D.C.'s Urban Planning Fiasco

"Unveiled early this year, Rafael Viñoly's conceptual scheme for the Center's expansion converts the circle around the Lincoln Memorial into an enormous oval with the Center in the middle. The Mall's Reflecting Pool morphs into a stream that runs down the middle of the slightly tilted as well as elevated E Street for a couple of blocks before flaring out into a circular pool... This plan still keeps the city at arm's length, civic-center style. It should be scrapped... Two steps must be taken to spare Washington a major urban-planning fiasco. First, the federal government should insist that the Center expand its building program to create more value out of Uncle Sam's enormous infrastructure investment."