On the edge of Lafayette Square, a landmark park near the White House, a scuffed sign proclaimed: \u201cWe are making DC safe and beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Julie, visiting Washington DC<\/a> with her husband, Robert, to celebrate their recent marriage, was unconvinced. \u201cThe irony,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s neither safe, nor beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n A chain-link fence surrounded the square, closing the site off from the public as it underwent refurbishment on the orders of Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n It is one of many locations across the city currently under renovation, or construction, as Trump tries to put his stamp on the capital in time for the US\u2019s forthcoming 250th anniversary celebrations.<\/p>\n Local preservationists say Julie\u2019s withering verdict is widely shared.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a different city right now,\u201d said Rebecca Miller, executive director of the DC Preservation League<\/a>, a city heritage group. \u201cThere are visitors from out of town who are disappointed that they\u2019re only here for a few days, and there\u2019s so much construction going on at the moment.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a once-in-a-lifetime trip for some people, and to have it marred down with not being able to access certain sites can be really disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n A slider showing the before and after of the East Wing – standing, with a green lawn, versus totally leveled construction site.<\/a><\/p>\n Among a flurry of expensive projects, the US president has ordered the East Wing of the White House demolished to make way for a massive ballroom. Recently disclosed figures<\/a> reveal the work is projected to cost $600m, with half the bill footed by taxpayers, contradicting Trump\u2019s claim that the price tag would be $400m and met by private donors.<\/p>\n The National Park Service has been restoring fountains across the city, too, making them flow once again in time for the country\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n The administration also commissioned a restoration of the reflecting pool<\/a> on the National Mall, which links the Lincoln Memorial with the George Washington monument, to repair the effects of discoloring algae. And plans have been unveiled for a 250ft triumphal arch south of the Potomac River, near Arlington national cemetery, which critics say would transform Washington\u2019s low-rise skyline for the worse.<\/p>\n A simple recitation of the projects does not convey the temporary air that this frenzy of renovations has bestowed upon a historic area that has long drawn tourists from across the world.<\/p>\n The reflecting pool on (top row) 2 May, 28 May and 7 June, and (bottom row) 12 June, 16 June and 18 June. Composite: Reuters<\/p>\n Until its recent completion, the reflecting pool was for weeks a site of frenetic activity from workers repainting and re-coating its surface. The view for visitors was obscured by a fence covered by black tarpaulin. (Upon completion of a project Trump said would turn the pool \u201cAmerican-flag blue\u201d, algae turned the water green<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The transitory aura is compounded by renovations on the neighboring Arlington Memorial Bridge, a neoclassical structure built in 1932 whose columns and gold statues are also covered by tarpaulin.<\/p>\n Nearby, two projects unconnected to the administration \u2013 a memorial to veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf war, and the Potomac River tunnel project, an infrastructure scheme aimed at reducing sewage overflows \u2013 add to the building site atmosphere.<\/p>\n It is more intense still near the White House, which is overshadowed by a large crane.<\/p>\n In recent weeks, the area has resembled an exclusion zone, with extended areas previously open to the public \u2013 from the Ellipse south of the White House to Lafayette Square at the north and encompassing parts of Pennsylvania Avenue \u2013 sealed off.<\/p>\n The green South Lawn in front of the White House; and the same, with a framework for a wrestling match.<\/a><\/p>\n Lafayette Square, a 7-acre site featuring fountains and statues of the heroes of the American revolution, forming part of the larger President\u2019s Park, is subject to renovations carried out under a $17m contract awarded on a no-bids basis to Clark Construction, the same company undertaking the White House ballroom project.<\/p>\n Scenes of visitors \u2013 like Robert and Julie \u2013 squinting for a better view have become commonplace.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything that I\u2019ve seen is to honor Donald Trump, not America\u2019s 250th anniversary,\u201d said Robert, a retired US history professor at a private college in Brooklyn, who like Julie declined to provide a second name.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s claims of grandeur outstripped those of King George III, the British monarch at the time of the Declaration of Independence, Robert suggested. \u201cWe have the irony of a man who has the instincts of an absolute monarch presiding over the celebration of our separation from a constitutional monarch,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s quite something.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a>Left: The US Capitol building, on 6 June. Right: Construction of the Great American State Fair, on 19 June. <\/a>Left: Construction of the Great American State Fair, on May 28. Right: Scaffolding behind the Lincoln Memorial, on 6 June.<\/p>\n A block away, on 17th Street, Norma Roth, a 62-year-old children\u2019s book author from Tampa, gaped at scores of temporary toilets \u2013 known colloquially as \u201cPorta Potties\u201d \u2013 which were installed on the Ellipse for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on the White House\u2019s South Lawn, which took place on 14 June, on Trump\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so symbolic of what he\u2019s doing to the country. It\u2019s like he\u2019s shitting all over our nation\u2019s capital,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Wearing an \u201cElections Matter\u201d T-shirt from a recent Bruce Springsteen concert, Roth called the exclusion area around the White House a denial of the free-speech values she taught her three children.<\/p>\n \u201cThey didn\u2019t like George W Bush, but my husband and I explained to them what was meant by freedom: that you are allowed to protest and speak your mind,\u201d she said. \u201cSo they stood in front of the White House and gave the thumbs down. You can\u2019t do that now. It\u2019s like we are under occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n Satellite map of the construction areas around the National Mall in Washington DC<\/a><\/p>\n About a mile away, Mark, 68, a retired lawyer visiting Washington from his current home in Paris, took selfies at the reflecting pool, where he recalled being forced to stand during the 1976 bicentennial celebrations because of the vast crowds.<\/p>\n He voiced disappointment at the results of the recent work, costing $13.1m and leaving the surface water looking black under a slightly overcast light rather than the \u201cAmerican-flag blue\u201d trumpeted by the president. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a success or failure, but it doesn\u2019t look as blue as I imagined,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Visitors were much rarer across the Potomac near the site of the proposed arch, which critics have dubbed the \u201cArc de Trump\u201d, in mocking reference to Paris\u2019s Arc de Triomphe.<\/p>\n Costing an estimated $100m, the arch would be built on a large roundabout that is now a busy traffic intersection. The few who passed expressed surprise and bemusement at the idea of the imposing structure.<\/p>\n Gabe Adame and his wife, Beth, both 43, from Corpus Christi in Texas and visiting the capital for the first time, reacted positively. \u201cThe whole area feels like a blank canvas and unfinished. It would be a good addition,\u201d said Gabe, an instrumentation manager for an oil and natural gas company, who said he was a Trump supporter.<\/p>\n An artist\u2019s rendering of Donald Trump\u2019s proposed \u2018Independence Arch\u2019 in DC. Photograph: US Commission on Fine Arts\/Reuters<\/p>\n But Oliver, a 42-year-old worker for a nongovernment organization, said placing a towering structure at the gateway to the city could obscure more famous long-established landmarks. \u201cI think it could be an obstruction to the main body of Washington, which is the George Washington monument,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Lincoln Memorial has been with us for 150 years.\u201d<\/p>\n That argument has been central to the objections of local heritage campaigners, who had until 15 June to make comment on the proposal under the planning schedule. \u201cWhat is currently proposed does fundamentally cut off the sight line, unless you\u2019re walking down the absolute center of Memorial Bridge,\u201d said Miller, of the DC Preservation League.<\/p>\n About 600 letters of objection<\/a> have been sent to the US Commission of Fine Arts, while congressional Democrats have introduced legislation<\/a> to defund the project on the ground that it does not seek approval of Congress.<\/p>\n The White House argues that such approval is already granted under a 1925 report allowing for two 166-columns connected to the Arlington Memorial Bridge.<\/p>\n Miller dismissed that contention. \u201cWhat they\u2019re proposing is not the columns that were authorized for that design,\u201d she said. \u201cThe columns [that were authorized] were on either side of the bridge, not on the traffic circle. It was designed in a very different way. That is not congressional authorization for them to build the arch.\u201d<\/p>\n With large areas of the National Mall still cordoned off for the Great American State Fair, a 16-day exposition due to start on 25 June, Angie Clark, a molecular biologist from Salt Lake City visiting Washington for a scientific conference, complained of a \u201cforbidding\u201d atmosphere.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been here many times before, and I have never imagined that I would be so completely locked out of everything,\u201d she said. \u201cIt feels exclusive, and not in a good way. Maybe once the party starts up, it will be better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the edge of Lafayette Square, a landmark park near the White House, a scuffed sign proclaimed: \u201cWe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-749124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}