January 27, 2008
Dear Coalition Friends,
The January issue of Where Magazine, available at local hotels, features the historic plans for the City of Washington and the National Mall and includes an editorial comment that mentions the National Coalition to Save Our Mall.
The cover shows a diagram of the Capitol dome and the headline "Capital Visions. From L'Enfant's plan to 21st-century reality." The article "The Lay of the Land. How swampy acres became a capital city and a symbol" highlights two exhibitions in DC:
** Worthy of the Nation: The Planning of Washington, D.C. is based on the second edition of the National Capital Planning Commission'sWorthy of the Nation: Washington, D.C., from L'Enfant to the National Capital Planning Commission. It can be viewed through Feburary 14 at the Smithsonian's Ripley Center (the domed pavilion next to the Castle, in the underground gallery)
** At the National Building Museum, the long-term Washington Symbol and City exhibition is always worth another visit.
Where editor Jean Lawlor Cohen offers an accompanying editorial:
Double Vision
Americans pride themselves on looking forward-improving the older models, making progress, identifying the next new thing. We aren't always good at looking back. But January forces us to reflect, to gauge any New Year's resolve against the old year's miscalculations. This first month is named, after all, for Janus, the Roman deity with two faces, the only god equipped for hindsight as well as foresight.
Usually Where focuses on what's happening right now-the imminent events, the catch-it-now-or-it's-gone exhibition. Certainly our feature story reckons with fleeting presences-the gigs of touring celebs and semi-celebs, who, like the music and dances they perform, have existence only in time.
But all of this takes place on a somewhat inviolable stage. Rules and regs, as well as tradition, work to protect the landscape from destructive forces. As our cover story explains, Pierre L'Enfant envisioned a ceremonial capital city with grand vistas and allées not unlike the Paris from which he came. The 1901 McMillan "second century" plan reconfirmed L'Enfant's classic axis and established the Mall as our national civic center.
In recent years, however, preservationists have bemoaned what D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty calls attempts to "over-monumentize the Mall." Advocacy groups like the Coalition to Save Our National Mall have lost a few battles (the shifted site of the World War II Memorial) and won a few (the renewed debate over "no-build zones"). Everyone, whether partisans competing for space or activists calling for an even larger Mall, might learn something from the dual perspective of that god named Janus.
-Jean Lawlor Cohen, editor
Back to the top
| 
