“Arc de Trump” receives preliminary design approval from arts commission

A Trump-appointed commission tasked with reviewing public buildings in Washington, D.C., raised questions about but ultimately gave preliminary design approval to one of President Trump’s architectural priorities: a 250-foot stone arch that would tower above the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. 

The commissioners questioned project architect Nicolas Charbonneau about the arch’s structural footings, pedestrian and wheelchair access and the golden statues atop the structure. 

The plans call for the arch to be built on Columbia Island, a man-made strip of land in the Potomac River that is part of Washington, D.C. The site is currently a grassy traffic circle at the foot of Memorial Bridge. The design features a gold-plated bronze Lady Liberty and two bald eagles — all three statues with their wings extended. 

“It seems odd,” commissioner James McCrery said of the winged figures. 

Two golden lion statues would flank the arch structure as well. 

“I’d say work on the lions,” said McCrery, who also suggested building a larger doorway, eliminating an underground access tunnel and, perhaps most controversially, making the arch smaller. 

McCrery, who voted in favor of the preliminary design, said the arch could “better participate” in Washington’s memorial skyline at about 166 feet, rather than at its proposed size. 

McCrery was Trump’s handpicked architect for the White House ballroom, but was later replaced after disagreements emerged over that project’s size. 

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum introduced the project Thursday and leaned on history to justify construction of the arch. Burgum said when Congress drew up plans for the National Mall, it included an “adornment” of two columns on Columbia Island. The columns were to rise 160 feet and symbolize the North and South after the Civil War.

The columns were never built. Burgum said the two columns supporting the proposed arch were allusions to the more than 100-year-old plan and would also rise about 160 feet.

The arch, which would be ringed with protective bollards, includes an elevator-accessible observation deck. 

The commission received about 1,000 public comments. 

CFA secretary Thomas Luebke said that “100% of the comments were against the project,” reading one that criticized the arch’s scale. It said the arch would “assert itself as a dominant vertical element in a skyline that has resisted such intrusions.”

The commenter also knocked the project for being so closely associated with a modern political figure. 

Charbonneau, the architect, will have a chance to absorb the feedback and revise the design before the commission votes on whether to give it final approval. 

At 250 feet, the arch would be significantly taller than the 99-foot Lincoln Memorial which sits across Memorial Bridge. The Washington Monument is 555 feet.

A group of Vietnam War veterans has already sued to block construction. They argue the arch would obscure the visual connection between the cemetery and Lincoln Memorial. So far, the judge has yet to intervene.