Evening Star Newspaper, June 28, 1931, Page 83

GTON, D. C, JUNE 28, 1931. 11 — o Rebuild the Nation’s Capital Wise and Far-Sight- ed Business Policy of Providing Federal Buildings for Federal Activities, Though Entailing Great In- itial Cost, Will Save the Taxpayers of the Nation Hundreds of Thousandsof Dollars Annually and Facili- tate Greater Efficien- ) in this latest photograph of the recently completed models on exhibition on the main floor of the Treasury Department v Seventh to Ninth street; the Department of Justice Building, facing the 4venue from Ninth to Tenth street; a new build- of which will be erected a monument shaft. The building on the Avenue from Twelfth to Thirteenth street will be the nd the “Grand Plaza,” which includes the Interstate Commecrce Building, the Government Auditorium, the Department cy in-Government. Administration. is the Department of Commerce Building, now nearing completion. HAVENNER. ion of the Grand Plaza (looking east of the new Department of Commerce the projected new Federal buildings. side of the plaza and a view of the seen at the other end of the park. for the extension of Rock Creek and the Anacostia Parks into Maryland the act of May 29, 1930, authorised HE total of the above authorizations for appropriations to be expended upon major projects entering into the remaking of the Nation's Capital is nearly $289,000,000, to which sum should be added appropriations that have been carried in the regular annual ap- propriation bills for the acquisition of land and the construction of buildings for what is termed continuing activities of the Federal and District of Columbia Governments, bringing the total sum for remaking the City of Washington to about a third of a billion dollars. The congressional authorizations of May 25, 1926; January 13, 1928, and March 31, 1930, for app:opriations amounting to $190,000,000 contemplated the purchase of sites and the erection of buildings for the Post Office De- partment, the Departments of Commerce, Labor and Justice, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Coast Guard, and th2 Public Health Service of the Treasury Department, the central administration unit connecting the east and wast wings of the main Department of Agriculture Building and its extensible build- ing to the south of the main building, new struclures for the Depariments of War and Navy, an Interstate Commerce Building, an Archives Building, an independent offices building and a central heating plant. The reader may wonder to what extent progress is being made in the remaking of the Nation’s Capital under these numerous con- gressional authorizations for specific better- ments. The Arlington Memorial Bridge is nearing completion, the Mount Vernon Boulevard is well under way, surveys are being made for the George Washington Memorial Parkway on both sides of the Potomac River, the land for the enlargement of the Capitol Grounds has been purchased and cleared and planting will soon take place, the ground@ for the Botanic Garden has been purchased and the old buildings thereon are now being razed, the steel wo.k for the addition to the House Office Building is being erected, the central building for the De- partment of Agriculture has becen completed end the first unit of its extensible building is under construction, the Internal Revenue Building has been completed and is now occu- pied, the Department of Commerce Building is nearing completion, nearly all of the ground in the Mall Triangle has been purchased, the * sites for the Department of Justice and Labor Buildings are now being cleared, ground for the United States Supreme Court Building has been purchased and cjcared and excavation work for the foundation is under way, ground for the addition to the Library of Congress is being acquired, as is likewise that for the National Aboretum, land for enlarging Bolling Field has been purchased, the site for the ware- house for Government supplies has been ac- quired, additional park lands and playground sites are being secured under the Capper- Cramton act, and nearly all of the land for the District of Columbia Government's new Municipal Center has been acquited and an appropriation for the first unit--the Courts Building—made. N the so-called Mall Triangle, being that part of the city bounded on the east by Third street, on the west by Fifteenth street, on the north by Pennsylvania avenue, and on the south by Constitution avenue, will be located the Department of Commerce, the Internal Revenue, the Department of Labor, the Post Office Department, the Department of Justice, the Interstate Comme:ce and the Archives Buildings, and probably the Coast Guard Building. The building for the Public Health Service will be located between Nineteenth and Twentisth streets arfd Oonstitution avenue and C street northwest, the Supreme Court Building between First and Second streets and East Capitol street and Maryland avenue northeast, the addition to the House Office Building be- tween New Jersey avenue and South Capitol street and B and C streets southeast, the ad- dition to the Library of Congress between East Capitol and B and Second and Third streets southeast, the extensible building of the De- partment of Agriculture will cccupy five squares between Twelfth and Fourteenth and B and D streets southwest, the warehouse for govern- ment supplies between Seventh and Ninth and C and D streets southwest, and the central heating plant for heating the Department of Agriculture Buildings, the Bureau of Eng'aving =and Printing group, the Washington Monument, all of the buildings in the Mall Triangle, and the Treasury Building will be in square 297, /bounded by Twelfth and Thirteenth and C and D streets southwest. The new District of Columbia Municipal Center will be located between Third and Sixta strects and Pennsylvania, Indiana and Louisiana avenues nerthwest. Many of the projects covered by the above listed authorizations will have been completed, while many others will bz well under way, by the time of the George Washington Bicenten- « nial in 1932. Others will require several years to complete. This is especially true of the Mall Triangle and Municipal Center develop- ments. However, two buildings in the Mall Triangle will have been completed and at least two others started, while in the Municipal Center one building will be under way. Also before the end of 1932 we will probably have authoriz:d a General Accounting Office Build- ing and an authorization fixing the limits of cost for the War and Navy group of buildings. The sites for the War and Navy group of buildings have already been selected by the Public Buildings Commission and the necessary steps for the acquisition by the Government of all privately owned land in the selected area will folow shortly. These two groups of build- ings will be located in the general area bounded by Nincteenth street on the east, Twenty-third on the west, New York avenue on the north and Constitution avenue on the south. The sites for the General Accounting Office and the Indepencdent Offices Buildings are still to be selected. HILE providing for the remaking of the Nation's Capital Congress did not neglect the States and Territories because during this same fivo-year period it authorized for public buildings in the States and Territories another third of a billion dollars, or to be exact the sum of $363,000,000. The average citizen may well ask: Why this «~ great Federal building program in the City of Washington and in the several States and Territories? This question is answered by the two words—economy and efficiency. No one of the 10 Federal departments located at the seat of Government is housed under ome roof. Bureaus and services of these 10 departments are scattered all over the District of Columbia, in some instances miles from the buildisg in . Which the head of the department is located. Many of the department bureaus and inde- pendent Government establishments are housed in temporary war-time structures that have outlived their day, while others are in rented buildings entirely unsuit>d to the work of the particular office occupying them. _ The Department of Agriculture, that is charged with the expenditure of about $170,- 000,000 a year in the promotign of agriculture in its broadest sense, is housed in 57 different buildings located in vaPious sections of the City of Washington. Seventeen of the buildings in which branches of this department are housed are rented buildings, two temporary war-time stiuctures, the others being Government owned. Many of the Government-owned buildings i which the department is now housed are small brick buildings originally built for residential purposes and are located in the five squares recently acquired for the extensible building of the department and in the square acquired for the central heating plant. This extensible building when completed will cover five entire city blocks. The stcel frame work for the first unit, which will occupy the entire block bounded by B and C streets and Thirteenth street and Linworth place southwest, is now in pilace, When all of the units of this extensible building are completed all of tive services of the Depart- ment of Acflcu:t:re in the City of Washington, with one or #%o minor exceptions, will be brought together under two roofs—the main administration building and the extegsible building. : HE Department of Commerce, that Congress has charg:d with the promotion of our foreign and domestic commerce, our mining, + manufacturing, shipping, fishery and trans- portation interests, and for which activities it allows the department about $50,000,000 & year, is housed in 20 buildings in the City of Wash- ington, exclusive of the Bureau of Standards group of buildings. Three of the buildings in which this department is housed are temporary Continued on Twelfth Page The new Deptrtment of Commerce Building which is now nearing completion.