(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s proposed 250-foot-tall “triumphal arch” at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was given initial approval on Thursday by the Commission of Fine Arts, a federal agency, but revisions were requested to address the panel’s design concerns.
Five members on the commission, now made up entirely of Trump appointees, voted in favor of moving along with the project. The panel’s other two members were not present for the hearing.
The towering arch Trump wants to build near Arlington National Cemetery would be more than twice as tall as the Lincoln Memorial and taller than France’s Arc de Triomphe.
Protesters gathered outside the National Building Museum, where the commission has its office, and held up signs that read: “Stop Arch Insanity,” “No Trump Arch,” and “No Vanity Arch.”
The commission’s vote came after Thomas Luebke, its secretary, said nearly 1,000 public comments were submitted online and that “100% of the comments were against the project.”
Luebke said many of the comments characterized the project as “a waste of money and misuse of funds” and others said “that it would obstruct historic views and disrupt the landscape, it was inappropriate imperial or political symbolism, that the design was gaudy, oversized, incompatible, and that it was disrespectful to Arlington National Cemetery and military sacrifice.”
James McCrery, the commission’s vice chair and the initial architect behind Trump’s massive White House ballroom project, voiced a laundry list of concerns that he wants the architects of the arch to address.
McCrery opposed a planned 250-foot underground pathway for visitors to access the arch, saying building under the capital is “a really, really unfortunate thing.”
“Sometimes it’s absolutely necessary,” McCrery told Nicolas Charbonneau, the architect behind the arch. “Here, I think it’s not absolutely necessary at all.”
McCrery also took issue with proposed lion statues at the base of the arch, arguing they were not culturally American symbols.
“They’re not of this continent,” McCrery said. “They’re noble, they’re courageous, and they’re strong, they’re all those things, but maybe there are alternatives.”
And McCrery called on the architects to “open these arches and air them out” so they don’t obstruct views of other Washington landmarks.
Zachary Burt, the community outreach manager for the D.C. Preservation League, voiced his opposition to the arch during Thursday’s meeting.
Burt said the arch “threatens the solemn vista” between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial and that its proposed size “risks overshadowing the revered landmarks that Americans hold in the highest regard.”
Lisa Fuller, who said she was a lifelong Washington-area resident, grew emotional recounting crossing Arlington Memorial Bridge as a kid as she argued the arch would obstruct views of the cemetery.
“I first walked across that bridge with my dad after John Kennedy died. We started at the Lincoln Memorial. My father told me all about it, and then we walked across, and we saw the Eternal Flame,” Fuller said.
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