Speaking of memorials... how about renaming L'Enfant Plaza to Urban Brutalist Plaza?

Washington Post caption--Peggy Seats has long been pushing for a statue, clock tower and visitors center at L'Enfant Plaza for a tribute to Benjamin Banneker. (By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post). To my way of thinking, any memorial to the original designers at this place dis-serves their memory and accomplishments.

Today's Post has an article, "Patience Key to Paying Homage: Memorial Design, Money Issues Can Create Years of Hurdles," about the difficulty of adding memorial places to the physical and cultural landscape of DC. The paper has a great shot of at L'Enfant Plaza. This shot, as well as the one below, communicate the 1,000 words about why I think L'Enfant Plaza is a terrible monument to Peter (Pierre) L'Enfant, the designer of the urban core of the City. As is, L'Enfant Plaza needs to be renamed "Urban Brutalism" Plaza in that there is almost nothing there related to the kinds of precepts he laid out for designing the Capital City of the then free nation, the United States of America. (The Express also has a nice shot of a strip of green "boulevard" in the midst of brick pavers and a bunch of contrete buildings that I can't seem to find on the online Post website.)

Map of the L'Enfant Plan.

Note that I would argue that it's a good thing it takes time, otherwise the city would be incredibly mucked up with even more monuments than it has currently. The "Victims of Communism" memorial is a case in point. The organizers, who were pretty supercilious about citizen input (hmm, sounds familiar) wanted to put it in the little green space between 2nd and 3rd Streets NE, where Maryland and Constitution Avenues cut in and have created some "islands" of development opportunity I suppose. ANC6C commissioners didn't think that this was an optimum spot and made it very clear. Bill Crews went out an identified alternative spots, including the one they finally agreed to, at the intersection of New Jersey and Massachusetts Avenues NW.

BANNEKER CIRCLE AREA, SW D.C. ; Photographer: Rafael Crisostomo/For The Washington Post. Caption: Preservationist, Ron McBee at the Fountain of Banneker Park ( the fountain is not operative) at back, a view of L'Enfant Plaza, at SW on Banneker Circle area who have a combination of old and modern architecture. Part of this area is in danger of being destroyed.

Also see "History of Planning in Washington DC," "History of the Mall: The 1791 L'Enfant Plan and the Mall," and "The L'Enfant and McMillian Plans."

Index Keywords: urban-design-placemaking