DESIGNING THE NATION'S CAPITAL: The 1901 Plan for Washington, D.C.
FOREWORD
By David M. Childs, FAIA, Chairman (2003-2005)
Commission of Fine Arts
OVER the past forty years, the Commission of Fine
Arts has written and published a series of scholarly volumes on the
architecture and history of significant places of interest in Washington,
most notably a four-volume set devoted to Massachusetts Avenue and
Sixteenth Street. With this current volume, the Commission has chosen to
explore its own origins with a look into the events and people leading
up to the creation of the Senate Park (McMillan) Commission in 1901 and
the resulting plan for the redevelopment of the city.
The publication is especially timely from several
perspectives. We are commemorating the recent centennial of the Park
Commission Plan as well as bringing to light aspects of and insights
into the plan not generally or clearly understood by the public. The
plan was and still is a work in progress. Its creation was a lofty
endeavor born of the spirit of the times in a political and social
climate that seemed to frown on any enterprise that required the
spending of public funds or called for a change in the accepted
appearance of the Capital. The participants faced formidable obstacles
not unlike those that reverberate today whenever a change to the
familiar is contemplated.
My colleagues on the Commission and I are pleased to
present these essays to the people of Washington and all who find the
creation of cities a subject of fascination. No one enjoyed the subject
more or contributed more to it than the late J. Carter Brown, our
Chairman for over thirty years, and it is to his memory that we dedicate
this volume.
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Last Modified: March 20, 2009
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