Evening star., 1940-02-17
Sports Center
Details Near
Completion
Materially Revised
PIons Shaping to
Appropriation Point

Within short time plans for the
National Sports Center. which Is
proposed to cap OF the development
Of the eastern axis of the Capital
City, will have been taken as far
as feasible until Congress sees At
to authorize construction of the
project.
Only a few minor details in plans
revised by the staff Of the National
Capital Park and Planning Com
mission and its two consulting archi-
tects, Bremen w. Pond and Francis
p. Sullivan, remain to be worked out
with the District Commissioners and
the National Park Service before
they will be in shape for presenta-
ton at congressional hearings.
The Randolph bill, to authorize
construction of the center, has been
approved with minor recommends
tions by the planning commission
and is now at the Bureau of the
Budget before being returned to the
House District Committee for con-
sideration.
II authorizing legislation is pass
ed, appropriations can then be
sought from time to time to. con-
struct the various component parts
Of the center, which may some day
be the site of Olympic games.
Plans Materially Altered.
The preliminary plans" approved
yesterday by the Park and Planning
Commission differ materially from
those originally drawn up in 1888
and 1886 by Mr.. Pond and Mr.. Sui
Ivan.
Major change is in the size, height
and location of the stadium. It Is
to have a capacity of $1,000 instead
of the original 10000 to 10000, and
its height above ground is to be
not more than the elevation of the
north front of the New District
National Guard Armory Immediate
ly across a plaza on the axis of
East Capitol street. Formerly it
was to have been placed some dis
tance northeast of this point.
The $1,000 capacity stadium was
decided upon, Thomas S. Settle,
commission secretary. said today,
because a larger stadium would
dwarf the armory and because "95
per cent Of the stadium use" would
require at most seating capacity
of $1,000.
Seats Could Be Added.
The commission realizes, Mr.. Set
tie continued, that this capacity
would not care for Army-Navy and
Olympic games, for instance, but
feels that it would be a mistake to
build a stadium large enough for
use of events which occur so infre-
quently and which might not come
to Washington at all.
In case such events can be
brought to Washington. he said. the
commission has planned the stadium
SO that another tier of seats can be
constructed If needed, bringing the
capacity to more than 100000.
The large indoor sports buifding,
which was to have been placed, i'm
mediately across from the armory
when the latter was proposed for
the north instead of the south side
of East Capitol. street, has been
eliminated from the plan and its
functions included in the armory
building.
The shape of Kingman Lake has
been materially changed in the new
plans in the interest Of better land
scaping. The parade ground, which
is to be 40 acres and with a seat
ing capacity of about 10000, has
been changed little, but the tennis
arena and natatorium have
been located much closer to the
stadium than before.
Rail Station Provided.
The railroad siding proposed for
the center has been entirely re-
shaped and provision made for a
small station as well as a new rail-
road bridge across the Anacostia
River above Massachusetts, avenue
instead of Immediately below it.
Streets are now wider, providing
better trafdc flow and better spac-
Ing of the sports center features.
Many smaller changes in street To-
cations and landscaping also have
been made.
The changes were made public by
the commission in the form of two
drawings, one Of the original and
one of latest plan, and the official
report of the consulting architects
on the project.
Chief reason for revisions in the
plan, particularly the stadium
changes, was that the planning
commission has been unable since
1896 to acquire enough land in the
tract proposed for the center to
carry out the plan originally made.
This necessitated discarding the
&vel fe k,,t1