Evening star., 1940-01-28
By Joseph S. Edeeyfon

III UAIC NdtlOAldA SoPAtdA 40 CAPOSoCA
to be the construction of great office
buildings-the largest in the city
for the War and Navy Departments
in the new Northwest Rectangle.
From the standpoint of the
change in character this develop
ment will bring to the increasingly
important and beautiful area north
of Constitution avenue, between
Seventeenth street and the Potomac
River, this construction program is
apt to rank high among the achieve
ments of the new decade, even when
compared with such significant de-
velopments as that along East Capt.
tol street and in Southwest Wash
ington.
Coupled with the construction of
the huge national defense center,
extending more than six blocks west
from Twenty first street to the Po-
tomac River and from c to F streets,
will be the extension of the present
Rawlins Park westward along the
line of E street from the present
block long park between the old and
new Interior Department Buildings
to the new Navy Department Build
ing plaza at Twenty-sixth street,
the creation of magnificent formal
parkway between the War Depart
ment and proposed Interior DEPART
ment annex, in the square between
Twentieth and Twenty-first streets
and D and E streets, and the con-
struction of large inclosed lagoon
for historic naval vessels, if present
plans are carried into execution.
Trend Is Emphasized.
Construction of the $4,000, 900
national defense building group in the
new Northwest Rectangle will mark
a most important step in the "de-
centraliZation" of Federal building
in the Capital-a trend which is
further emphasized by the proposed
East Capitol street projects, the
present construction program in
Southwest Washington, the pro-
posed transfer of the Civil Aero
nautics Authority to the new Wash
ington National Airport at Gravelly
Point, the removal of the Naval
Hospital to Bethesda, Md; develop
ment of the new naval radio center
at Cheltenham, Md, moving of
Agriculture Department activities to
Beltsville and other similar projects.
When the Lincoln Memorial site
was selected there was bitter criti-
cism in Congress and elsewhere over
its distance from downtown Wash
ington and because of the fact
that it was located in fever-ridden
marshes, where it would shake it.
self to pieces from loneliness and
the ague."
The fact that it now is planned
to locate in this same area the larg-
est Federal executive buildings in
Washington, the United States Cap
itol alone excepted, is testimony to
the changes which have been going
on in the planning of the National
Capital, many of which seem Ger
tain to reach their climax during
the decade which has just begun.
The decision to locate the War
and Navy Department Buildings in
the area north of the Lincoln
Memorial represents a great deal of
most painstaking study by the Ma
tional Capital Park and Planning
Commission, the Fine Arts Commis-
sion and other agencies charged with
planning and construction work in
Washington and its vicinity.
mot only have eSthetic conSid-
erations been studied in the rela-
tionship of the building to its site
and to the Lincoln Memorial, but
it represents studies of the percent
age of occupancy of land, density
of population and traffic facilities,
both local and regional" officials of
the Park and Planning Commission
explained
Beautiful Background.
Great care has been exercised to
make certain that these huge struc-
lures will not overshadow the Lin
coin Memorial or the adjacent
Arlington Memorial Bridge and the
approaches to the Rock Greek and
Potomac Parkway, but that they
will, instead, provide a dignified
and beautiful background for the
memorial and its surroundings.
At the same time, they will pro-
vide a great and strong terminal
focal point for the entire Mall de-
velopment, which, in completion, is
to extend from the Potomac River
through the Capitol and along East
Capitol street to the Anacostia
River.
Construction of the initial unit OF
the new War Department is to be
one of the first major building prof.
ects of the new decade. It will es-
tablish the eastern frontage of the
new national defense group and will
firmly anchor" the whole project
virtually assuring its eventual COM
pletion, regardless of any unfore-
seen vicissitudes which might serve
to delay the program at any time
in the future.
The main entrance to this first
unit is to be on Twenty first street
facing eastward, between c and E
streets. This unit is to face on the
new formal park between Twentieth
and Twenty-f1rst streets. which will
form something of a mali between
the national defense building group
and the interior Department build
ing group Across this mall, a site
has been reserved, in the square
bounded by Nineteenth and Twen-
tieth and D and E streets, for
future anney to the new Interior
Department building. This annex
In bulk and design, will harmonize
with the first unit of the War De-
partment, lending symmetry to the
composition of the two great de-
tense and Interior building groups
Bids Are Asked.
The Government advertised on
January 8 for bids for construction
of the first unit of the War Depart
ment Building, to be opened at !
pm. February in the office of w.
E. Reynolds, commissioner of public
buildings. Construction is expected