Evening star., 1941-07-30
Is Planning Posse?


of the hastily conceived proposal fer
a S35,OOOOO0 War Department office
building in Arlington County Vir-
ginia, is as bewildering as some of the
questions raised by the huge project.
Most of these questions were skinned
over lightly or ignored entirely by
the House Appropriations Commit
tee in reporting the measure favor
ably, and by the House in accepting
it as an amendment on an S8,000,-
100000 defense appropriation bill.
That the House should have felt
qualified to act on so far-reaching a
proposal without taking the time to
consult experienced and authorized
planning agencies which Congress
has set up to advise it on such mat
ters is surprising and, withal, dis
turbing to many persons who are
concerned with the orderly develop
ment of the Nations Capital. Neither
the National Capital Park and Plan
ming Commission nor the Fine Arts
Commission knew of the project in
advance of its presentation to the
House committee last week by War
Department representatives.
The enterprise has been depicted
as an emergency construction project
offering prospects of economy in
administration and in rents. In a
way, it is the natural result of the
shameful neglect of War Department
housing; form of neglect that has
found other Government agencies
provided with palatial buildings
while the War Department was being
showed around and shifted from
pillar to post But Congress should
be sure that in remedying one mis-
take, it is not committing another
one. The testimony before the COM
mittee and the brief discussion of the
amendment on the floor of the House
show that the building is to be any,
thing but temporary and indicate
that the round number. estimate of
S35.000000 as to cost does not in
clude large additional expenses
to provide the structure with ap-
proaches, utilities and services de-
manded by it's size Here is proposed
an emergency" defense structure
which it's proponents declare is de-
signed as "a permanent building
that will last for 100 years" This,
then, is not a building which
may be removed from the front door
of Arlington National Cemetery
when the present emergency has
passed and retrenchment of defense
activities has set in, but reinforced
concrete building which the Army
plans to use as storage warehouse
for its records when all of its acres
of office space are no longer needed
for personnel.
There is good reason to believe
that the economies hoped for by the
House Committee may be offset or
overbalanced by the cost of collateral
improvements which would be in
volved in the undertaking. 1t seems
certain that the long-diScuSSed ad-
ditional Potomac bridge or tunnel
between Arlington and downtown
Washington would have to be built
without further delay, for the pres
ent facilities for crossing the river
already are overtaxed in rush hours.
The vast majority of War Depart
ment employees live in the District or
in Maryland suburbs, necessitating
their use of the Key, Memorial
or Highway Bridges in order to
reach the building. Washington
approaches to the existing bridges
would have to be enlarged-especial-
ly Twenty-third street from Wash
ington Circle to Constitution avenue.
On the Virginia side, the newly COM
pleted traffic circle at the west end
of the Memorial Bridge would be
wholly inadequate to handle the
extra traffic. An underpass to sepa-
rate grades at this busy intersection
probably would be necessary to avoid
intolerable traffic jams. A new
sewage disposal plant at Four Mile
Run and additional water mains
would be indispensable, according to
Arlington County officials.
Apart from all these important
considerations, however, is the even
more important question of what is
to become of the carefully drawn
plans for the orderly development of
Washington. Is the Northwest Rec
tangle to be discarded or drastically
revised without full discussion by
Congress or prior consultation with
planning authorities? If that course
is to be pursued, what does the fu-
ture hold for the East Capitol de-
velopment program and for other
basic expansion plans which have
been studied in connection with the
future development of the National
Capital? Is the city to revert to