Park Service Seeks 50-Year Capital Mall Plan

Summary: The National Park Service launched a nationwide initiative November 1 to gather ideas on improving the National Capital Mall in Washington, D.C. The Park Service is holding a symposium, “Future of the National Mall,” November 15 in Washington to kick off the public dialogue. Anyone interested is invited to participate, and architects are encouraged, reports Andrew Goldberg, Assoc. AIA, manager, AIA Federal regulatory affairs.

For more than a century, the AIA has been closely tied to federal efforts to maintain the integrity of Pierre L’Enfant’s original design of the nation’s capital. AIA members, including Charles McKim and Daniel Burnham, were at the heart of the 1901 McMillan Plan. That seminal effort cleared the area of railroad tracks and other eyesores to create the Mall we see today, which spans between the U.S. Capitol and Lincoln Memorial and is framed with world-renowned museums and monuments. (For the AIA history of that period, read this AIA 150 article.)

With more than 3,000 public gatherings and 25 million visitors a year, the Mall today lacks sufficient facilities and suffers from the wear and tear of its intense use, the Park Service reports. To make the 600 acres more visitor-friendly, the current effort—initiated by the Reserve Act Congress passed in 2003 to prevent the Mall from being overbuilt—calls for a 50-year vision. The first phase calls for an exploration of possible improvements in use and management, including definition of:

• What about the Mall is important to visitors
• What improvements are needed
• What kinds of facilities are lacking and where
• What the character of public spaces and amenities should be
• What opportunities exist for educational and recreational programs and activities
• What aids might facilitate way finding.

Included in the area for the new master plan is the contiguous Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Park surrounding the White House. The plan differs from most in that it covers a longer-than-normal timeframe and addresses a finer level of detail, the Park Service Web site notes.