October 7, 2008
Dear Coalition Friends:
Happy Autumn. And welcome to the continuing saga of our National Mall.
Sometimes so much is happening it's hard to keep up. So, today and in upcoming UPDATES we will take a somewhat different approach. We will report to you the latest news we have heard about several memorial projects under development or being proposed for the National Mall--see the note below about October 20th. We will comment on the questions they raise and how answers and solutions might be found, based on our own 8 years of experience, research, involvement in the public consultation process, understanding of the laws intended to protect the Mall, and ideas our National Coalition to Save Our Mall has been advocating for the past 4 years. See our ideas in a nutshell in blue below.
But wait, new memorials? Isn't there a Congressional moratorium on new memorials and visitor centers on the Mall, you ask? Yes, since 2003. Hasn't the National Capital Planning Commission developed its new National Capital Framework Plan precisely to address overcrowding on the Mall by identifying new memorial sites in federal areas adjacent to the Mall but not on the Mall itself? Yes, however:
These policies and plans have not stopped private sponsors from seeking Mall sites for their no doubt worthy memorial projects. Nor have they stopped Congress from exempting certain favored projects from the moratorium--the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Visitor Center and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Nor has it stopped the National Park Service from proposing bookstore/visitor service/restroom additions to memorials that - according to NPS definitions - do not constitute "visitor centers." No doubt these "exceptions" will not be the last.
On October 20, 2008, three projects will come under review by the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission (NCMAC). We will review these in our upcoming UPDATES. To read more and download their agenda, click here.
The agenda for October 20th covers legislation for at least one memorial (the second one listed) that would require yet another exception to the Congressional moratorium:
- an extension of the authority of the MLK Jr. Foundation to build a memorial on the Tidal Basin, near the FDR Memorial on the Mall
- new legislation (H.R. 6195) authorizing a new memorial to be located near the Korean War Veterans Memorial, on the Mall, to honor those who have served in Korea since 1953
- legislation (H.R. 6696) authorizing a new memorial to World War I
The slowly emerging truth is that current government approaches for controlling overdevelopment to preserve the integrity of the National Mall are not working.
Our National Coalition to Save Our Mall has been proposing an alternative approach for several years now. In future UPDATES, we will use the example of the latest memorial proposals to suggest how our ideas might work.
In a nutshell, the Coalition proposes not simply revising current policies but fundamentally rethinking the Mall itself--its physical boundaries and role in our democracy, including:
- Mall expansion onto contiguous federal land to provide new space not only for memorials and museums but also for burgeoning public activities of all kinds for visitors and locals alike. It's been done before, when the McMillan Commission in 1901-2 expanded the Mall beyond the Washington Monument onto landfill for the Lincoln Memorial and new public recreational space. Where next? Hains Point and other underutilized federal land along the expansive Potomac River waterfront. "Green" thinking will be a critical component of any Mall expansion.
- Reconnecting the Mall to the surrounding city so it can become the lively, welcoming urban park in the heart of the capital it was intended to be. A first step is providing better transportation and access--low cost, on-off bus or shuttle service where at present the only service to all parts of the Mall, including some of the most popular attractions--the Jefferson and LIncoln Memorials--, costs $25 per person. At the present time, the National Capital Planning Commission in its Framework Plan is advancing the concept of using museums and memorials to expand the Mall into the city, making the city a more lively place. We believe that once access and circulation is improved and new connections made between Mall and city, lively urban spaces can emerge. Great fountains don't have to be memorials.
- Treating memorials not as ad hoc additions to the memorial landscape, to be located on "available" real estate selected by the memorial's private sponsor, but as thoughtfully conceived components of a coherent, nationally significant American narrative and design whole. There is a reason Washington, DC, is called both Capital City and Symbol. That's how the historic L'Enfant Plan and McMillan Plan conceived the Mall and it's an honored historic precedent worth respecting and updating now--with a big idea and vision for the 21st century--before it is lost altogether through more piecemeal development.
- Part of rethinking the memorial landscape requires rethinking the modern penchant for "visitor centers." Instead of placing visitor centers and bookstores at each individual memorial--and diminishing the memorial's integrity and power as a work of civic art as well as cluttering the public open space--we need one convenient, centrally located Mall Visitor Center to serve all Mall visitors as well as visitors to the larger city. Using a portion of the Smithsonian's Arts & Industries Building for this purpose is one possibility.
- Rethinking the Mall in the ways proposed above is an opportunity for an open and public discussion about what it means to be American and what role we want the Mall to play in the life of our capital city and our continually evolving democracy. That is why we think our country needs a congressionally-chartered, independent Mall Commission of respected cultural leaders to lead the nation in creating the vision and framework for the long-term development of the Mall in the 21st century--what the National Coalition to Save Our Mall is calling "The 3rd Century Mall."
Next up: Extension of the MLK Jr. Memorial authorization
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