The Trump administration on Friday released its latest plan for a 250-foot triumphal arch that would stand off one end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge by the Potomac River, the president’s latest step to leave his permanent mark on Washington.
The drawings were submitted to the Commission of Fine Arts, a federal design panel that President Trump has stacked with allies. It will consider the project’s design at its meeting next week.
The president has proposed the arch, which would rise on a Washington roundabout across the river from the Lincoln Memorial, as a way to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary and cement his legacy as president.
Mr. Trump displayed models of the proposed arch at a White House fund-raising dinner in October for another of his projects to reshape Washington’s map, the planned $400 million White House ballroom. He brought out models of an arched structure with two eagles and a golden, winged angel on top, somewhat resembling the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The president said the angel was Lady Liberty.
“Small, medium and large — whichever one, they look good,” Mr. Trump said at the dinner, holding out the models. “I happen to think the larger one looks, by far, the best.”
The drawing of the arch was credited to Harrison Design, an architecture firm with an office in Washington.
Mr. Trump has taken a number of actions to remake Washington in his image and remodel the White House, including covering the Oval Office in gold and paving the grass of the Rose Garden. The president is also planning a National Garden of American Heroes with 250 statues.
But the most dramatic step was his sudden demolition last fall of the White House’s East Wing to make way for his planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom. The unveiling of the arch design on Friday came as Democrats rebuked the president over the acceptance of foreign donations for the ballroom. A federal judge has ordered that project halted unless approved by Congress, and the Trump administration has appealed the ruling.
Luke Broadwater covers the White House for The Times.
The post Officials Release Design for 250-Foot Arch in Washington, as Trump Seeks Another Imprint appeared first on New York Times.
