Getting Old School on the DC Mall
21 05 2008Many people are aware that the original layout of the city of Washington was designed in 1791 by Major Charles L’Enfant and subsequently reestablished in 1901 by the McMillian Commision. For the most part (at least in National Mall area) the vision was realized. However we are really sad the some of the design for the southern half of the mall as pictured, and all those gardens were never realized.
The “Congress house” and the “President’s palace,” as L’enfant termed them, were the cardinal features of L’Enfant’s plan; and these edifices he connected “by a grand avenue four hundred feet in breadth, and about a mile in length, bordered by gardens, ending in a slope from the houses on each side.”
However the “southern pavilion” (shown in the lower right of the drawing) was never built. Currently all you find is the rental facilities for the tital basin paddle boats. Maybe congress will convene a second McMillan Commission 2.0 to re-re-establish the original plans? We can dream right? Then maybe they will build the South Capitol Street Mall toward the new stadium too.
So what part of the old plans would you keep and what should have gone?
Obviously the diagonal streets are no fun and should be immediately abolished, and those traffic circles always drive me cazy.
I love everything about the plan developed by the McMillian Commision. I would love to see all of it built. I can dream right?
the link to the south capitol street changes is much more interesting than i thought . . . check it out if you haven’t seen it and have a love for before-and-after photos.
I like the formal gardens that would have been to the immediate west of the Washington Monument, and the massive flight of stairs leading up to the Monument itself. Unfortunately, building such a terrace would have destabilized the Monument’s foundations. But if you look at drawings of how it would have looked, it would have been beautiful.