Richard Nixon photo

Statement Supporting Legislation To Establish the Federal City Bicentennial Development Corporation.

September 08, 1970

IN 1976, we will mark the Bicentennial of the founding of the American Republic. It will be an occasion of intensive exploration of the American past and future.

The extraordinary vision of the Founding Fathers, a vision which not only shaped their own nation in the generations that followed, but which has had an enormous influence on the course of world history will be recalled in a way that can occur only on the occasion of such anniversaries. But it will be a forward-looking Bicentennial. Our primary concern will be to examine the American experience in terms of the meaning and direction it suggests for the years ahead.

Almost certainly--and properly--a dominant theme of the Bicentennial will be that the revolutionary vision of 1776 is still unfulfilled. America is not yet what it would be, and can be. The vision itself is subject to change. The past informs, but does not dictate our vision of the future. Even so, few would deny the commanding authority, now as in the two centuries almost past, of the great dream of democracy, of liberty and equality for all, which was bequeathed us by the incomparably varied and gifted men who founded the Nation.

That dream included a city that was to be different from all others, even as the Nation itself was to be. It would, first of all, belong to all the people. It would be the only such place in the Nation, all others being under the previous, and as some thought, primary sovereignty of the States. The supremacy of the Congress was never intended to deprive the citizens of that city of home rule. An historian .of the city writes: "In accepting the principle eventually written into the Constitution, that Congress must be supreme in the federal district, no one had equated sacrifice of state power with cancellation of political rights of citizens of the future federal territory."

It was to be the seat of Government. Most importantly of all, it was to be the conscious creation of the American people. All other capitals had seemingly come down from a distant and usually only scarcely remembered past. They were part of the past. Washington was to be a city of the future. At an early point, when the city was little more than a few drawings on paper, the Commissioners named the 10-mile square "District of Columbia" and the Capital itself "City of Washington" (Washington himself having chosen the site). These were new names, for a new city and for a new concept of government-names which above all reflected what men might do of their own will.

From the very first, President Washington perceived that the role of the Capital in the life of the new Nation would have to be expressed in the architecture and urban design of the city, as well as in its geographic location and its special form of governance.

The French military engineer, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, was engaged to design a plan for the new city. James Hoban, an Irish architect, won the competition (which Jefferson entered anonymously) to design the White House. William Thornton submitted his design for the Capitol. Down through the generations, to this day, these three architectural elements have formed the basis of the Federal City. The visible symbols are the two great buildings, representing the legislative and executive power, and behind them is the plan. In the new conception of government, which the buildings represented, these powers are at once separated and joined together. The separation was to be seen in the distance between them-just over a mile. Their connection was to be seen in Pennsylvania Avenue, named for the State wherein our independence was first proclaimed, and from which the seat of government had just been transferred. From the outset this was the main thoroughfare of the Capital. The area immediately around it--three or four blocks north and south, together with the parks surrounding the White House and the Capitol were from the earliest seen as the Federal City, a special precinct uniquely associated with the business and the ceremonies of democracy.

For the men who founded the Nation, such grand conceptions were a reality unto themselves. They walked the streets of Washington, up to their ankles in mud, and saw about them a shining city of marble. In 1800 when 'the Federal Government formally arrived, Pennsylvania Avenue was "marked by a tangle of elder bushes, swamp grasses, and tree stumps." Jefferson planted Lombardy poplars which grew quickly and began to give some definition to the area. Private buildings began to rise; the Federal City gradually came to life.

Progress was slow, and after a point the initial impulse faded somewhat. It became clear that Washington would be a long time abuilding. Years passed and the L'Enfant plan was never completed. Nonetheless many things were done in the Federal City area which directly contributed to the completion of the plan and nothing was done which made completion impossible. Rarely--if ever--has a design conception exercised such power over such a length of time. Indeed, a stronger statement is justified. Each successive generation seems to have added something to the Federal City area. Gradually the design took shape.

--President Jackson built the present Treasury Building at Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th Street. Although ostensibly blocking the passage from the White House to the Capitol, the Treasury in fact forms a necessary buffer to the residential character of the White House.

---President Jackson began the first separate building for the Patent Office (now the National Portrait Gallery), locating it on F Street with its north side precisely aligned with that of the Treasury Building seven blocks to the west. The Patent Office was located at Eighth Street, facing downhill toward Pennsylvania Avenue. This is the exact location which L'Enfant had chosen for a National Cathedral. His purpose, in part, was to break the long stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue with a center of formal activity about midway between the Capitol and the White House.

--President Arthur built the Pension Building three blocks east of the Patent Office, again blocking the street, and forming the basis, with the old City Hall directly to the south, of what is now Judiciary Square.

--During the administration of William McKinley, the McMillan Commission in part proposed the concept of the Federal Triangle, the great sequence of office buildings which lies between Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues.

--President Hoover began the construction of the Federal Triangle which proceeded steadily throughout the depression of the 1930's.

--Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the National Archives Building was built. Whereas other buildings in the group bordered directly on Pennsylvania Avenue, the Archives Building was angled in so that it faced directly north toward the old Patent Office, built almost a century earlier, forming almost exactly the space that L'Enfant had envisioned.

--During all this period, the Mall was taking form as the Smithsonian Institution established itself, beginning with the old red sandstone castle located at 10th Street, and followed by a steady if restrained construction program that continues to this day.

For all this activity, after a point the area began to decline. The essential problem was that the area, so necessary to public activities, became less and less suited to private ones. Private housing was the first to fade away---in the area under discussion there are today only 13 dwelling units. Many commercial activities also disappeared. In part, they were pushed out by the development of the Federal Triangle. By the beginning of the 1960's, it was clear that the business and commercial center of the city was beginning to drift northwestward, away from the Federal City, leaving the Capitol and the White House increasingly isolated. The prospect was clear that office buildings would soon line the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue. The Federal City would be abandoned at night, all but lifeless during weekends.

In these circumstances, in June 1962, President Kennedy appointed the President's Council on Pennsylvania Avenue, instructing it to prepare plans for the revitalization of the Federal City area that would accomplish a specific, and theretofore unacknowledged, objective. The Council's mission was to propose a mode of development that would be consistent with the historic heritage, but which would also deliberately seek to increase the private commercial and residential activities and also the cultural and educational facilities of the area.

In 1965, the Council's work having been completed, President Johnson established the Temporary Commission on Pennsylvania Avenue with instructions to move forward in accordance with the proposed plan. The National Capital Planning Commission, the Commission of Fine Arts, and various agencies of the District Government subsequently approved, in occasionally altered form, the basic proposal contained in the Council's report. The fundamental thrust of that proposal was to carry out a mixture of private and public building, park, and plaza developments, together with elaborate transportation and automobile parking facilities, in such a way that the Federal City might become the first truly modern central city in the world, and at the same time complete the great vision of President Washington as laid out in the original L'Enfant plan.

Since that time, under the previous administration and the present one, work of great consequence has gone forward. One of my first actions upon taking office was to announce in January 1969 the approval of the first year Neighborhood Development program for the Shaw and downtown urban renewal areas, and to release urban renewal and related funds for the initial implementation of these plans. At that time, I also invited the Commissioner of the District of Columbia to submit similar proposals for the H Street and the 14th Street urban renewal areas. Approval of the resulting plans was announced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in December 1969. Little by little the conditions are being established that will bring about a revival of the Federal City area.

--At the foot of Capitol Hill a 6-acre Reflecting Pool is under construction. The Center Leg Freeway tunnel below it will allow traffic to bypass the area.

--North of the Reflecting Pool, between Second and Third Streets, the new Labor Department Building, spanning the Freeway, is now under construction. A corresponding building will be located at the south "portal" of the tunnel.

--At John Marshall Place, on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue, a new Municipal Center will rise in the environs of the old City Hall.

--At Fourth Street, on the south side of the Avenue, the National Gallery of Art will build an addition that will relate to and balance the Municipal Center development.

--At Eighth Street, there will be a cross axis that will meet precisely the purposes L'Enfant envisioned. In 1968, Congress established the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars as a permanent memorial to the 28th President. In doing so, Congress noted that the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Commission recommended the Center be located north of the proposed Market Square in accordance with the development plan. This work is now in the planning stage, as are designs for an underground extension of the National Archives. To the south, construe. tion has already begun on the Hirshhorn Museum, and plans are well advanced for the National Gallery sculpture garden.

--Between Ninth and Tenth Streets on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue, the new FBI Building, extending north to E Street, is now under construction. As with other new construction abutting directly on the avenue, the FBI Building will be set back 50 feet from the present building line, providing a 76-foot-wide sidewalk along the ceremonial avenue. In the mid-1970's some three-quarters of a million visitors a year are expected to tour the FBI exhibits in the new building.

--At 12th Street, the Presidential Building, privately constructed, has been set back in accordance with the development plan. The proposed landscaping for the mile-long avenue has been carried out in this particular segment.

--Between 11th and 15th Streets on the south side, the General Services Administration is moving forward to complete the Federal Triangle. As well as the additional office and underground parking space that will be created, the Grand Plaza of the Federal Triangle, located as an interior court between 13th and 14th Streets, will finally become a reality.

This list could be extended at some length. This past winter the groundbreaking ceremonies took place for METRO. Washington at last will have not just a subway system, but the most modern system of its kind in the Nation. Of the remaining temporary buildings on the Mall---temporary since 1918!--Building E has just been demolished and the Navy-Munitions Building is now coming down. The Interior Department's master plan for the development of the Mall is similarly moving forward. The General Services Administration has issued plans for lighting significant buildings throughout the Federal City area, which will commence with the lighting of the national Christmas tree this year.

What is missing from this otherwise impressive and promising list of activity is the residential and commercial development which is indispensable to the revitalization of the Federal City area. While various government activities have gone forward with energy and success, it would have to be said that there was less private activity in the area at the end of the decade of the 1960's than at the beginning. The sources of this decline are many, but .three in particular seem fundamental. The first is that small investor confidence in the area has greatly declined. There are many reasons for this, but it should be noted that such a change in the attraction for small businesses and similar activities is normal in the development of the American city. It has happened almost everywhere else, and of itself requires no special explanation. The difference is that the Federal City is like nowhere else. It is special, and for that reason special measures must be devised to respond to its needs. A second general source of lagging private development is that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for prospective investors to aggregate land parcels so as to obtain sites large enough for profitable investment. A third source has been the continuing uncertainty as to the actual depth of the commitment of the legislative and executive branches to the development of the Federal City.

This is a matter of national concern, of national interest. It requires national action. Further, with the Bicentennial upon us, it requires prompt action. Accordingly, I support the intent of S. 4196 and H.R. 18677 to create a Federal City Bicentennial Development Corporation, a public building corporation to be charged with preparing plans for and carrying forward the revitalization of the center of the Federal City area.

In this area of approximately one million square feet, some 15 blocks, the object of the Development Corporation is to bring about the maximum private and commercial investment. Preliminary studies have been done which estimate that 7.5 million square feet of building space, including hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, homing, and office space could be constructed in the next 6 years. Further development could be expected after that. The development of this area should greatly stimulate the progress of other renewal efforts immediately to the north, with a large consequent increase in the taxable real estate base of the District of Columbia. In the interval there would be an impressive increase in construction activity. In order to carry out this program, the Development Corporation is given the right to acquire property for its specified purposes, and to borrow funds from the Treasury ,to finance its activities.

The Corporation's development plan, guided by the proposals developed for the area during the 1960's, would be submitted to the Secretary of the Interior, the National Capital Planning Commission, and the District of Columbia Government for approval. At the completion of its work the Corporation would be dissolved.

In creating this public building corporation, the Congress would retain the power to pass both upon all appropriations for the special public works involved in the development and upon the amount of borrowing authority.

Time is short. The approaching Bicentennial provides us an opportunity to fulfill in this city, at this time, a magnificent vision of the men who founded our Nation, and at the same time to create a standard for the rest of the Nation by which to measure their own urban achievement, and on which to build visions of their own. Much has been written of the crisis of the American city. Too much of what has been written is true. The time has come to measure what we do, not by what we are, but by what we can be. If we do not do this work now, other men will do it for us at another time Let us do it now.

Note: On the same day the White House released the transcript of a news briefing by Dr. Daniel P. Moynihan, Counsellor to the President, on the statement and on the President's tour earlier that morning of the Federal City area.

Richard Nixon, Statement Supporting Legislation To Establish the Federal City Bicentennial Development Corporation. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240469

Filed Under

Categories

Simple Search of Our Archives