Mc Millan Plan - Unbuilt Portions of The McMillan Plan

Unbuilt Portions of The McMillan Plan

Several elements of the McMillan Plan remained unbuilt.

One major element was the large system of granite and marble terraces, steps, and arcades ("Washington Monument Gardens") proposed for the grounds around the base of the Washington Monument. It was later determined that construction of these features would require the removal of large quantites of earth. This would have destabilized the monument's foundations, however, and none of the proposed elements were built. The Trust for the National Mall and the National Park Service sponsored a design competition in 2011 to revitalize the Mall as part of a $700 million plan to transform it into a world-class park. The design partnership of Weiss/Manfredi + OLIN won a portion of the competition to redesign the Washington Monument grounds and the nearby Sylvan Theater. If implemented, the plan would lightly terrace the grounds of the Washington Monument, while creating deep terraces at the Sylvan Theater to create seating.

Another unbuilt major element was a collection of tall, Neoclassical office buildings around Lafayette Square. This proposal went unbuilt as the federal government struggled to build and complete the Federal Triangle complex. The cost of constructing the office complex during the mid to late 1930s, and the lack of materials and manpower during World War II and the Korean War, kept the complex from being built. Although a major effort was made in 1960 to begin razing the historic homes around Lafayette Square, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy opposed their destruction and successfully lobbied Congress and the General Services Administration to retain the structures. Mrs. Kennedy persuaded President John F. Kennedy to allow architect John Carl Warnecke to design a plan to allow the construction of two federal office buildings behind the smaller, historic structures. Warnecke's plan led to the construction of the New Executive Office Building in 1965 and the Howard T. Markey National Courts Building in 1967. They were the only two large office buildings constructed near Lafayette Square, and neither was Neoclassical in design.

A third major unbuilt recommendation of the McMillan Plan involved the extensive "Washington Commons" recreational area on East and West Potomac Parks along the southern side of the Tidal Basin. The McMillan Plan evisioned extensive public bathing and swimming facilities along the Potomac River's edge here, as well as a number of athletic fields, several gymnasiums, and a stadium. Additionally, a major new Neoclassical or Beaux-Arts memorial would be constructed along the White House-Washington Monument axis to serve as the southern anchor of the cruciform National Mall plan. The Washington Commons was to have been built after the Washington Monument terraces and arcades. After it was determined that the Washington Monument grounds project could not be built, attention turned to Washington Commons. But by then the Great Depression was under way, and funds to complete the Tidal Basin in the form envisioned by the McMillan Plan no longer were available. In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed construction of a memorial to Thomas Jefferson on the south side of the Tidal Basin. Although the memorial was opposed by the CFA, President Roosevelt ordered its construction and the Jefferson Memorial was completed in 1943.

The proposed "Fort Circle Drive" is another unbuilt part of the plan. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy began pushing Congress to build Fort Circle Drive. But civic leaders and the National Park Service openly questioned whether the plan had outgrown its usefulness. They argued that the city had grown past the ring of forts that protected it a century earlier, and city roads already connected the parks (albeit not in the linear route envisioned by the McMillan Plan). The plan to link the city's Civil War fort-parks via a grand drive was quietly dropped in the years that followed.

A final unbuilt recommendation of the McMillan Plan was the concept of grouping a large number of executive branch office buildings around the United States Congress. The concept was two-fold: To complement the existing United States Botanic Garden (built in 1867), Library of Congress Building (built in 1897), Cannon House Office Building (built in 1908), and Russell Senate Office Building (built in 1909) to create a symmetrical look to the Capitol environs; and to reduce the time and trouble it took for executive branch workers to serve the needs of Congress. No executive branch office buildings were ever constructed. A number of buildings were constructed nearby, but they were not in the symmetrical siting or design advocated by the McMillan Plan. These structures included the Longworth House Office Building (finished in 1933), the United States Supreme Court Building (finished in 1935), and the John Adams Library of Congress Building (finished in 1939). The Longworth and Adams buildings were both on the House side, and no attempt was made to purchase the land bounded by Maryland Avenue NE, 1st Street NE, and Constitution Avenue NE. This property was quickly developed with private office buildings without reference to the McMillan Plan. Yet another building, the Rayburn House Office Building, was built on the House side in 1965. This left the United States Capitol Complex unbalanced. Only in 1972 was the relatively small Dirksen Senate Office Building completed on the Senate side. Thus far, all the buildings constructed were within the Beaux-Arts or "stripped Neoclassical" style. But in 1976, construction on the James Madison Library of Congress Building was completed in the southeast corner of the Capitol Complex. Not only was this building on the House side (again), but it was Modernist in style and did not fit well architecturally with the other structures. This was followed in 1982 with the Modernist Hart Senate Office Building, whose primary concession to the Beaux-Arts style was a marble exterior.

Although many neighborhood parks were created in the District of Columbia pursuant to the McMillan Plan, the scope of expansion contemplated by the plan was not achieved. Implementation of the neighborhood park, playground, and recreational facilities program was left to the D.C. government, which lacked the extensive resources of the federal government to implement the McMillan Plan. Few areas beyond the old "Federal City" boundary were purchased for park or recreational land. As the city rapidly expanded, this land dramatically increased in price and the city found itself unable to obtain as much land as it wished. The inability of the city government to implement the scope of the McMillan Plan's park proposals is considered the largest failure the plan faced.