Thus, a true federal triangle would be defined, with each branch of government keeping an eye on the other.Īs it turns out, L’Enfant had other ideas for the Supreme Court and many other things which, as Mr. The obvious location for the Supreme Court, to my mind, was what was known as Buzzard’s Point, the home of Fort McNair at the confluence of the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers.
As the area of downtown housing so many federal offices is known as the “Federal Triangle,” there really should be a triangle represented in the city, with the Capitol, White House, and Supreme Court anchoring each corner. Obviously, a capital city hosting a government of three parts-executive, legislative, judicial-needed three excellent buildings in three prominent locations. How could this be when L’Enfant was so thoughtful about everything else? Disappointed in the man, I decided I’d redraw the city plan with my own ideas and make it right. Grand though the building is, the location seems like an afterthought, stuck behind the Capitol building. I observed so much, and one of the things that stood out to me as an urban planner with an interest in history (aside from that syncopated street pattern I hear the rhythm of jazz when I think about it) was the location of the Supreme Court.
Consequently I wandered the streets of DC with a lot of spare time on my hands. This book should be required reading for every urban planner, or anyone with an interest in American history and democracy, and perhaps surprisingly, ancient spiritual wisdom.ĭuring the economic downturn of 1992-93, I lived in Old Town Alexandria and paying work was thin. It showed me just how wrong I’d been about L’Enfant’s intentions, and what an absolutely astonishing design he produced, which has remained hidden until Mann’s work uncovered it. Then just in time to stop me from making too great a fool of myself, I stumbled across Nicholas Mann’s fantastic book, The Sacred Geometry of Washington DC. And I saw a metaphor in this for us all, as we go about planning our personal lives for our individual unknown futures. Who can truly know what the future might bring? L’Enfant showed great foresight in this, I imagined by contrast our conventional suburbia of today lacks this sort of versatility. I imagined the design intended to create a variety of opportunities for the development of large or small buildings, on larger or smaller parcels of land, for all the unknown uses and activities that the future of the city might require. Ah! I thought to myself, Pierre L’Enfant, who designed the city, intended to create so much variety! And so I started to write an article on this syncopated street pattern of Washington DC.
The gridded streets are not uniformly arranged, resulting in a variety of block sizes and shapes large and small, square and rectangular, oriented either vertically or horizontally.
But aside from the obvious look of the city with its grand avenues set at angles to the underlying grid, the grid itself has always struck me as unusual. And for visitors, how confusing it can be. First, a basic grid arrangement of streets running north-south and east-west, and a second wheel-and-spoke pattern of avenues connecting significant architectural or topographical features around the city. To the extent anyone thinks about the layout and pattern of streets in Washington DC (and really, who doesn’t?), the common perception is that there are two systems at work.
0 kommentar(er)
