By Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) – Designs were unveiled on Friday for a 250-foot (76-meter) arch in Washington sought by U.S. President Donald Trump that, if approved, would reshape the capital’s monument-filled skyline.
Trump administration officials formally submitted detailed renderings of the proposed “Triumphal Arch” ahead of a meeting next week to advance the project that Trump has touted for months.
The designs call for an ivory-colored arch modeled on the Roman Arch of Titus from classical antiquity and resembling the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
It comes complete with an array of golden fixtures, most notably a towering 60-foot statue on top that resembles the Statue of Liberty with angel wings. She is flanked by two 24-foot eagle statues.
Two phrases from the national Pledge of Allegiance — “ONE NATION UNDER GOD” and “LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL” — would be inscribed on each side of arch. Other design elements include four golden lion statues.
The arch – meant to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States this year – would be built at a site currently occupied by an empty traffic circle. It is located between the Lincoln Memorial and the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, the military cemetery where around 430,000 individuals have been buried since the Revolutionary War.
Trump’s arch plan needs approval from the federal Commission of Fine Arts, which is currently composed of his handpicked allies. Even if the panel greenlights the arch proposal, however, it faces hurdles in the courts. Some Washington-area residents have sued to block it.
Trump told reporters in January that he wants the arch to be “the biggest one of all.” At 250 feet, the proposed monument would tower over the approximately 100-foot-tall Lincoln Memorial, would be significantly taller than the Arc de Triomphe, and would be about half the height of the 555-foot-tall, obelisk-shaped Washington Monument in the middle of the National Mall.
It is the tallest new structure proposed by the administration of Trump, a real estate developer, and would be the largest federal monument built in DC since President Franklin D. Roosevelt oversaw construction of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in 1943.
In other designs also publicized on Friday, the Trump administration is proposing painting white an ornate, gray building next to the White House called the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where many administration officials work, as well as reimagining Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the U.S. Capitol building with new road and walk ways, different trees, and tall American flags.
The president already razed the White House’s East Wing to clear a site for a state ballroom, and added his name to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which is set to close this summer for renovations to its theaters and exterior.
Trump also launched a “beautification” campaign around the capital, as federally controlled parks are currently ringed with fencing for ongoing renovations.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
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