Evening star., 1944-12-12
Federal Building
Program Here
Will Be HEAVY
Reynolds Also Sees
5000 Structures
Needed Outside D. G.

w. E. Reynolds, commissioner of
public buildings, predicts the Fed
eral Government will need about
3 1000 new buildings outside the Dis
trict of Columbia, and many new
ones in the Capital in the postwar
era.
BaSing this forecast on a Nation
wide survey by experts of the Public
Buildings Administration, the COM
missioner told the Washington
Building Congress at a Mayflower
Hotel luncheon yesterday that Con-
gress will be asked to authorize the
structures and appropriate funds for
their design
Actual building should be done, he
said, when the economy of the coun-
try needs it. He did not expand on
this idea, except to say the big pub
lie building program-about three
times the size of any heretofore
attempted-should mot be done in
prosperity"
Prospects for Capital.
Surveying prospects for construc-
ton of Federal buildings in the
Capital, Mr.. Reynolds said the new
Navy Department to be built on the
banks of the Potomac, near the west
end of Constitution avenue was No.
ON the priority list 1t is the only
great department of Government
without a home of its own, he said.
Other projects high on the list he
named were completion OF the War
Department Building at Twenty
first street and Virginia avenue
NV; completion of the West Gen.
tral Heating Plant, for which the
foundation already is laid at the
intersection of Rock Creek and the
C. & o. Canal in Georgetown; build
ing of the General Accounting Once,
for which foundations have been
dug on G street, between Fourth
and Fifth streets NV. GAO may
also need an annex across the
street." he indicated, but did not
amplify this statement.
Reporting that President Roose-
welt is very anxious" to have all
temporary buildings razed on the
Mall, the commissioner said it Is
planned to do this as soon as pos
sible after the war ends, beginning
with the Lincoln Memorial site, and
moving eastward.
East Capitol Street Area.
Proposed development of the area
along East Capitol street. between
Constitution and Independence ave-
nues extended (Which are to go
through tunnels to bypass the Cap
itol building would help, along
with the proposed stadium at the
end of East Capitol street, to swing
, the center of gravity of the cap
ital more nearly where it should
be, he said This should aid in the
, improvement of the transit system
, of the city, he continued. AS for
the stadium, Mr. Reynolds said, one
, could be designed to hold 10000
permanent seats and it could be en-
larged as the need arises.
| Other areas due for further Fed
eral construction eventually he went
on, are the southwest area in the
vicinity of the Social Security Build
ing, and the present Federal Tri-
angle, between Pennsylvania avenue,
Constitution avenue and Fourteenth
street, where much work remains
to be done
Little Mall' to Be Extended.
The little mall" between the
North and South Interior buildings,
is to be extended westward to
Twenty-third street, he said. This
would involve tearing down the old
Washington Auditorium.
Many Federal organizations want
buildings, he declared, including the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, the
, Smithsonian Institution and "a lot
of others" A new records building
is to be built at Suitland, Md,
where the Government owns about
400 acres.
Roughly estimating the possibih-
ties OF Federal building in the Cap
ltal, he said it probably would run
; up to about $4,000, 900 a year for
10 years.
P. H. Bailey reported the con-
structlon industry here had bought
S6,o38, 78O in war bonds during the
current drive.
Charles H. Tompkins, president
OF the Washington Building Con-
, gfess, announced the Home Plan
ming Institute at the Chamber of
, commerce of the United States at
/, O'Clock tonight would discuss home
construction.