A federal commission has approved the design concept for the 250-foot triumphal arch that President Donald Trump wants to build at Memorial Circle.
The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts voted to approve the concept at its meeting today (Thursday). Its members, all appointed by Trump, will review an updated design before taking a final vote at a future meeting.
One commissioner suggested significant changes. Vice chairman James McCrery II, an architect, said he preferred the arch without the Lady Liberty-like figure and pair of eagles that would sit on top and add to its height. McCrery also objected to the golden lions at the base.
Meanwhile, the commission’s chairman, Rodney Mims Cook Jr., told the Washington Post ahead of Thursday’s meeting that he believes the president should build not one but three arches in D.C.
Cook, who tried unsuccessfully to build an arch in the city nearly 30 years ago, said two additional arches near the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge and the John Philip Sousa Bridge would complete architect Pierre L’Enfant’s original vision for the capital. Cook declined to say whether he had discussed the three-arch proposal with Trump.
The arch would stand 250 feet tall from its base to a torch held aloft by a Lady Liberty-like figure atop the structure. That figure would be flanked by two eagles and guarded at the base by four lions — all gilded. The phrases “One Nation Under God” and “Liberty and Justice for All” would be inscribed in gold lettering atop either side of the monument.
It would be built on land managed by the National Park Service on the Virginia side of the Potomac River, between Memorial Bridge and Arlington National Cemetery. The arch would dwarf the nearby Lincoln Memorial, which is 99 feet tall, and be close to half the height of the Washington Monument at about 555 feet.
Trump first showed off models of the proposed arch at a White House donor dinner in October. When asked who the arch would be for, he pointed at himself and told CBS News, “Me.”
The detailed renderings filed last week by Harrison Design were the first time the administration formally submitted plans for the project. The traffic circle where the arch would stand is on federal land technically located in D.C., but it sits just across the Boundary Channel from Arlington National Cemetery and the Arlington Cemetery Metro station.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that the arch’s 250-foot height will honor America’s 250 years of existence.
Trump said last week on social media that the arch “will be the GREATEST and MOST BEAUTIFUL Triumphal Arch, anywhere in the World.”
A group of veterans and a historian has sued in federal court to block construction, arguing the arch would disrupt the sightline between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House at Arlington National Cemetery. The White House is also seeking $15 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities to help fund the arch, according to NOTUS, despite earlier statements that the project would be fully privately funded.
The commission also approved design concepts for two other Trump projects at Thursday’s meeting: a plan to paint the gray granite exterior of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building white, and an underground center beneath Sherman Park to screen White House visitors. Both will return for updated design review at future meetings.
