Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Congress was meant to symbolize the separation and balance of powers,
while the avenues were named and located to enshrine the historical and
political significance of the individual states.
6
The rigid geometry, complex symbolism, and grandiose scale of
L'Enfant's plan gives the impression that it was a pure abstraction imposed
on the capital of an undeveloped and (to the human eye) undifferentiated
natural landscape.This interpretation has some merit, but it fails to do jus-
tice to the subtlety and complexity of L'Enfant's design. While L'Enfant's
proposal epitomized the Enlightenment determination to reshape the nat-
ural world according to rational principles, it also reflected the innate phys-
ical characteristics of the site. L'Enfant carefully reconnoitered the landscape
of the proposed city and designed his plan so that its explicitly artificial
aspects worked in concert with existing natural features to display both
qualities to best advantage. Like most contemporary designers and philoso-
phers, L'Enfant believed that “raw nature” was a starting point for artistic
expression. The artist's task was to recognize the promising attributes of a
site and develop them into more refined and idealized forms based on com-
plex aesthetic and philosophical criteria.After surveying the site of the pro-
posed capital, L'Enfant declared:“Nature has done much for it, and with the
aid of art it will become the wonder of the world.”
7
He expressly rejected
a more mundane gridded plan favored by Jefferson on the grounds that its
formulaic repetition ignored local land features that could be developed to
produce imposing visual and symbolic effects. Not only would a gridded
capital appear “tiresome and insipid,” L'Enfant insisted, but its mechanical
geometry would lack “a sense of the real grand and truly beautiful only to
be met with where nature contributes with art.”
8
By embracing and
enhancing the latent potential of the site's natural advantages, L'Enfant pro-
claimed, his design would “turn a savage wilderness into a Garden of
Eden.”
9
The striking degree to which “natural” conditions shaped the basic form
of L'Enfant's manifestly “artificial” design is most apparent in Andrew Elli-
cott's 1794 topographical survey, which shows how the city nestled into the
point of land formed by the junction of the Potomac and the Anacostia,
with its inland borders defined by the valley of Rock Creek and the rugged
ground that marked the beginnings of the Piedmont Plateau. L'Enfant's sec-
ond major bow to local topography was to locate the Capitol atop a con-
spicuous promontory known as Jenkins Hill. L'Enfant observed that the
hilltop would serve as a natural “pedestal” providing impressive views to and
