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The Crowded Mall & Environs; Make Room for One More Museum?08-13-10 | News

The Crowded Mall & Environs; Make Room for One More Museum?

Some Washingtonians think an ideal site for the proposed National Museum of the American Latino is L'Enfant Promenade at Banneker Park Circle.

The LASN team will attend the ASLA Expo in D.C. and looks forward to visiting some of the sights. There is of course no lack of museums, memorials and historic areas and buildings to choose to visit. With limited time for sight seeing, even if you focus only on the Mall proper, you just can't see it all.

Now, a 23-member panel is studying a proposal for another D.C. museum, the National Museum of the American Latino. On July 1, the commission made a formal presentation to the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) and presented four possible sites for the museum, down from nine original locations. And . . . they are all on or adjacent to the Mall.

The vacant Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building (Top photo), or the Whitten Building (bottom photo) could house the National Museum of the American Latino. The Whitten Building is on the Mall.

Back in 2003, Congress deemed the Mall ''a substantially completed work of civic art.''

The Washington Post reports Judy Scott Feldman of the National Coalition to Save Our Mall believes the commission is moving to get a site before the fall elections.

Some are touting a non-Mall site that didn't make the short list: L'Enfant Promenade (10th Street SW) near the old fountain on Banneker Park Circle. The plaza is only five blocks from the Smithsonian Castle and has views of the waterfront. Placing the museum here, supporters say, will connect the Mall to the waterfront.

There are a couple proposals that would not require major new construction:

The vacant Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building. It would require a connecting annex across Independence Avenue (or under it).
The Whitten Building (1905-1930), which houses the Department of Agriculture. It is the only federal department on the Mall and is located near the Freer Gallery, the Holocaust Museum and the Washington Monument.