spur goes to washington d.c. washingt… · fortification of washington d.c., particularly for this...

Rod Freebairn-Smith, Architect, Urban Planner

SPUR Advisory Council

Principal, Freebairn-Smith & Crane, San Francisco

SPUR GOES TO WASHINGTON D.C.

A sample of imagesand ideas, muchabbreviated fortoday’sshort workshopprogram.

SPUR’s crash coursereviewed certain ofWashington D.C’s300 years of urbanplanning; fromcurrent efforts toprotect the citizens,to protect thenation’s monuments,to benefits fromforward lookingtransportation plans,back even to G.Washington’s onehundred square milenational capital.

At the close today,we could discusstwo or three of thebroad planningsessions convenedfor SPUR, during thesuperbly organizedmulti-agencyWashington visit.

First, a short refresher, someimages focused on theCapital’s core structure, onits boulevard and openspace armature. Sited byWashington the surveyorhimself, given early formby L’Enfant, later by theMcMillan Commission andby Fredierick LawOlmstead and colleagues,and later again by others,including the PennsylvaniaAvenue Commission. Thecity continues today undermultiple planning agenciesassisted, on importantoccasions, by NorthernCalifornia designersincluding Arthur Brown,Lawrence Halprin andROMA Associates.

Here is the visionPierre CharlesL’Enfant saw in 1791,and discussed withWashington,Jefferson, others.

Here, the plan visionOlmstead drew,setting the CapitolBuilding on areduced Capitol Hill.

National CapitalPlanningCommission’sfrequently updatedmodel of theFederal District,reviewed at theirheadquarters.

Fear of losingL’Enfant’s and theMcMillanCommittee’s grandtwo mile open lawnto special interestmonuments,conservationistshave saved the lawndecade afterdecade.

General Meade,victory, Gettysburg Refined praise for Lincoln A recent loss told

Building Museum’s Park Bench “Pre-digital” memorial Fallen police, firemen:50 states

Lafayette in his Square Men of Building A Woman’s Portrait Mall Street Light

Festival Gate in the Downtown A wax Hoover glares 60’ Animated digital memorial

Here, a more recent“Ten Year Vision”of the great centralcore, one by the“National Coalitionto Save Our Mall”,providing us a quickreview of the principalurban designelements composingthe Capital’s centralcore.

The Eastern terminusof the National Mall:the Capitol with the1960 extensionof the East! front by J.George Stewart,Architect.

The Capitol’s steepWest façade,famousfor inaugurations;most recently! for theObama ceremony…and yes, we weretold Yo Yo Mawas synching with arecorded cello partdue to the chillingtemperatures.Truck bombers arepresumed deterredby these fortressstaircases.

Near the NationalMall’s center: 555’-5”tall WashingtonMemorial byArchitect RobertMills. Constructionfrom 1847-1876. Notthe equestrianversion its honoreemay have hoped for.An EgyptianCenotaph, it is atomb without a body(reportedly at therequest of Mrs.Washington.)

The Mall’s refinedWestern terminus:Lincoln Memorial byHenry Bacon,architect, in 1922.

Along ConstitutionAvenue, forming thewall of the NationalMall: theappropriately scaledMellon Auditorium inthe EPA’s six acrebuilding by beauxarts trained and SanFrancisco architectArthur Brown Jr.,1935.

Connecting majordepartments of ourgovernment on bothsides of the Mall,across rivers, andinto neighborhoodsfar beyond inVirginia andMaryland, a fullcompliment of allmodes of urbantransportationnow exists in theCapital. How canprivate auto use befurther reduced?

A wide variety of transportation exists, some experimental.

In the Metro: trains, ticket dispensers, system designs very much like BART. Vaulted, monumental,advertising-free, well-mapped, graffiti-less, dramatically and indirectly lit stations quite unlike BART.

SPUR visitors sawadditions to the Malland to theMemorial Parks,such as the KoreanWar Memorial, byFrank Gaylord,sculptor, new in1995.United Nationssoldiers from 22nations contributedthe lives of 628,000soldiers,12 times asimilarly grimAmerican toll at54,000.

Two portions of the 7 acre FDR Memorial, 1997. Lawrence Halprin, Leonard Baskin, George Segal, and others.

SPUR visitors didnotice throughoutthe downtown andfederal area,significant changesfollowing 9-11;especiallyHomeland Security’sresponse to truckbomber protectionfor the Capital’sbuildings and thefortification ofcertain monuments,

Lucca, in Tuscany:Fortification of citiesis an old story.Protections becomeobsolete asweapons change.Massive humaneffort and barelysustainable publicexpenditures relativeto the localeconomy were, andare, still made.Some fortificationscan later convert tocommunity use, as inLucca’s case, and asin San Francisco’sPresidio.

Fortification of Washington D.C., particularly for this Presidency, could not be ofgreater concern to city and security officials. Retracting piston bollards at theWhite House are shown above. The Capital includes memorials to fallen U.S. leadersand to Presidents assassinated. Yet the White House recently saw two uninvitedguests enter and shake the President’s hand after passing the guard shacks aboveon the right.

At the Capitol Building At the Supreme Court

At the Washington Monument At the Museum of Natural History

Ground leveltruck bombingbarriersincreaseannually,city-widein WashingtonD.C.

New site ofDepartment ofHomeland Security’sconsolidation.Variously reported at$4 to $7 billiondollars ofconstruction above,it is to be equal inarea to thePentagon. U.S.citizens are buildinganother layer ofdomestic police whonow receive over$50 billion in yearlyallocations and willhave $2.7 billion instimulus funds.

Closing this review,from a San Franciscoperspective, manybenefits rise fromSPUR’s investigationof so manysuccessful urbanprograms in thefederal Capital andin other cities.For an example,three of many studypoints follow:

1. Save urban beauty and significanthistory at every opportunity. Be carefulthat radical conservation of unimportantmaterial may force mediocre urbandesign, and subvert larger and moreimportant citizen and economic needs.For example old shells just one roomdeep, veneered to facades that mimicmaterials and building technologiesfrom a bygone era, is clearly risky urbandesign. Expressive more of culturalconfusion than of harmony with the past,this larger building appears to stomp theolder delicate façade. The urban core isthe major economic engine for a farlarger surrounding city and needscareful, full development. Mixed-usedevelopment increases the density andeconomic health of our city cores, justas it has on Pennsylvania Avenue.

2. In terms of terrorists and ground level assaults, we San Franciscansmust continue to improve protection for pedestrians at our mostimportant sites just as Washington is doing. Two areas extremelydifficult to protect from ground level explosions above:Fisherman’s Wharf and Union Square. We need more work on thoseand on other major public gathering places.

3. The great greenarmatures of publicopen spaces andboulevard connectionsin our own city, just asin Washington D.C., areas fundamental to ourrealizing “city beautiful”objectives as they arefor increasing liveabilityand economic stability.