Existing comment:
The Great Plaza
(uncompleted)
In the early master designs for the entire Triangle area, the Board of Architectural Consultants planned a beautiful landscaped park for the enjoyment of government employees in the surrounding buildings between Twelfth and Fourtheenth [sic] Streets, NW. French precedents, particularly the Louvre in Paris, inspired this concept.
Many factors conspired to prevent the construction of the Great Plaza. The buildings themselves assumed financial priority. The automobile became a permanent "resident," resisting eviction. Today the area is the largest single blight in the realization of the original grand scheme of the Federal Triangle. |