THE CENTRAL COMPOSITION REACHING COMPLETION 21 General of the Public Health Service, submitted two designs prepared by J. H. de Sibour, architect, of Washington, for the Public Health Service Building which has been erected on Constitution Avenue between Nineteenth and Twentieth Streets. The Commission, on September 16, 1930, favored scheme B: A building of white marble with a broad landscape frontage, designed in the classical style adopted for Constitution Avenue as a frame for the Lincoln Memorial. The Commission recommended that the facade be restudied with a view to changing the height of the two main stories so as to increase the height of the pilasters; also a restudy of the end pavilions; also the use of stone mullions to separate the double windows. The latter suggestion was not carried out. On July 1, 1931, the revised drawing for the building was approved. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH Congress by act approved May 26, 1930, established and provided for the operation of a National Institute of Health, involving a system of fellowships and authorizing the Government to accept donations for use in ascertaining the cause, prevention, and cure of diseases affecting human beings. In conference with Surg. Gen. Hugh S. Cumming, of the Public Health Service, this Commission advised that the site for the said institute be the four squares to the west of the present Public Health Laboratories, namely, Nos. 21, 22, 12, and S-12-a site near the Potomac along the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway. This site would have the further advantage of getting rid of a brewery, perhaps the most conspicuous eyesore now existing in the city of Washington. Pending the development of the institute, the Treasury Department asked advice as to the construction of buildings for the National Institute of Health on the 5 acres of ground west of the land now occupied by the Public Health Service. Plans for the latter building, prepared by Louis Simon, Supervising Architect, were approved March 28, 1932. ARLINGTON MEMORIAL BRIDGE AND APPROACHES The Arlington Memorial Bridge was opened to the people of the United States by President Hoover on January 16, 1932. The works appurtenant thereto remain to be completed; and the models and plans have led to frequent discussions with William M. Kendall, of McKim, Mead & White, architects, and with John L. Nagle, engineer, representing the National Park Service. 68387-36-3 THE CENTRAL COMPOSITION REACHING COMPLETION 25 James E. Fraser's models for statuary representing "Peace" and the "Arts of Peace" which are to be placed at the entrance to the Rock Creek Parkway; and "Sacrifice" and "Valor" by Leo Friedlander at the District of Columbia end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, were approved in the respective studios of the sculptors in Westport, Conn., and New York City, on October 24, 1932, and October 14, 1933, respectively. Mr. Adolph A. Weinman is designing a large statue to go in the niche at the Arlington terminus. An allotment of money has been made for planting of the Memorial Avenue leading from the bridge to the semicircular granite terminus of the avenue within the Arlington National Cemetery. This planting is to be a substantial holly hedge; then four rows of white oaks, the first row formally planted, the other rows so arranged as to give a solid mass of trees lying within the cemetery lands adjacent and avoiding hard lines on the cemetery sides. Unhappily provision has not yet been made to transfer to the north the traffic road which now cuts across the approach to Arlington Cemetery. COLUMBIA ISLAND Cooperation among the architects of the Arlington Memorial Bridge (William M. Kendall, representing McKim, Mead & White), the National Park Service, the Park and Planning Commission, and the Commission of Fine Arts has brought into coordination the various elements that enter into the treatment of the Virginia side of the Potomac. A revised plan for Columbia Island proposes a central circle from which extend each on the east and the west a grass panel flanked with driveways and ending in a half circle. This composition forms the cross axis essential to the effectiveness of the bridge. From the eastern end of the cross axis flows the beginning of the Mount Vernon Highway. At the western end begins the connection with the parkway leading up the Potomac, along Little River between the Theodore Roosevelt Island and the mainland, under the Key Bridge and on up to Great Falls. A second connection is with the Lee Highway coming from Falls Church and passing to the west of Arlington National Cemetery. These studies as agreed upon change certain items of the original plans while keeping their essential features. |