Evening star., 1941-09-03
War Building
Will Take "A
Months 10 Build
Foundations at Depot
Site Boost Estimate,
Gen. Somervell Says

Predicting that construction will
require about IA months, Brig. Gen.
Brehon Somevell, Army engineer,
conferred with President Roosevelt
shortly after noon today for final
clearance on plans for the new War
Department building in Arlington
County.
Gen. Somervel said that building
costs are now being estimated and
that contracts will be let without
advertising on fixed-fee basis.
He said the 14-month time for
construction, two months longer than
was estimated for the larger building
originally planned, is necessitated by
the difference in location. Founda-
tions of the site chosen will have to
be supported on piles, he said, a
requirement not present in the
original plans.
Gen. Somervell was accompanied
to the White House by George
Bergstrom, architect who has
handled designs for the structure.
After the conference, Gen. Somer-
veil said the President had request
ed some minor changes in the facade
design.
Signalling the end OF month-old
controversy, President Roosevelt late
yesterday told his press conference
he had reached final decision on
the structure. He said it would be big
enough for 10000 employees rather
than the 10000 the Army originally
proposed to put under single roof,
and that it would be located once
and for all on the so-called Quar-
termaSter Depot site. The building
will be used by the War Department
for the duration of the emergency
and then be converted into a store
house for Government files.
This site, an 87-acre tract of land
lying south of the Arlington Expert
mental Farm along Columbia pike, is
south of Arlington Cemetery, the
President explained, and a building
there will not interfere with the
view of Washington's city of the
dead"
Sees Road Expansion Feasible
Cost of the revised building will
be considerably less than the $685.
100000 estimated necessary to bring
the originally proposed structure to
completion, the President said. He
also said he had been told that sys-
tenn of access roads in the vicinity
could readily be built in time to in
sure movement. of the employees to
and from the building. He added
that this would have been virtually
impossible had 10000 workers been
placed there.
The President said he had not
abandoned his hope that a perma-
nent War Department building will
be erected within the District of Co.
lumbia in the Northwest rectangle,
and that he had asked the Army to
design the Arlington structure ac-
cordingly. 1t was being planned, the
Chief Executive emphasized, with
the express idea that ultimately it
will become records building.
Pentagonal Structure.
Its shape, he said, will be pen
tagonal, and there will be approx
.imately IS interior courts. The
Armys original plan, the one that
touched of the long and sometimes
bitter controversy, was for a five
sided building on the experimental
farm.
Opposition to this scheme, led by
the National Capital Park and Plan
ming Commission and the National
Commission of Fine Arts, f1ared up
at once when the project was un-
earthed as an item in a 5000, 900 900
supplemental deefnse appropriation
bill. Neither commission, it was de-
veloped, had been consulted by the
Army before funds were asked for
the buildings construction.
While discussions were still in
progress last Friday, the President
told his press conference the build
ing would be located on the depot
tract and that he wanted profess
sional opinion on an idea he had
conceived to build it as solid
block" without interior courts or
windows.
All Parties in Agreement.
Thus, it appears that develop
ments since that time have led the
Chief Executive to revise his ideas
concerning the building only so far
rs It's shape is concerned, he ap-
parently having abandoned his hope
for solid structure. The President
nh ci1oI 4l1n 1ifr Of tI1n rN1onc
as he described them yesterday by
stating that all parties to the con-
troversy now were in agreement.
His solid construction scheme
would be followed in only one of the
projected structures probable Is
courts, the President said, pointing
out that this would be done in an
effort to determine the worth of this
type of building.
Discussing development of per-
manent War Department building
in the Northwest rectangle, the
President said it was his hope that
1t be as big or bigger than the struc-
ture planned 10 years ago for this
site by the Park and Planning Com
mission. The recently completed
War Department Building at
Twenty-firs and Virginia avenue
NV. is the first unit of this con-
templated edifice.
The President said he talked over
the idea Of converting the Virginia
structure into q records building
with Representative Woodrum,
Democrat, of Virginia, yesterday,
and that Mr.. Woodrum had agreed
with him that there was pressing
need for such a storage place for
Government papers.
~G. cxI