Evening star., 1949-01-16
3Experts Urge
Drastic Changes
In Federal City
L'Enfont Plan Dated,
New Studies Needed,
Architects Here Told
(Picture on Pdge A-2.)

Three city planning experts dis
cussed the Washington of the future
last night and foresaw a city quite
different from the Capital of today.
They addressed a meeting called
by the Washington Metropolitan
Chapter of the American Institute
of Architects and held in the United
States Chamber of Commerce.
One speaker. Lewis Mumford. ex-
pressed the opinion that the L'En-
FAINT plan on which Washington was
laid out is not valid for the future.
Il believe L'Enfant's plan has
done its job" he said
Frederick A. Gutheim, an author
ity on planning and architecture
and writer for the New York
Herald Tribune, envisaged a city
stretching up the Potomac to the
mountains and sending off lateral
shoots into the valleys branching
from the Potomac.
Home and Work Handy.
In these urban wedges" homes
and work would be close together
and committing would involve only
one or two trips a week to the CEN
tral city ''on cultural or shipping
errandS."
Mr.. Mumford, author of numerous
books on city and regional plan
ming, urged the collection of taxes
from the country at large for re-
building Washington. This should
be. he said, "a national under
taking, conceived greatly and car
ried out greatly"
There is no sense, he said, in
widening avenues and providing
additional highways and parking
spaces until the density of the use
of the land is regulated. Then late
raj growth must be regulated and
controlled by green belts" setting
off one neighborhood from another.
Should Be Series of Cells.
The city, he went on, should not
be organized as a single mass but as
a series of cells" each with its own
functions. Then, he said, enough
space can be created inside Wash
ington to resume building.
The heart Of Washington should
not shrink to nothing he said.
Hugh Pomeroy, director OF the
Westchester County. IN. " Depart
ment of planning. while paying
tribute to the planning done here,
~ hoinn dnno
sures up to the challenge of the
task.
"A plan for the National Capital
cannot be a plan for a city" he
said. 1T must be plan for a re-
gion. Government procedures must
be devised beyond those now avail
able"
Louis Justement. Washington
architect and city planner, presented
the speakers at last nights meet
ing, which was opened by Slocum
Kingsbury, former president of the
Washington chapter of the archi-
tects' institute.
Meeting Is First Step.
It was recalled that after Wash
ington celebrated its centennial in
1900 the Mcmillan Commission re-
vived and extended the original
plans of Major l'Enfant for down.
town Washington. From these
studies came the present treatment
of the Mall and arrangement OF
Government buildings.
With the sesquicentennial Of the
city to be celebrated next year it is
felt that the plans for the future
should again be studied. Last nights
discussion was planned as the first
step in this direction.
After the three speakers had been
heard, Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant III.
chairman of the National Capital
Park and Planning Commission, and
John Nolen, jr., director of planning
for the commission, spoke briefly.
Gen. Grant said those present
may be surprised at how closely
our thinking comedies with some of
the great thoughts given us to-
night"
Three Alternatives.
Mr.. Mumford said Washington
could consider three alternatives:
l. Disperse itself.
2. Create a circle of six, eight or
10 towns around the city for Gov
ernment, industry and residences in
order to leave space for functions
that should be centralized.
3. Create six to ten "sub-Wash-
ingtons," satellite capitals of re-
gions of the country.
The speakers paid their respects
to Washington architecture.
Mr.. Mumford said .Washington's
"overdone historic piety makes you
think architecture stopped in the
Colonial or Federal eras One re-
suit is caricatures of Williamsburg
or Georgian architecture in the
suburbs while fresh buildings Gre
ated here in the '8Os or '90s-better
than the work of Louis H. Sullivan
of Chicago or of Frank Lloyd Wright
of the '90s-are neglected and their
architects are not known.
Mr.. Pomeroy referred to Washing
ton architecture as styles "signifi-
cant generations, even centuries,
ago."