Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-09-29
Cities
and People
An Ending as
A Beginning
BY ROBERT J. LEWIS

~N JS~A'
l. members Of q special
council appointed by the
President have racked their
brains over what TO do about
redesigning Penns ylvania
avenue.
The design problems they
have faced are not co-equal.
They range in descending
value from an ultimate one
which, If unresolved, will
leave the Avenue essentially
as unsatisfactory to look at
as it has been from the be-
ginning, and as it is today.
At first glance, one might
conclude that Pennsylvania
avenue chiefly needs q
balance between the north
and south sides. In relation
to the classic facadeS Of the
Federal Triangle, the north
sides heterogeneous mixture
of mediocre buildings de-
means the thoroughfare and
robs it Of an architectural
quality befitting the Nations
most important professional
way.
But when the demands Of
all the design problems are
sorted out and given q value,
one stands out-and 1t Is not
the north side Of the Avenue
at all, even If, indeed, the
massive F'BI and Labor De-
partment buildings had not
already begun to preclude
much leeway there.
Instead, the outstanding
problem, as the Presidents
council apparently has re-
cognized, centers on what is
to happen to the Avenues
west end, as it dissolves into
a blur at Fifteenth street.
TO UNDERSTAND that
this is the primary problem,
let US go back for a moment
to the matter of why-even
though symbolically 1t is
the Nations nobleSt though
fare-Pennsylvania avenue
never has been valid as a
work of art.
AS the physical link be-
tween the Capitol and the
White House, the Avenues
symbolism is Self-evident.
What could be more appro-
pirate than that the great
legislative and executive
branches should be usually
linked-as, indeed, L'Enfant
intended to link them-with
this broad and magnificent
avenue?
As it turned out, this
symbolism never gained ar
tistic expression. For this to
have been achieved, the
White House and Capitol
needed to face each other
at the far reaches Of the
Avenue and be joined by a
majestic, open vista in be-
tween.
Instead, the White House
was placed askew, with its
north face to Lafayette
Square and It's south front
generally in line with the
Washington Monument and
the Jefferson Memorial. That
initial error Of facing the
White House away from the
Capitol forever destroyed the
possibility of a satisfactory
axial composition between
the Presidents House and the
Halls of Congress.
Many years later, Andrew
Jackson undeservedly was
blamed for choosing a site
for the Treasury Building
that entirely blocked off the
view between the White
House and Capitol.
If the southeast corner Of
the White House is regarded
as an unworthy terminus Of
a view between 1t and the
Capitol Gas, indeed, 1t was).
then President Jackson de-
served praise instead Of
blame. For In interposing the
Treasury, he made all the
more demanding a final
solution to the composition
Of this unbalanced avenue.
THIS, THEN, is the Ave-
nue's main problem: 1t
magnificently stops the eye
on the east at the Capitol
dome, but at Fifteenth street
on the west 1t gropes.
pathetically and ineffec-
lively, for a visual terminus.
Nothing on the west is of
sufficient interest or visual
impact to make clear to the
onlooker that this stretch Of
the Avenue artistically cpl