Deja Vu

July 10, 2008

The Frenchman’s Plan

Tags:

cities,

Congress,

Pierre L'Enfant,

Thomas Jefferson,

Washington D.C.

“A Vision of Washington With Unfettered Views,” The Washington Post, July 10, 2008.

Imagine the drab fortress of the FBI building gone, the freeways and ramps around the Kennedy Center covered by parks and boulevards, and a Metro stop near the Jefferson Memorial.

Picture the middle section of the massive Forrestal building on Independence Avenue removed to open views of the Smithsonian Castle, a canal cut through East Potomac Park, new water taxi service, boardwalks, memorials, pedestrian bridges and leafy vistas.

The "monumental core" of Washington's future is more open and inviting, less fettered and cut up by highways and railroads, and more integrated into an elegant whole under a sweeping vision to be unveiled today by the District's two federal planning and review agencies.

The National Capital Framework Plan is highly critical of much of the 1960s and 1970s-era construction that surrounds the Mall, at turns calling it "hostile," "unwelcoming" and "imposing."

It envisions four transformed sections of downtown Washington as extensions of the Mall, linking such locales as the White House with the riverfront and the Kennedy Center with the Lincoln Memorial.

The plan, which has been two years in the making, is the work of the National Capital Planning Commission and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. It is a mix of new and old ideas, some versions of which have been floated before and died for lack of congressional funding.

“The Residence Act,” U.S. Congress, July 16, 1790.
Pierre Charles L’Enfant was charged with planning the original layout of the new American capital city.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a district of territory, not exceeding ten miles square, to be located as hereafter directed on the river Potomac, at some place between the mouths of the Eastern Branch and Connogochegue, be, and the same is hereby accepted for the permanent seat of government of the United States. Provided nevertheless, That the operation of the laws of the state within such district shall not be affected by this acceptance, until the time fixed for the removal of the government thereto, and until Congress shall otherwise by wall provide.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be authorized to appoint, and by supplying vacancies happening from refusals to act or other causes, to keep in appointment as long as may be necessary, three commissioners, who, or any two of whom, shall, under the direction of the President, survey, and by proper metes and bounds define and limit a district of territory, under the limitations above mentioned; and the district so defined, limited and located, shall be deemed the district accepted by this act, for the permanent seat of the government of the United States….

“Statement to Washington, D. C., Commissioners,” by Thomas Jefferson, Mar. 6, 1792.
Issues of budget and temperament convinced George Washington to fire L’Enfant in March 1792, but the Frenchman’s plan—Washington managed to retain a single printed copy—was appropriated, revised, and completed by American surveyors Andrew and Joseph Ellicott (who, with Benjamin Banneker, had surveyed the boundaries of the new district one year earlier). Though he fell into disrepute for his perceived petulance, L’Enfant is today credited with much of the original design for the District of Columbia.

Gentlemen:

It having been found impracticable to employ Major L'Enfant about the federal city, in that degree of subordination which was lawful and proper, he has been notified that his services are at an end. It is now proper that he should receive the reward of his past services; and the wish that he should have no just cause of discontent, suggests that it should be liberal. The President thinks of two thousand five hundred, or three thousand dollars; but leaves the determination to you. Ellicot is to go on, the week after the next, to finish laying off the plan on the ground, and surveying and platting the district.29 I have remonstrated with him on the excess of five dollars a day and his expenses, and he has proposed striking off the latter; but this also is left to you, and to make the allowance retrospective. He is fully apprised that he is entirely under your orders, and there will be no person employed but under your orders. The enemies of this enterprise will take advantage of the retirement of L'Enfant, to trumpet an abortion of the whole. This will require double exertions, to be counteracted. I enclose you the project of a loan which is agreed on, if you approve it. Your answer will be immediately expected, and is kept entirely secret, till the subscriptions are actually opened. With this money, in aid of your other funds, the works may be pushed with such spirit as to evince to the world that they will not be relaxed.

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