The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts approved the design for a triumphal arch President Donald Trump wants built at an entrance to Washington, clearing a key step in the project’s approval process even as the commission said its action does not determine when construction will start.
In remarks immediately after the vote, Trump called the commission’s decision “fantastic,” adding, “we’re the only important and major city that doesn’t have one.” The approval came during a commission meeting in which commissioners, all appointed by Trump, voted on a slightly revised plan after an initial review in April.
The commission’s chairman, Rodney Mims Cook Jr., said the “building is beautiful” before the vote and, after hearing testimony from opponents, pushed back on arguments about limits on new construction in the National Mall area. Cook said, “Washington is not a static city. It must grow,” according to the report.
Under the design reviewed Thursday, the arch would rise 250 feet (76 meters) from its base to a torch held aloft by a Lady Liberty-like figure, and it would be flanked by two gilded eagles. The plan includes gold-lettering inscriptions—“One Nation Under God” and “Liberty and Justice for All”—atop either side of the monument, and it calls for an exterior made of granite.
Thursday’s approval also reflected changes that opponents and commission members had urged. The commission-approved version removes the lions that had been envisioned as base guards, and it includes pedestrian crosswalks. The design that commissioners approved also removed a platform the arch was previously to have been built on, and it omitted a ground-level lion statue approach and an underground pedestrian tunnel that had been part of an earlier concept.
As commissioners weighed the revised design, Vice chairperson architect James McCrery II had previously said he preferred the arch without figures on top, a change that would reduce the height by about 80 feet (24.4 meters). In April, McCrery had also recommended eliminating ground-level lion statues along with an underground tunnel for pedestrians; the Thursday-approved plan instead incorporates pedestrian crosswalks and has no lions, according to the report.
Harrison Design submitted to the commission that Trump considered the recommendation to remove the statue but “elected not to pursue such an option” because he wants the arch to celebrate America and the living, according to Nicolas Charbonneau, a director at the firm. Charbonneau told commissioners, “This makes it distinct from monuments like the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials.”
Despite the design review’s momentum, the vote did not end the legal and political disputes surrounding the arch. Ten people testified against the project, including representatives from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the DC Preservation League, arguing the arch is too big and should require congressional approval because it would be built on federal land. They also argued it would disrupt a sightline between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House at Arlington National Cemetery that was created to symbolize reunification after the Civil War.
Separate from the commission’s design role, a group of veterans and a historian sued the Trump administration in federal court to block arch construction over concerns about the sightline, the report said. In testimony and statements around the commission vote, Trump asserted Thursday that he does not need Congress to approve the arch, framing it as a federal-land project.
In the weeks before Thursday’s meeting, preliminary surveys and testing of the arch site began last week. The commission’s approval addressed designs, not funding or actual construction, and the report said the National Capital Planning Commission—another federal agency—has the arch scheduled for its June meeting.
After the commission vote, the National Trust urged the National Park Service to begin consultations it says are required under the National Historic Preservation Act, and it asked the National Capital Planning Commission to “participate in a comprehensive review of this unfortunate design” and consider alternatives. The nonprofit group also said congressional approval is required.
The arch is one of several Trump projects aimed at adding visible elements to Washington, including work that has faced legal scrutiny. The report noted that a separate lawsuit challenges Trump’s plan to repaint the interior of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue ahead of July 4 celebrations for America’s 250th birthday, and said a judge did not rule from the bench after hearing arguments in that case.