DOI issue:
The International Studio (January, 1908)
DOI article:Mechlin, Leila: The Washington plan and the art of city-building
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28253#0466
The Washington Plan
NEW YORK
SHOWINC
EXISTING PARK SYSTEM.
WKM
In 1901 a Park Commission, composed of
Messrs. Daniel H. Burnham, Charles F. McKim,
Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and Augustus Saint-
Gaudens, was created, by a resolution of the United
States Senate, for the purpose of obtaining a plan
which would enable the future development of
Washington to proceed on artistic as well as orderly
lines, and a year later a comprehensive, thoughtful
and well-studied report was rendered. Architects
and city-builders all over the world have endorsed
this report, and from the day it was made public,
fresh interest in civic art was awakened. Not that
all the municipal improvements which have been
made in the last six years can be attributed to its
inspiration, for like all great movements this of
civic betterment has been in a measure spontaneous
in inception, but it may safely be said that much
can be traced to its source, and that many cities
have profited by it to even a greater extent than
the one for which it was intended.
Bridging over intervening years, the members of
the Park Commission applied themselves to a study
of L’Enfant’s plan, and then, after inspecting the
great cities of Europe, went to work to pick up the
dropped stitches. They recommended, and suc-
ceeded in obtaining, the removal of the railroad
from the Mall; they planned the restoration of
axial relations between the Capitol and the Wash-
ington Monument, the Monument and the White
House; they emphasized once more the desirability
and importance of grouping the public buildings in
accordance with their functions; and suggsted the
necessity and wisdom of making early reservation
of unoccupied land for park purposes. The city
and its setting were considered; the improvement
of its water front and the redemption of Rock
Creek Valley projected. Again Washington and its
suburbs were brought into homogeneous relation-
ship, and its separate parts given picturesque
interpretation. In all truth, a work of art was
produced which was a monumental effort in the
history of city-building.
Sir Aston Webb, of the Royal Society of British
Architects, said, when he was in Washington last
year: “You have an outstanding example of what
may be done for your cities in the great scheme
prepared with such extraordinary ability by the
Park Commission for this already beautiful capital
of yours. The details of this great scheme are
familiar to us in England; we look forward with
eagerness to its full completion and to seeing
cxn
NEW YORK
SHOWINC
EXISTING PARK SYSTEM.
WKM
In 1901 a Park Commission, composed of
Messrs. Daniel H. Burnham, Charles F. McKim,
Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and Augustus Saint-
Gaudens, was created, by a resolution of the United
States Senate, for the purpose of obtaining a plan
which would enable the future development of
Washington to proceed on artistic as well as orderly
lines, and a year later a comprehensive, thoughtful
and well-studied report was rendered. Architects
and city-builders all over the world have endorsed
this report, and from the day it was made public,
fresh interest in civic art was awakened. Not that
all the municipal improvements which have been
made in the last six years can be attributed to its
inspiration, for like all great movements this of
civic betterment has been in a measure spontaneous
in inception, but it may safely be said that much
can be traced to its source, and that many cities
have profited by it to even a greater extent than
the one for which it was intended.
Bridging over intervening years, the members of
the Park Commission applied themselves to a study
of L’Enfant’s plan, and then, after inspecting the
great cities of Europe, went to work to pick up the
dropped stitches. They recommended, and suc-
ceeded in obtaining, the removal of the railroad
from the Mall; they planned the restoration of
axial relations between the Capitol and the Wash-
ington Monument, the Monument and the White
House; they emphasized once more the desirability
and importance of grouping the public buildings in
accordance with their functions; and suggsted the
necessity and wisdom of making early reservation
of unoccupied land for park purposes. The city
and its setting were considered; the improvement
of its water front and the redemption of Rock
Creek Valley projected. Again Washington and its
suburbs were brought into homogeneous relation-
ship, and its separate parts given picturesque
interpretation. In all truth, a work of art was
produced which was a monumental effort in the
history of city-building.
Sir Aston Webb, of the Royal Society of British
Architects, said, when he was in Washington last
year: “You have an outstanding example of what
may be done for your cities in the great scheme
prepared with such extraordinary ability by the
Park Commission for this already beautiful capital
of yours. The details of this great scheme are
familiar to us in England; we look forward with
eagerness to its full completion and to seeing
cxn