New appointees to the Commission on Fine Arts

(From email, including my response)

Personnel Announcement
White House Office of the Press Secretary
May 8, 2008

President George W. Bush today announced his intention to nominate two individuals, appoint eighteen individuals and designate two individuals to serve in his Administration. ...

The President intends to appoint the following individuals to be Members of the Commission of Fine Arts:

- Diana Balmori, of New York, for a term of four years;
- Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, of Florida, for a term of four years;
- Earl A. Powell, III, of Virginia, for a term of four years;
- Witold Rybczynski, of Pennsylvania, for a term of four years.

# # #

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, established in 1910 by Act of Congress, is charged with giving expert advice to the President, Congress and the heads of departments and agencies of the Federal and District of Columbia governments on matters of design and aesthetics, as they affect the Federal interest and preserve the dignity of the nation's capital. The Commission consists of seven "well qualified judges of the fine arts" who are appointed by the President and serve for a term of four years; they may also be reappointed.

The Commission provides advice to the U. S. Mint on the design of coins and medals, and approves the site and design of national memorials, both in the United States and on foreign soil, in accordance with the Commemorative Works Act or the American Battle Monuments Act, whichever applies.

Within the District of Columbia community, the Commission advises on design matters affecting the Historic District of Georgetown, under the Old Georgetown Act, as well as other private sector areas adjacent to federal interests, under the Shipstead-Luce Act.

Lastly, the Commission administers the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs program, which was created by Congress to benefit non-profit cultural entities whose primary purpose is to provide Washington with exhibition or performing arts.
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I hope it has some effect. For issues on the borders of the area in which the CFA reigns, us local activists have stopped believing that the CFA will weigh in with good sense and prevent crap from being constructed. Although I have to admit that lately, there haven't been many CFA actions in the areas which I pay the most attention to.

(I did talk many years ago with Liz Plater-Zyberk about the abomination of the Station Place development next to Union Station, and how it was greased through the friendship of the architect with the then chair of the CFA. And how the architect had once been a member of the CFA.)

Interesting that Rybcynski is speaking Tuesday night at the Building Museum on piercing the height limit.

For economic and reproducing of space reasons, I now have come to favor piercing the height limit, although most of the damage (unintended consequences) of having it has already been done: by not allowing the business district to build up, the _central_ business district has expanded east and south, swallowing up neighborhoods and warehouse districts, reproducing space into a 12 story boxy sameness.