President Donald Trump’s planned triumphal arch for Washington cleared a key hurdle Thursday after its early designs secured approval from a federal arts panel whose members were handpicked by the president.
The Commission of Fine Arts, which has a new slate after Trump fired the previous members last year, vets designs and major architectural projects in the nation’s capital. It does not have the final say on construction of the proposed arch.
Trump has proposed building a towering, 250-foot triumphal arch in honor of the country’s semiquincentennial, designed after the 164-foot Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The project would be the tallest triumphal arch in the world — and twice as tall as the Lincoln Memorial and nearly as tall as the Capitol. Its proposed height has come under scrutiny given its proximity to Washington Reagan National Airport.
Trump’s arch would feature eagles, Lady Liberty and a line from the Pledge of Allegiance, renderings obtained by NBC News last week showed.
Members of the Commission of Fine Arts on Thursday asked the project’s architect, Nicolas Charbonneau, to make some revisions to details in his designs and draft “a second iteration” to present at an upcoming meeting of the panel.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who helped present the project plans at Thursday’s hearing, said the arch “embodies American freedom” and argued that the site where it’s meant to be built — a human-made island in the Potomac River — was currently barren, not honoring the original vision for the city.
Public comments on the proposal show widespread opposition to the project, with some saying it would have a negative impact on the path between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, where the arch is expected to be built.
The commission’s secretary said the panel received about 1,000 comments on the proposal that were “100 percent” against the project.
Chamberlain Harris, the 26-year-old White House aide Trump appointed to lead the board in February, said Thursday that the proposal would “honor” the original vision of Washington’s designers.
James McCrery II, the architect of Trump’s proposed White House ballroom before leaving the project over his opposition to its size, pushed back on the arch’s proposed height at the hearing.
McCrery suggested that Charbonneau remove three statues atop the arch, which add 84 feet to its height. McCrery said their removal would make the arch a “more Washingtonian” design. He also suggested that Charbonneau and Trump propose alternatives for four planned gold lion statues, noting that lions are not native to North America.
The arch has already faced legal challenges after veterans and historians sued the administration over the proposal, arguing congressional approval is needed for its construction. That lawsuit is ongoing.
Asked last year whom the proposed arch would be for, Trump told reporters, “Me.” More recently, White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement to NBC News that the arch “will enhance the visitor experience at Arlington National Cemetery for veterans, the families of the fallen, and all Americans alike, serving as a visual reminder of the noble sacrifices borne by so many American heroes throughout our 250 year history so we can enjoy our freedoms today.”
The arch joins a growing list of architectural projects Trump has taken on during his second term, reshaping Washington’s landscape.
Some of those other projects have also hit legal roadblocks. A federal judge on Thursday issued a new order halting aboveground construction of Trump’s White House ballroom, while the Kennedy Center is facing a lawsuit over the renaming of the venue by a Trump-appointed board to include the president’s name.
Trump has also suggested painting the Eisenhower Executive Office Building white in a change to its classic stone facade, and building a “National Garden of America Heroes” on the banks of the Potomac.
