Existing comment:
Make No Little Plans
Federal Triangle Heritage Trail
16 Protecting Consumers and Competition
This is the Federal Trade Commission Building, home of the agency that defends the public against unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices. One of the older independent Federal agencies, the FTC was created in 1914 and has occupied this site since the building was completed in 1938. It works to protect the competitive marketplace and interests of consumers through litigation, consumer and business education, public hearings, and enforcement of regulations such as the Do Not Call rule.
Considered the capstone of the Federal Triangle project, the FTC building stands at the apex of the Triangle. As the Great Depression deepened in the 1930s, Congress twice cut funding for the project, which originally called for costly Beaux Arts embellishments similar to those on other Federal Triangle buildings. Eventually Congress funded Edward H. Bennett's simpler, less ornamented "stripped classicism" designs.
Softening the building's severity is artwork illustrating trade activities. Exquisitely detailed aluminum night gates depict the maritime industry's evolution, while bas-reliefs above each entrance show forms of commercial exchange. (Bas-reliefs, popular in Art Deco design, are sculptures slightly raised from their backgrounds.) Man Controlling Trade, the dramatic limestone figures flanking this end of the building, symbolize the FTC's role in protecting competition. The well muscled men represent government and the wild stallions represent unregulated business. New Yorker Michael Lantz was a 19-year-old struggling artist when he won the 1938 competition to design these sculptures. Lantz was the younger brother of Walter Lantz of "Woody Woodpecker" fame. |