The Unbuilt Monuments of Washington D.C.

[Music] washington dc is a city of monuments and memorials often built of stone and in styles that harken back to the ancient world they give an impression of permanence and in many cases have become so iconic that it's hard to imagine anything else standing in their place but for every monument that was built in the capital of the united states there were a myriad of alternative design proposals and some memorials never ended up seeing the light of day at all here are a couple of examples of the washington that could have been the monument to george washington towers above the city that bears his name but the structure we see today is only part of what was intended to be built the original design was the winning entry into a competition held in 1836 by a private society created by architect robert mills it called for a 600 foot egyptian style obelisk ringed by a temple-like structure at the bottom featuring 30 columns one for each state in the union at the time construction according to this plan commenced in 1848 but the projects turned out to be too expensive to cut costs the temple structure at the base had to be put aside but the society's collective donations still fell short and in 1854 work was salted altogether the structure had only been finished one third of the way up and it would remain like this until after the civil war when congress assumed responsibility for its funding in 1884 the washington monument finally stood finished and although somewhat shorter than originally intended it was still the tallest building in the world until the end of that decade when it was surpassed by the eiffel tower this was far from the first band to build a monument to washington though and already in 1799 this proposal for a pyramid-shaped structure was made by benjamin latrobe there were also a number of alternate ways in which robert mills plan could have been finished in 1877 henry searle created a more elaborate design with three terraces at the bottom whereas the sculpture venerem proposed simply using the unfinished obelisk as the base for grand sculpture of the president other designs would have turned it into something completely unrecognizable like this one from 1879 which would have converted the obelisk into a gothic tower or this extremely grand and ornate design [Music] the potomac river is the defining natural feature of washington dc and over time numerous proposals have been made for a monumental bridge crossing it the most audacious of these designs was put forward in 1887 by the architectural firm smithfire and pelts their bridge gave the impression of a medieval fortress and included two massive towers in the middle as well as a number of turrets all elaborately decorated in the romanesque style the structure would connect the city with arlington national cemetery the burial place of thousands of union soldiers and was to serve as a memorial to the civil war general and president ulysses s grant this was actually smith marin peltz's second proposal the first one being a bit more modest but neither of them were ever built by 1901 the idea of dedicating the bridge to grant had been abandoned and a new design by edward p casey and william h burr was adopted but once again talk of building it fizzled out then in the 1920s yet another design was made by mckim mead and white and this time the project actually got off the ground in 1932 the arlington memorial bridge stood finished uniting both physically and symbolically the north and south built in a discreet neoclassical style the final product lacks towers that could obstruct views and complements the other memorials of the city [Music] constructed between 1914 and 1922 the lincoln memorial stands on the banks of the potomac and it terminates the national mall to the west designed by henry bacon in the shape of a neoclassical temple it has become one of the most popular works of architecture in the entire united states but it may well have been built on a completely different location and by different architects the commission tasked with finding a design for the building had also invited the architect john russell pope to put forward some proposals like many others pope was not a big fan of the swampy site where the monument now stands and focused his attention on two alternatives one of his proposals would have placed the monument on meridian hill and featured a hundred foot wide staircase leading up to a greek inspired temple overlooking the city another was located on the grounds of the soldier's home in northeast washington where lincoln drafted the emancipation proclamation this version consisted of a round structure with columns encircling a statue of lincoln he was also asked to submit the signs for the site by the river and perhaps in a last-ditch effort to discourage its use he put forward a series of radical designs two of them took inspiration from the cigarettes of ancient mesopotamia one being square and the other being circular another one was shaped like an egyptian pyramid with classical porticos on each side and continuing the pyramid theme he also made a mayan inspired design with a large flame burning at its top henry bacon also made the science that ended up being scrapped like this monumental colonnade with the statue of lincoln in front of it [Music] the newest memorial in washington dc is dedicated to dwight d eisenhower and was finished in 2020 designed by frank geary it consists of a four acre urban park at the base of capitol hill and features a number of pieces telling the story of his life originally selected all the way back in 2009 gary's design quickly became the subject of controversy and underwent a long series of alterations until construction could finally begin in 2017 during this time one of the design's main critics the national civic arts society organized the competition to create counter proposals in a classical style the winning entry by daniel cook featured a triumphal arch which was intended not as an arch celebrating the victory of a conqueror but rather an arch of peace two statues of eisenhower show his transition from general to president and citizen and evokes memories of washington who laid aside his power and returned to his farm when his work was done the second place design continues the theme of the arch and connects it with semi-circular colonnades surrounding a figure of eisenhower third place was a tie between this design featuring two statues of eisenhower with a long colonnade between them and one that would have integrated the memorial in a dense urban fabric with a plaza and square surrounded by both mixed-use residential and office buildings as well as things like an eisenhower memorial hall and a memorial column commendations were also given to this entry inspired by nelson's column and trafalgar square and this one inspired by the stripped-down classicism or the new deal era lastly i'd like to briefly go over two unbuilt memorials that i unfortunately couldn't find many good illustrations of the first one was a 1920s project to build a mother's memorial near the naval observatory on massachusetts avenue it was spearheaded by daisy calhoun the founder of a now defunct women's rights group called the women's universal alliance designed by joseph geddes it would consisted of a large tower reminiscent of the art deco skyscrapers that were being built at the time and would have served as an acropolis to the womanhood of all lands had it been built the memorial would have been a dominant part of the skyline but it faced opposition from the us commission of fine arts and also failed to gather enough funds around the same time there was also talk of creating a memorial to theodore roosevelt in 1925 john russell pope proposed a 200-foot tall fountain surrounded by concentric pools and bracketed by two curving colonnades the memorial was to be constructed on the southern banks of the potomac river tidal basin seen in the lower right corner of this image but many thought there was still too soon to build a memorial to roosevelt so it only died in 1920 and the site was instead chosen from memorial to thomas jefferson which was also designed by pope and stood completed in 1943 [Music]

Channel: Kings and Things

Views: 258,051

Keywords: architecture, classical architecture, classicism, washington dc, monument, memorial, megastructure, megaproject, construction, ulysses s grant, abraham lincoln, theodore roosevelt, george washington, thomas jefferson, eisenhower, lincoln memorial, washington monument, buildings that were never built, pyramids, ziggurat, ancient architecture, roman architecture, greek architecture, greek temple

Id: hkmNEO95xcE

Length: 9min 22sec (562 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 02 2022