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Federal Triangle Heritage Trail
Make No Little Plans
Arts and Artists
Woodrow Wilson Plaza honors President Woodrow Wilson, noted scholar and former president of Princeton University. Located just inside the Ronald Reagan building ahead is the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the nation's memorial to our 29th president. The nonpartisan institution studies national and world affairs.
Installed in the lively plaza are monumental sculptures by two Washington-born artists: the cast-aluminum Federal Triangle Flowers by Stephen Robin and the hammer-formed and welded bronze Bearing Witness by Martin Puryear. Robin's large-scale rose and lily reflect traditional uses of flowers as architectural ornamentation. The familiar yet mysterious shape of Puryear's colossal work allows viewers to create their own associations. The sculptures, commissioned by the U.S. General Services Administration's Art in Architecture Program, continue a long history of government-sponsored art for public buildings.
Take a moment to marvel at the bas-reliefs by Adolph Alexander Weinman and Anthony De Francisci adorning the former Post Office Department (now Ariel Rios) building. Just under the roofline at either end of the curved façade are the graceful sculptures, The Transmission of Mail by Day and The Transmission of Mail by Night. A timeline of postal service history and a romantic statement of mail delivery's effect on American life are inscribed between them. Just below the sculptures, a series of plaques by Weinman and Joseph Renier illustrates communications developments: carrier pigeons, smoke signals, and drums. Benjamin Franklin tops the list of postmasters general carved into the façade.
Passageways leading to 12th Street and to the National Mall via Constitution Avenue to your left evoke architectural traditions of European cities. |