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79 The Director reported on the following: 1. Attendance between this meeting and the last totalled approximately 130,000 as compared to 110,000 for the comparable period last year. 2. For a period of eighteen months beginning in September, under the supervision of the Redevelopment Land Authority, F Street in front of the NPG will be converted into a mall which will include fountains, trees, and benches. Vehicular and pedestrian access to the front door will be preserved during construction and provided for permanently in the final design. Our building occupies the very center of urban redevelopment plans for downtown Washington, and the work to be done on F Street will be the first of many projects, all of which should benefit visitor access to the NPG. [Work on the mall to be developed in front of the NPG has been rescheduled to commence in January 1975 and to be completed in approximately a twelve-month period thereafter.] 3. When the Chairman raised the matter of a possible shuttle bus service between the Mall and the NPG, the Director responded that he was still in favor of acquiring a British double-decker vehicle for the purpose. The Secretary pointed out that he had seen such a bus used for a similar purpose by the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and that it worked out beautifully. [A British double-decker bus has now been acquired by the NPG with funds generously provided by a donor who wishes to remain anonymous. The bus will go into service coincident with the opening of the Gallery's second Bicentennial exhibition "The Dye is Now Cast" next April.] 4. The possibility of amending the legislation establishing the NPG so that the Gallery might begin collecting photographs is being studied by the General Counsel's Office. When and if this happens, the Gallery intends to hire a Curator of Photographs. Mr. Lewis pointed out that the fourth paragraph of the Rules of the NPG adopted by the Board of Regents stated that:
