the first time the
two commissions had seen the me-
mortal plans.
Partridge Makes Model.
William T. Partridge, consulting
architect of the Planning Commits
sion, who also worked for the COM
mission of 1901, which laid down
plan for the development of the Ma
tional Capital, has made model of
the Jefferson Memorial as planned
and its relationship to the city in that
section. This model was viewed bv
members of both commissions and
then they went into executive ses-
sion to thresh out the problems that
have arisen because of the project.
Yesterday morning was taken up
with a long discussion of the whole
subject by Hollins NJ Randolph of
Charlottesville, Va. great-great- grand
son Of President Jefferson He spoke
as q member of the Thomas jefferson
Memorial Commission. Another great
great-grandson of Jefferson, Thomas
Jefferson Coolidge, also is a mem
Der of the Memorial Commission.
Randolph made the point that his
commission had unanimously in
dorSed the site and the design for the
memorial after it had selected Pope.
The Thomas Jefferson Memorial
Commission, he said, had carefully
studied the plan of 1901 for the devel-
opment of Washington, which had set
it down that the south side of the
Tidal Basin was the site for a monu-
mental development.
Construction Held Feasible.
There was general agreement that
construction of the memorial at the
Tidal Basin site is feasible and that
borings. conducted by Army Engineers,
SHOW solid rock is reached generally
at depth of about 80 feet. Pope de-
clared he had expert engineers 20 over
the plans.
Randolph recalled the last building
Jefferson built was the rotunda at the
University of Virginia at Charlottes-
vile. This, he said, is based on the
Pantheon at Rome. Pope used this
concept in his design for the Jefferson
Memorial here, Randolph said, and
this was controlling factor in the
Memorial Commissions decision. The
plan of 1901 provides for some nine
"squatty domes," between the Potomac
River and the Capitol, officials re-
called
But Pope's appearance before the
two commissions was not confined en-
tirely to the Jefferson Memorial. He
also is the architect for the Mellon
(See MEMORIAL, Page BAD