Evening star., 1961-09-17
Cities
and People
Absent
Images
BY ROBERT J.LEWIS
IMAGINATION is the fac

help to avoid past mistakes.
If we perceive what's ahead
clearly enough, it's often
possible to shape the future.
In today's Star, there's a
40-page supplement on "The
New Washington" that sup
plies the first big picture
of this fast-changing city.
To discover many of the
changes, no imagination is
needed. They exist and can
be seen. To get an idea of
the transformations to come
Is another matter. They
have to be visualized.
FOR A COUPLE of years,
the newspapers have been
mentioning something called
THE Tenth Street Mall,
L'Enfant Plaza and the
Overlook"
Somebody with a gift for
phrases once called this "the
psychological link between
the present and future
Washington"
Obviously, it's something
yimportant-and a good test
for the imagination. What
is 1t, where is it, and what's
1t all about?
To test our power to Wis
ualize this ornament of the
future Washington, we de-
cided to visit the place yes
terday and try to imagine
how it would look when it
is completed.
&tAR
THE EXACT SPOT where
the Mall begins is at Tenth
street and independence
avenue S.W.
If you stand there and
look south, the Smithsonian
Institution will be right be-
hind you, a flag flying from
its tallest tower.
You see, at present, a
nondescript, 80 foot wide
street, flanked by two low
slung and badly battered
"tempoS."
In your Imagination, this
narrow street is transformed
into a broad avenue-160
feet at first and then widen
s ing to 200 feet.
1t rises gently before you
for more than a quarter of
a mile, opens to a large
plaza, and then disappears
from view.
LET YOUR MAGMA
TION run free once more.
You'll see the two small
'ttempos" disappear and give
way to two huge Federal
buildings rising along In
dependence avenue, on both
sides of the new, 160-foot-
wide boulevard. These build
.ings are a sort of monumen-
tai gateway to the Mall.
The wide avenue beckonS.
You stroll south, crossing the
sunken railroad tracks. AS
you walk further, you dis
cover the Mall is no longer
level with the ground. 1t has
become a bridge, sloping up
gently from the land below.
BY the time you reach the
large plaza, you are 20 feet
above ground. This is Len
FAINT Plaza" 1t is 425 feet
wide and 335 feet long.
Now you can see the Mall
doesn't end here but con-
tinues on, it's bridge-like
structure sloping down again,
crossing a many-laned
Southwest Freeway, and ter
minating high above the
Maine avenue waterfront in
huge elliptical platform
the so-called overlook"
STANDING IN THE Plaza
and looking towards the
waterfront, your magma
ton calls up a few more ele-
ments of this vision.
At your right stands a
large office building-a
communications center" as
its promoters call it.
nj At the far left of the plaza
is a "1,OOO-room hotel"
Hugging the north and
south edges of this elevated
open square are two smaller
yoffice buildings to complete
the picture.
Quite a change from
what's there now, you may
say to yourself. Then you
realize there's another major
element-a garage to park
1924 cars that's hidden be-
low this elevated square.
IS %.
THUS YOU CAN picture
the psychological link be-
iG tween the present and fu-
ture Washington"
Government funds will
build the Mall and parking
: garage to make the Plaza
buildings possible. William
Zeckendorf - who thought
the whole thing up-will
. 81.,,,I.I a~J O,u,1 tho plaza