Letter
Dear Mr. Fisher:
In its meeting of 19 March, the Commission of Fine Arts reviewed a concept design submission for a new White House visitor screening facility to be located beneath Sherman Park and along East Executive Avenue, NW. While expressing strong support for the program to improve security at the White House, the Commission did not take an action on the proposed design, instead providing the following comments and recommendations.
The Commission members emphasized that the nationally important context of the site—including the White House and its grounds, the Treasury Building, and the General William Tecumseh Sherman Monument—demands the highest quality of architecture and landscape design for a project of this size and prominence. They cited the recent Executive Order “Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again,” which states that the preferred and default architecture for federal public buildings in the District of Columbia shall be classical; accordingly, they said that the project should be beautifully designed in a classical architectural language by an architect with experience in this enduring style. They recommended that a classically designed entrance portal be developed, centered on the north-south axis established by the Treasury Building, the Alexander Hamilton statue, and the Sherman Monument; they also suggested that the walls surrounding the descending ramps at the entrance ramp area include architectural or artistic elements to provide articulation for these large surfaces. For the above-grade exit pavilion, they recommended developing a more explicitly classical expression while reducing its footprint and height to lessen its prominence at the south end of East Executive Avenue.
For the landscape design, the Commission members observed that the proposed design would significantly alter the historic paths and retaining walls surrounding the Sherman Monument; they instead recommended that the project preserve the monument’s setting as much as possible. Specifically, they recommended keeping the diagonal pathways in lieu of removing two of them as proposed, and using bollards and chains for pedestrian control. They also recommended retaining the perimeter walls at the existing height where possible, rather than raising them to six feet tall as proposed, in order to maintain a more visually open and comfortable experience for pedestrians on the sidewalks, and to raise them more gradually only where taller walls are necessary.
The Commission looks forward to further review of this important security project, including documentation of the interiors and landscape plans showing detailed existing and proposed conditions. Please coordinate the next submission with the staff which, as always, is available to assist you.
Sincerely,
/s/Thomas E. Luebke, FAIA
Secretary
Joshua Fisher, Assistant to the President
Director, Office of Management and Administration
Executive Office of the President
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
cc: Andy Stohs, U.S. Secret Service
Jeff Harner, AECOM
John Stanwich, National Park Service
Marcel Acosta, National Capital Planning Commission
David Maloney, D.C. Historic Preservation Office