Imperial Valley press., 1941-07-15
WASHINGTON, July Is

other new white limestone palace
building in Washington-a little SIT
million job that is naturally the
last word in office buildings. Wher
functioning normally and without
benefit of war hysteria, your Uncle
Sam doesn't build things on any
other basis than the last word and
it is the aggregate of all these last
word buildings which makes Wash
ington the city it is and gives you
the pride you have in your ma
tions capital whenever you visit it.
This new building has War De-
partment" over the door but don I
let that deceive you It won't be-
gin to house the Army's office here
and it is really only a third of a
building. The War Department orig
inally asked for S26 million to CON-
plete the job but having filed the
request in one of those psychological
moments when congressman were
feeling a little economical. the good
solons said, no, they couldn't have
the whole $26 millions, but here
were $40 millions to build one wing,
and we'll see about the rest later
Consequently. it's this one wing
this mere shack. this lean-to, this
dinky little H-shaped seven-story,
air conditioned quarter million
square foot addition, capable CT
holding only $500 employees that is
nearing completion. The government
has title to two city blocks back of
this wing where the other two
thirds of the building will go even
tually.
This new wing viii be the roof
over the heads of only two or three
departments of the War Depart
ment, and maybe they won't be able
to get all of them into it. Tentative
ly, Assistant Secretary of War Ro-
ber P. Patterson and his staff will
occupy two floors, and the chief
of engineers, Ma ajor- General Schley
and his staff will occupy three
leaving two floors unassigned.
ALL Is CONFUSION
Right now the building is in that
mad state of confusion that char
acterizes moving day wherever you
find it. The building isn't completed
but such is the demand for office
space in Washington that they're
moving in anyhow That happens
regularly in Washington.
Under these happy conditions
building engineers and construction
men roam the halls, telephone men
squat in every other office, push
button cords are strung up to where
ever it is puSh-button cords go
sounds of pounding echo down the
long corridors, and practically every
sentence spoken begins with the two
most forlorn words in the English
language, Where is" When ut
tered in Washington they have a
particular significance. Half the
resident population dealing with
matters governmental goes around
asking the other half. Where is
Sometimes they trade sides and the
game goes on as before.
You have to run a gantlet of con-
struction engineers, police guards
Public Buildings Administration in-
spectors and Army provost marshals
before you can get into the place
because it is in that never-nevel
land of not-yet-completed and not
yet-accepted public buildings. That
makes the building out of bounds
for tourists, but even the people
there on business have to state
what it is, who they are, whom they
want to see before given a pass and
button to wear while going about
their chores. The r-conditioning
isn't going yet, so everybody is pretty
hot and bothered, though trying to
be helpful.
Once identified and in, you look
around the indirect lighted two
story foyer, flanked by twin stair
cases, leading to potential exhibit
halls, wainscoated by black marble
and walled by marble that might
be called pink if it weren't SO red
The cafeteria and some offices will
be on this first floor.
Offices for top men have what
looks like beautifully grained Wood
panel walls and oak floors which
will probably Recovered with ex-
ecutiVe green carpets of the kind
that should be walked on reverently
and only in the bare feet if you're
not ticklilsh. Offices for the help
have rUbber-like floors Much of the
furniture is Of the new metal de-
sign, but some of the old wood desks
look like something the engineers
threw together in a hurry for a
crossing of the Rappahannock. The
splinters probably snag the red tape
pretty badly.
PRIVACY NOT FOR PRIyATES
One ingenious feature is the sys-
tenn of private Railways. There are