July 20, 2003
Dear Coalition Friends:
And here's Washington Post Architecture Critic Benjamin Forgey's commentary regarding site selection for the proposed Museum of African-American History and Culture (from the Washington Post July 12th issue):
July 12, 2003
A Giant Step That Could Trample Mall
By Benjamin Forgey
A huge decision about the future of the Washington Mall is about to be made in Congress without a whole lot of public discussion. This is not a good idea.
The fact that the decision is attached to a very good cause -- creating a National Museum of African American History and Culture -- does not make it any better. Possibly, the congressional push finally to establish a long-overdue institution may even make matters worse.
Here's why: The selection of a site of so important an institution, and the design of so large and prominent a building, deserves informed scrutiny and fair opportunities for public comment. Yet neither are fully provided for in a bill adopted by the Senate and now being readied for consideration by the House.
These mistakes are relatively easy to fix -- there are well-established procedures for site selection and architectural review, and it's a question of changing just a few crucial words in this bill to put them into effect. But the bipartisan drive to pass the legislation, and pass it quickly, may override such seeming subtleties.
Specifically, Congress ought to affirm the authority of the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission to sign off on the site and the design of the new museum. This would enable a full discussion of the location issues at public hearings and, once a site is chosen, would provide the museum's architects with a useful sounding board....
As the title of the presidential commission report on this significant, worthy institution aptly states: "The Time Has Come." We should proceed on this mission with all deliberate speed and open the site selection and design process to proper supervision and public debate. It's the right thing to do.
To read the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46161-2003Jul11.html
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