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Before coming to a decision, the Secretary of the Treasury consulted with Mr. Edward H. Bennett of Chicago, who has had so large a part in bringing to completion the extensive plans for beautifying that city. Mr. Bennett was appointed Consulting Architect to the Secretary of the Treasury; and, under his advice, and also in consultation with the Fine Arts Commission, Colonel U. S. Grant, 3rd, of the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks, and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Schuneman and Supervising Architect of the Treasury Wetmore, the general principle has been established that no large departmental buildings are to be placed in the Mall, as was as first proposed, but that the Mall is to be reserved for park purposes and as a site for buildings of a museum-like character.

Departmental buildings are to be placed along the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue from the Treasury to the Capitol. In addition to facing on Pennsylvania Avenue, these buildings will face also on a grand boulevard, which is to be cut through the city, bordering the Mall and stretching from the Capitol to the new Memorial Bridge on the Potomac near the base of the Lincoln Memorial. Plans are now being made to secure a comprehensive treatment of this entire area between Pennsylvania Avenue and the new boulevard both as regards the location and the grouping of the various buildings. A group of the leading architects of the country has been formed to study this problem and to submit designs for all the buildings in this area. It is intended that these buildings, while having each a separate and distinctive architectural treatment, shall be of harmonious design and grouped around two large interior courts or plazas somewhat after the arrangement of the Louvre in Paris.