The National Mall & its Monuments and the Los Angeles Times

The National Mall & its Monuments
Originally uploaded by DCVoyager.

For some reason some of the most consistent and best coverage about the degradation of the National Mall is in the Los Angeles Times. (Note to the editors of the Washington Post: this should be a source of embarrassment...)

Christopher Knight, the architecture critic, has a piece today, entitled "The continued mauling of the National Mall," about the going forward with an underground visitors center for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. From the article:

In one fell swoop, three things were accomplished. The incremental ruin of the Mall — America's greatest 20th century work of civic landscape art — was pushed into overdrive. Significant damage was assured for the adjacent Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a modern design masterpiece. And, last but hardly least, the NCPC tacitly announced its own obsolescence as a serious "planning" agency.

Three for the price of one. Who ever expected such efficiency from Washington?

Certainly not sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, architects Daniel Burnham and Charles McKim, or landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. They designed the Mall a century ago to symbolize America's founding principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The mess would likely stun them.

Harsh, but true. It is the rare elected or appointed official that is will to demand, to be uncompromisingly in favor of, quality.

Index Keywords: National-Mall; cultural-heritage-tourism