Unbuilt Washington Press Images
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Caption: Competition entry for the Library of Congress by Leon Beaver, 1873. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-31512 Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Proposed Extensions to the White House (Executive Mansion) by Robert Owen, 1891-1901.This was one of several proposals in the late 19th century for expanding or relocating the Executive Mansion to provide more space for a growing government. Owen proposed creating two approximate replicas of the original building, rotated 90 degrees in plan and placed to either side, forming an open court with a greenhouse at the south end. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-7736 Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Proposal for the completion of the Washington Monument by Vinnie Ream Hoxie, c. 1876-78. Construction of the Washington Monument began in 1848 but was halted in 1856, leaving an unfinished stump on the National Mall for more than two decades. In the 1870s, various architects and others proposed ideas for finishing the monument, often in unexpected ways. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-113998 Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Proposed Executive Mansion on Meridian Hill by Paul J. Pelz, 1898. Mary Foote Henderson, wife of a former U.S. senator, commissioned architect Paul Pelz to design this palatial replacement for the White House for a site on Meridian Hill, directly across the street from the Hendersons’ own mansion. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-31528 Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Proposed Masonic Temple Complex by Waddy B. Wood, 1922-24. The site of this proposed complex was where the Washington Hilton stands today. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-31431 Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Design for National Galleries of History and Art by Franklin Webster Smith, 1900. The project would have stretched from 17th Street, near the White House, all the way to the Potomac River. Credit: National Galleries of History and Art: The Aggrandizement of Washington (F.W. Smith, 1900) Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Proposed design for the US Capitol with high dome by William Thornton, c. 1797. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-19858 Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Proposed Memorial Bridge in Honor of General U.S. Grant by Smithmeyer & Pelz, 1887. The proposed site was roughly the same as the current site of the Memorial Bridge. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-31532 Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Projected improvements to the Washington Monument and National Mall by B.F. Smith, 1852. This image shows a variation on the circular colonnade that was part of the original design for the Washington Monument, but was never executed. It also shows a proposed suspension bridge across the canal adjacent to the Mall. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-31534 Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Proposal for “Housing on the Avenue” by Hugh Newell Jacobsen, 1974. This project would have been located on the current site of Market Square, along Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. The terraced design was inspired by Italian hill towns. Credit: Courtesy Jacobsen Architecture, LLC Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Competition entry for the Library of Congress by Alexander R. Esty, c. 1880. This proposal for the Library of Congress was an unusual application of the Gothic Revival style. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-31519 Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Rendering of the proposed National Sofa, to be located across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, by Jim Allegro, AIA, and Doug Michels, 1996. Allegro and Michels were concerned that the closure of Pennsylvania Avenue following the Oklahoma City bombing would further isolate the presidency from the people. They proposed the National Sofa as a place of virtual and physical interaction to address that gap. Credit: Copyright James Allegro, AIA and Doug Michels Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Preliminary proposal for the National Cultural Center (later Kennedy Center), Edward Durell Stone, 1959. Stone’s curvilinear original design contrasts sharply with the boxy design that was executed. Credit: Edward Durell Stone Collection (MC 340), Box 104. Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville. Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Proposed Dolphin America Hotel, designed by Doug Michels Architecture in collaboration with Jim Allegro, AIA, 1989. Architect Doug Michels was fascinated by dolphins and proposed various projects that would bring humans into closer contact with the aquatic mammals. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-31434 Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Winning Competition Entry for the Washington Monument by Robert Mills, 1846. Mills’s original proposal called for an obelisk anchored by a circular, Greek-inspired temple at the base. The base was never executed, and the proportions of the obelisk itself were changed when the structure was finally completed nearly four decades after this drawing was produced. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-pga-03714 Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Competition entry for the President’s House, by A.Z. (attributed to Thomas Jefferson), 1792. Strong historical evidence indicates that this design, submitted under the initials A.Z., was actually by Thomas Jefferson. Credit: Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society, 1976.88.6 Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Main elevation of Capitol competition entry by James Diamond, 1792. Many entries to the design competition for the “Congress House” were by amateurs, including this one notable for its crudely drawn weathercock. Credit: Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society, 1976.88.51 Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Proposal for the Lincoln Memorial by John Russell Pope, 1912. This was one of several proposals by Pope for the Lincoln Memorial in widely different styles. Credit: National Archives Download full-size version. |
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Caption: Plan for the National Mall – Rendering of the Proposal for the Washington Monument grounds, by the Senate Park Commission, 1901-02.The wide steps, the circular pool, and the terraced gardens were all intended to provide a more dignified base for the monument, while resolving the awkward geometry resulting from its placement off the axis from the White House. Credit: Courtesy of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts Download full-size version. |
