Evening star., 1941-08-04
A Great Mistake

A GREAT Mistake
Objections to the proposed War
Department Building on the old Ar
lington Experimental Farm site are
based either on the contention that
the erection of this huge structure
will create new and complicated
problems in traffic and the provision
OF public utilities, or that the scheme
IS radical departure from the tradi-
tional conception of the plan of
Washington, especially in reference
to the future development of this
particular site, and for that reason
should be abandoned in its entirety.
In connection with the first objec-
ton, it is possible that some compro-
mise will be suggested and that in
stead of rushing ahead with build
ing that in office area will equal
forty Shoreham Buildings or twenty
National Press Buildings, structure
only half that size will be erected.
It is pointed out that if the modified
plan is successful, the complete plan
later may be carried out
But such a modified plan in no
way removes the main objection, so
strongly expressed by Chairman Gill
more D. Clarke of the Commission
OF Fine Arts, which is that the utili-
cation of the site in question for
office buildings is in "hagrant dis
regard of policy of long standing"
which up to now has had the ap-
proval of the War Department, and
that it is Uncomfortable that this
outrage could be perpetrated in this
period Of the history of the de-
velopment of this city"
Once this plan is approved by Con-
gress, the plan of Washington will
be radically altered. Future develop
1nents, which would 60 so far toward
developing Washington as the worlds
most beautiful Capital, will be laid
aside for years. Past development,
made with one definite conception in
mind, will be distorted by the wholly
unanticipated utilization of the area
IN question for strictly utilitarian
purposes instead of its treatment as
the appropriate establishment for
the Nations greatest memorial-Ar-
fngton National Cemetery.
The plan of Washington, so careful
y laid out through the years and car
ried forward, step by step in painfully
slow degrees, anticipated the early
completion of the so called Northwest
Rectangle, development of which had
already begun with erection of the
buildings along Constitution avenue
west of Seventeenth street and the
completion of the first unit of the
d new War Department Building. This
was to be followed by completion of
the War Department Building and
a new Navy Building, extending to
the western border of the rectangle
along the banks of the Potomac. De-
velopment of Southwest Washington
has already begun, and early de-
velopment of East Washington, along
East Capitol street, has been in pros
pect. Under this general plan,
bltghted areas within the city would
be removed by process Of orderly
and co-ordinated development, which
at the same time would provide ap-
propriate and permanent housing
Tor the governmental agencies.
All of this is thrown into a cooked
hat by the sudden seizure upon an
ill-considered scheme to use land,
definitely set aside for Arlington
Cemetery and its approaches, for a
monstrous office building to "last one
hundred years" And as Mr.. Clarke
points out, this construction would
create a "blot upon the landscape"
which probably never will be erased,
leaving the Lincoln Memorial, the
Jefferson Memorial and the Arling-
ton National Cemetery on the borders
OF ugly acres of flat office building
roofs and stacks, with Memorial
Bridge and its approaches swarming
with dense traffic.
1t is, as Mr.. Clarke points out,
inconceivable that such thing could
happen at the present stage in WASH
ington's development 1t is hoped
that enough men in the Senate will
resist the plan and do it in time to
prevent a great mistake that can
never afterward be remedied.