SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 2010
PHILIP KENNICOTT
To make a Mall for the future, we have to return to the past
plan from E1
of city planners ever since, and still grace the walls of the various planning and oversight groups that govern the design of Washington. Even the name of the hallowed document — the McMillan Plan — is still intoned with reverence, as if the syllables can conjure the spirit of all that is True, Good and Beautiful. In Washington, honoring the McMillan Plan, even at the cost of making the city more livable, more humane and more modern, is one of the most pervasive and least examined pieties of planning. But read Kirk Savage’s
excellent 2009 book, “Monument Wars,” which goes into detail about the making and implementation of the plan, and you may find yourself liberated from slavish worship of its particulars. Savage resurrects a forgotten history of the Mall, its once diverse landscape of parks and public pleasure grounds, a beloved tapestry of old trees and curving paths that was uprooted to create a grand, empty, rigid public space connecting symbolic nodal points of memory and government. Savage reminds us that
creative destruction always causes pain somewhere, and in the case of the Mall, the harm was mainly to the well-being and good humor of Washingtonians, who used the 19th-century Mall for carriage rides, strolls and shaded relaxation, and who didn’t much relish the huge, open, often hot and aesthetically arid greensward that replaced a valued civic amenity.
L’Enfant’s vision
The creation of the Mall was no less contentious than the exchange between Feldman and the Park Service — and it was a conflict that dragged on for decades. We tend to think of the Mall now as an inviolable landscape that has been in place as long as there’s been a Washington, but it is a relatively new space, and one that is still in a state of flux. Savage argues that the McMillan planners wanted the public to believe that their radical plan for reshaping the Mall was merely an effort to return to Pierre L’Enfant’s original vision. That wasn’t true — L’Enfant envisioned a much more modest and urban grand avenue, not an epic, empty vista that celebrated the imperial splendor of the republic — but it was great propaganda, and it has become the cherished historical understanding ever since. It makes the Mall, a very 20th-century conceptualization of public space, seem older and more hallowed.
So tampering with it shouldn’t automatically be considered blasphemy. And yet it seems every plan to save the Mall — which is looking tattered and worn — begins with the assumption that the McMillan space is sacred. “Rehabilitate as a historic landscape for more sustainable civic use ...” reads one of the Park Service’s “Major Concepts” in a National Mall Plan released last November. Which is to say, fix it up a little, but don’t tamper with the basic open plain of the existing layout.
But what if we could free ourselves from reflexive worship of the McMillan Plan? We might create a better city, more sustainable, more green, more inviting and more historically resonant. Here’s a proposal, a “Major Concept” that might happily supplant all the other major proposals in all the major plans currently being considered.
The Mall: Unbuild it.
Keep what’s best of the
McMillan Plan, but pay homage to the 19th-century Mall as well. Rather than bicker over what new structures can be added to the space, focus on removing existing monuments and memorials as they reach the end of their useful life span. Plant trees in the open space that fronts the Smithsonian Castle, and allow a more forested greening of the Mall to gradually fill in the areas where generations of tourists and protesters have trampled the poor grass into submission. As Savage and other authors
on washingtonpost.com
Take a look at the Washington Mall before the monuments with our photo gallery and read Jonathan Yardley’s book review on "Monument Wars" at washingtonpost.com/style.
demonstrate, the meaning of memorials has changed, from honoring heroic figures to creating spaces for healing. But healing is a process, and it should be a finite one. As the last veterans of a particular war pass on, that war’s memorial should be retired. It should be respectfully dismantled, and perhaps re-erected elsewhere if there’s demand for it. But the unbuilding of the World War II and Korean War memorials wouldn’t just make room for forestation, they could be important public spectacles: the last stage in the healing of war’s wounds.
A rebirth for protest
Most plans for the Mall fixate on its role as a stage for public protest. And that was indeed an important function throughout the last century, from the 1939 Easter Sunday concert Marian Anderson gave on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the civil rights and antiwar protests of the 1960s. Allowing trees to encroach on the grass would make it difficult for massive crowds of protesters to gather. But the Mall has, in many
ways, meant the death of meaningful protest. Large political gatherings have become ritualized, and they are absorbed by the Mall in a way that diminishes their potential political impact. The knee-jerk need to gather in great numbers on the Mall results, at most, in a photo op, the political equivalent of staging the family in front of the Cinderella Castle at Disney World. It has forced diverse political-interest groups to compete for a prized body count that puts their cause on the media’s top 10 list of major marches. But this also commodifies protest, and it rewards wealthy and connected interest groups that have the institutional infrastructure to muster huge crowds. Forcing crowds to go
elsewhere, to use cellphone technology and flash-mob techniques, could move political protest closer to the real halls of power, and free up the Mall as a site for more environmentally friendly and sustainable natural growth.
Retire the war memorials
Unbuilding the Mall needn’t
be taken to extremes. The major memorials have, by long service, earned a right to permanence. But the proliferation of war memorials, and the astonishingly destructive plan to add an unnecessary “visitors center” near the entirely self-sufficient Vietnam Veterans Memorial, has led to a cycle of land grabs and authoritarian overbuilding, the most egregious example of which is the World War II Memorial. At some point, the removal of all these individual memorials, and the reorientation of memorialization to a single site for war remembrance — perhaps a grove or a garden — would be a more natural and sustainable vision for a 21st-century Mall. These ideas are not on
anyone’s agenda at the moment. But they aren’t new. As Savage points out in a remarkable passage on early-19th-century plans to memorialize George Washington, there has always been a less-is-more contingent in the annals of memorial building. “Was the memory of the great man to be perpetuated by a heap of large, inanimate objects?” asked congressman John Nicholas of Virginia in 1800. He, like others before and after, called for a more minimal, more abstract approach: a plain tablet over Washington’s grave “on which every man could write what his heart dictated.” So let’s have done with
genuflecting to the McMillan Plan, which laid out not a plain or simple landscape, but an immensely theatrical and imperial one. Allow trees to reclaim it, replant the old Smithsonian Pleasure Grounds, which were destroyed to make way for the grand view, and allow something green to encroach on the arid plaza of the Grant Memorial, at the base of the Capitol. Slowly unbuild the landscape and allow it to be reconsecrated by an idea that will be vital, terrifying and essential to the next century: the need for green places.
kennicottp@washpost.com
WASHINGTON STAR PICTORIAL MAGAZINE; WASHINGTON POST ARCHIVES
CIVIC CENTER:The Mall wasn’t always the empty, lifeless expanse we know now, as this 1935 photograph shows.
KLMNO
E5
B
THEATRE
“Masterful…beautiful”
– Philadelphia Inquirer
B
THEATRE
WOOLLYMAMMOTH
TODAY 2PM&7PM
CLYBOURNE PARK
BY BRUCE NORRIS
DIRECTED BYHOWARD SHALWITZ
MUST CLOSEAPRIL 17! SELECT SEATS REMAIN
202-393-3939 • woollymammoth.net
OLNEYTHEATRE CENTER
“Terrific acting” –TheWashington Post
DA
TODAYAT 1:45& 7:45PM 301.924.3400 olneytheatre.org
Directed by Halo Wines
THRUAPRIL 25
By Hugh Leonard
Delightful puppets&music!
EL RETABLILLO DE DON CRISTÓBAL
The Farce of Don Cristóbal and the Maiden Rosita
by Federico García Lorca
In Spanish with English Surtitles
Thurs-Sat at 8 pm/Sun at 3 pm
202-234-7174
www.galatheatre.org
American Airlines is GALA’s Official Carrier.
THEATER J
”With her hauntingly expressive eyes, Erica Rose cuts a warmly embraceable
figure... ” –TheWashington Post
IN DARFUR
By Winter Miller
SpecialWed matinee at Noon
800-494-TIXS •www.theaterj.org
ARENA STAGE
FINAL SHOWS! Today@2&7:30
THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA
Music and Lyrics byAdam Guettel directed by Molly Smith
n 202-488-3300 www.arenastage.org x
FORD'STHEATRE
LITTLE SHOP OF
HORRORS
Thru May 22
Mo/Tu/We/Th/Fr/Sa at 7:30 Th at noon; Sa at 2:30
(202) 397-SEAT www.fords.org
511 10th Street,NWWashington,DC
Robert E. Parilla
Performing Arts Center Montgomery College
COLLEGE PERFORMING ARTS SERIES
William Shakespeare's
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
DIRECTED BY KENYATTA ROGERS
April 14-17 at 8 p.m. April 18 at 2 p.m.
Tickets: $10, $8
TKTS/INFO: 240-567-5301
M-F, 10AM-6PM,VISA/MC/DISC/AMEX
51 Mannakee Street Rockville,MD 20850
www.montgomerycollege.edu/PAC
Home delivery is convenient.
1-800-753-POST
SF
n Mon–Fri at 8, Sat at6&9,Sun at3&7 x
Added Shows:Tue,Wed,&Thu at 5
TKTS: 202-467-4600
www.kennedy-center.org/shearmadness
ARENA STAGE
DUKE ELLINGTON’S SOPHISTICATED LADIES
Choreographed by & starring Maurice Hines Directed by Charles Randolph-Wright
Today@2&7:30
n 202-488-3300 www.arenastage.org x
MARAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
E. Faye Butler in August Wilson’s classic look at a Jazz Age still grappling with the blues
Apr 7–May 9
CENTERSTAGE | The Pearlstone Theater
In Baltimore’s Historic Mt.Vernon Cultural District
B DINNER THEATRE
Mystery Dinner Playhouse
WHO KILLED THE BOSS?
Sheraton Crystal City Hotel
1800 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA
Every Fri & Sat at 7:30; Sun at 6:30
RESV/INFO: 888-471-4802
www.mysterydinner.com Prkg & Metro Shuttle
410.332.0033 www.centerstage.org
B
Book by Craig Lucas
“Shrieks of laughter night after
night.” -TheWashington Post
MARINE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Sunday, April 11 at 2 p.m.
“Ancient Airs and Dances”
Ottorino Respighi
Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 1
Luciano Berio
Folk Songs (1964, trans. 1973)
Richard Strauss
Suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Opus 60 (1918)
Bishop Ireton High School
201 Cambridge Road,Alexandria,VA 22314
FREE:NOTICKETS REQUIRED
(202) 433-4011
www.marineband.usmc.mil
B CHAMBER MUSIC
B
Limited run through April 18
Today at 3 & 7:30
Hartke Theatre
RISE OFARTURO UI
Directed by Eleanor Holdridge
THE RESISTIBLE
by Bertolt Brecht
April 22, 23&24 at 7:30pm
April 24&25 at 2pm
Matinees are pay-what-you-can!
Tickets: $12 Adult; $8 Senior; $5 Student
RESV/INFO: 202-319-4000
The Studio Theatre
EXTENDED!
NOWPLAYINGTHRUMAY 16 “A juicy little hit-
LABUTEAT HIS BEST!”
-Peter Marks,TheWashington Post
Today at 2:00pm and 7:00pm!
TO BE PRETTY REASONS
directed by David Muse
The Studio 2ndStage
Opening April 14!
60 MILESTO SILVER LAKE
directed by Serge Seiden
studiotheatre.org • 202-332-3300
by Dan LeFranc by Neil LaBute
B
LOVCHINSKY
Pianist
Haydn, Liszt, Medtner, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin
SUNDAY, April 11 at 5 PM
The Church of the Annunciation
3810 MassachusettsAvenue,NW no admission charge - offerings
INFO: 202-332-3133
B ORCHESTRAL MUSIC B
AMERICANYOUTH
PHILHARMONIC®
“L’amour, L’amour”
Luis Haza, Music Director Emeritus
AYPO’s NewMusic Director will be announced at this concert!
TODAY, Apr. 11, 3:00PM
Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall
No. Virginia Community College, Alexandria Tickets available at the door
Mention this ad and get $1 off!!
www.aypo.org
Robert Shafer, Artistic Director
2009-2010 SEASON
“a virtuosic performance”
-TheWashington Post
HALLELUJAH! HANDEL
Dixit Dominus, Let God Arise, Organ Concerto in F,
Hallelujah Chorus
William Neil, organist
Sunday, April 11, 5 pm
The National Presbyterian Church
Washington,DC
FREE PARKING TENLEYTOWNMETRO
Tickets: $15 - $ 45
Student, senior, and group discounts
B
thecitychoirofwashington.org
B
Tickets: Call 301-572-6865
or visit
DANCE
Classical Ballet Theatre
Cinderella
Sat,May 1, 2:00&7:30pm
Sun,May 2, 2:00pm
Ernst Theatre
B
Tickets:www.cbtnva.org
B
WORKSHOPS & CLASSES
DANCE
CLASSES BEST
Tues., April 13 at 8 pm
A TRIO WITH TRIOS
BRAHMS&MOZART
Tickets $25 / Post-concert reception
www.fessendenensemble.org
St. Columba's Episcopal Church 4201 Albemarle St.,NW,Wash DC
INFO: 202-362-2390
Home delivery is convenient.
1-800-753-POST
SF
Home delivery makes good sense.
1-800-753-POST
SF
PRICES!
Over ¼million dancers since 1976! 4Week Course - $49
Swing•Salsa•Ballroom
703-528-9770 dancefactory.com
954 N. Monroe, Arlington at VA Square Metro[
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appears
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NVCCAnnandale Campus
Info: 703-471-0750
CONCERTS
IGOR
B B
FINAL PERFORMANCES at3&7pm
MYNAMEIS ASHER LEV
Special $10 & $15 tix for age 30 & under Other tickets start at $25
TKTS/INFO: 240-644-1100
roundhousetheatre.org
n 4545 East-West Hwy. x
“They're the best! There's no one like them, no one in their league!” —Larry King, CNN
“Non-stop hilarious...four stars.”
—Arch Campbell, WRC-TV
FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS AT 7:30 PM
Ronald Reagan Bldg, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave,NW
INFO: 202-312-1555
Tickets available through TicketMaster at
703-683-8330•www.capsteps.com
To purchase Capitol Steps CDs & cassettes, for private show info:
(202) 397-SEAT www.ticketmaster.com
Group Sales: 202-312-1427
presents
String Quartet
Marc Destrubé &
The Axelrod
Marilyn McDonald, violins James Dunham,viola
Kenneth Slowik, violoncello
Beethoven:
Quartet in G Major,Op. 18,No. 2
Brahms:
Quartet inA Minor,Op. 51,No. 2
Schumann:
Quartet inA Major,Op. 41,No. 3
Sat., April 17 at 8:00pmand Sun., April 18 at 7:30pm
Pre-concert lecture one hour prior to concert
Grand Salon of the Renwick Gallery
PennsylvaniaAve. at 17th St.,N.W.
ResidentAssociates.org
Tickets may be available at the door
Tkts: 202-633-3030
B
CHORAL MUSIC
B
B
ROUND HOUSE THEATRE
Bethesda
B
COMEDY
B
B CHAMBER MUSIC
B
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