Louis Ayres - Knowledge

529:

major study of parking needs and solutions was conducted in 1931, and traffic and parking patterns assessed again after the Department of Commerce building opened in early 1932. To achieve some of the traffic and parking goals, Ayres and the Board voted to eliminate the east-west streets and diagonal avenues, leaving only the north-south streets through the area, and 12th and 9th Streets NW were submerged in tunnels beneath the National Mall. In the first major change to the Board's "final" plan of 1929, a proposed "Grand Plaza" between the Commerce and Post Office buildings was abandoned in favor of a parking lot. The Board considered a number of other solutions to the need to accommodate the more than 7,500 cars expected to arrive every day (including an underground bus terminal and underground parking garage under the Grand Plaza), but in the end only approved a small number of underground parking spaces beneath the

375:

Although this building was never built, Congress honored the contract and in the Public Buildings Act named the firm again as the Commerce building's designer. York and Sawyer put Louis Ayres in charge of the building's design. But not all design choices were left up to Ayres. By March 1927, government officials had already decided that the Commerce building should be 1,000 feet (300 m) long—making it the then-largest building in the District of Columbia. Work on the building site was expected to begin by March 31, 1927. Survey work at the site began on that date even though final plans for the project were still unclear. But the May 1927 work moratorium put all decisions regarding the Commerce building design on hold. In September 1927, the Commission of Fine Arts met to discuss proposed plans for both the Commerce and Internal Revenue buildings.

407:, a sculptor and colleague on the Commission of Fine Arts, to design and sculpt the various external features of the building. At first Fraser said he had far too many other commissions and could not work on the Commerce building, but Ayres and Fraser developed a cooperative work style that eventually was adopted for most of the buildings in the Federal Triangle: Fraser consulted with Ayres and other architects to develop appropriate themes and content and then built or fashioned models of his designs. Then his assistants enlarged the models into full-scale sculptures and did the physical work of actually carving the art. Ayres designed four massive 245:, the chair of the Commission of Fine Arts and whose agency had final approval over the design of the cemeteries and memorials. The ABMC's plans changed and changed again over the next several years, and by 1925 it was ready to hire ""the most prominent architects in the country" for its plans. Ayres was commissioned to design the chapel at Meuse-Argonne, the largest and most important of the three sites. Ayres submitted two simple, classical designs and one French Romanesque design. Although both a classical and Romanesque design were approved for construction, the final chapel is Romanesque in style, shorter than proposed, and the 335: 506:

Architect John Russell Pope made a proposal to have the Justice and Archives buildings switch sites so that the Justice building would have more space. Although the change would entail major design alterations in both buildings, Secretary Mellon favored the idea. The Commission on Fine Arts approved the plan, and Mellon met with the Board of Architectural Consultants in late March 1930 to discuss the idea. Although this initial meeting left the issue unresolved, Ayres and the Board later agreed to Mellon's wishes in April and the two buildings switched plots.

466: 383: 2515: 560: 455:

for the Commerce building, few of the other building proposals had adopted a classical design. On November 25, 1927, the Commission on Fine Arts adopted a requirement that all the Federal Triangle buildings have a "uniform appearance" and height (six stories), limiting the Board's design deliberations (and Ayres' proposal for the Commerce building).

528:

Ayres continued his work on the Board of Architectural Consultants into the mid-1930s. From 1931 to 1936, the Board struggled to accommodate the need for automobile parking at the complex while also making Federal Triangle pedestrian-friendly. The Board began studying traffic issues in late 1927. A

454:

Ayres submitted his design for the Commerce building to the Public Buildings Commission, which gave its approval on November 1, 1927. The previous size of the building was reaffirmed. Excavation of the site began on November 21, 1927. However, although Ayres had proposed an Italian Renaissance style

390:

By mid-1927, Ayres was proposing a grandiose building to anchor the western end of Federal Triangle. The proposed building had 1,605,066 square feet (149,115.5 m) of interior space (more than 60 percent larger than originally planned). The structure was essentially rectangular, with seven wings

317:

complex of buildings. However, disagreements among the three planning bodies overseeing the project (Commission on Fine Arts, Public Buildings Commission, and U.S. Treasury) proved so fundamental that a year-long delay ensued. To end the disagreement, a Board of Architectural Consultants was created

481:

Ayres' design faced one final hurdle in the fall of 1929. Although the Board unveiled its proposed design for the project in April 1929, the design still lacked a unifying architectural look. Subsequently, John Russell Pope was asked in September 1929 to bring a more uniform style to the buildings.

477:

The Board of Architectural Consultants and Ayres met in July 1928 to consider ways in which the construction program might be sped up, and devised plans to have four approved buildings (Internal Revenue, Justice, Labor, and Ayres' Commerce structure) completed by 1932. By October 1928, the Board of

450:

descended into the underground Tiber Creek and drilled a hole 20 feet (6.1 m) deep into the earth. A hose would be inserted into the hole, and water pumped from the earth until the water table dropped and the driving of the piles could be accomplished. The building's foundation was more than

322:

recommended Ayres as one of the consultants, and his appointment was almost immediately approved. Design work on all buildings was postponed in May 1927 to allow the Board to conduct its work. The Board of Architectural Consultants first met on May 23, 1927, at which time it considered a plan to

374:

York and Sawyer was commissioned to design the Commerce building. This choice had been made almost 15 years earlier, oddly enough. A new headquarters for the Department of Commerce had been proposed in 1912 and a contract for the design work awarded to the architectural firm of York and Sawyer.

378:

Even though he was designing the Commerce building, Ayres continued to participate in the work of the Board of Architectural Consultants. He and the other Board members reviewed all designs for the Federal Triangle project in the fall of 1927, and demolition work began on the Commerce site in

505:

Ayres was involved in approving two major changes to Federal Triangle in early 1930. The Board and other planning groups had long agreed to site the Justice Department building on the block bounded by 7th, 9th, and B Streets NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. But this plan changed in March 1930.

473:

By March 1928, newspapers were reporting that the Commerce and Internal Revenue buildings would be constructed first. Ayres' design, however, was still in flux, as the Board of Architectural Consultants refused to give its approval to his plan. Although the size of the Commerce building had

300:

The U.S. federal government had struggled with the need to build a number of large governmental office buildings since the mid-1910s, but little had been done. In January 1924, the Public Buildings Commission recommended that a new series of federal office buildings be built near the

631:

Just before his death, Louis Ayres was commissioned to lead a team which would draft a master plan for the expansion of Rutgers University. After a long period of poor health, Ayres died at his home in Manhattan on November 30, 1947. His wife and two stepchildren survived him.

206:, the federal advisory panel which had statutory approval over all major building projects in Washington, D.C. His four-year term expired in 1925, and he did not seek reappointment. The same year, he was one of the three judges on a panel which awarded the commission for the 525:. The contract for its limestone facade—according to at least one newspaper account, the largest stone contract in world history—was awarded in April. The cost of the building had risen to $ 17.5 million. Ayres' Department of Commerce building opened on January 4, 1932. 350:

style then heavily in vogue. Rather than a mass of tall, imposing buildings, two unifying open spaces (intended for ceremonial use, and under discussion by the Board at least by March 1928) would be utilized. The first would be a Circular Plaza (inspired by the

474:

stabilized by March 1928, some Board members still suggested that both 15th and 14th Streets NW be submerged in tunnels beneath the structure. Despite the ongoing dispute over the design, additional demolition contracts were awarded for the site in April 1928.

1445:

dredged a deep channel in the Potomac and used the material to fill in the Potomac (creating the current banks of the river) and raise much of the land near the White House and along Pennsylvania Avenue NW by nearly 6 feet (1.8 m). See: Tindall,

501:

Meanwhile, Ayres and the Board of Architectural Consultants worked with sculptors, painters, and others to design more than 100 statues, fountains, bronze doors, murals, plaques, and panels (both interior and exterior) throughout the complex.

1437:. The canal fell into disuse by the 1850s. Tiber Creek was enclosed by a masonry tunnel beginning in 1878 and the tunnel connected to the city's sewer system so that the creek's natural flow would help flush sewage into the 292:

In 1927, Ayres won a major commission to design the U.S. Department of Commerce building, an award which became one of his most important architectural designs. He also played a major role on a board which helped plan the

241:'s divisions for military cemeteries and for stone and bronze battlefield map memorials, and in part to build, operate, and maintain American military cemeteries overseas. The ABMC was deeply influenced by 399:. More than 8 miles (13 km) of corridors accessed 37 acres (15 ha) of office space designed to house 10,000 workers, accommodate 8 million patents in a publicly accessible manner, include a 323:

create a single building ringing Federal Triangle rather than six to eight individual structures. In June 1927, Ayres and the other consultants approved construction of the Department of Commerce and

451:

three feet thick in places in order to withstand the hydraulic pressure put on it by the submerged Tiber Creek. Water from the Tiber was utilized as an air conditioning system to cool the building.

327:

structures as stand-alone buildings on the previously proposed sites. A month later, Ayres and the other Board members proposed constructing eight buildings, connected by plazas, semi-circular

603:

Ayres' was not only a noted architect in his own right, but he helped lead many successful design teams as well. His teams won for York & Sawyer commissions for the Federal Building in

411:

for the building, which Fraser filled with sculptures with the themes "Aviation," "Mining," "Fisheries," and "Foreign and Domestic Commerce." Ayres contracted with interior designer

260:

Ayres' continued to serve the architectural profession in many important ways in the 1920s. He was one of three judges on a panel which in 1925 awarded the design for the proposed

478:

Architectural Consultants had agreed with prior decisions that no office building should be constructed on the National Mall, and that this space should be reserved for museums.

462:

imposed a requirement in December 1927 that all the buildings be built in the Neoclassical architectural style. Ayres modified the exterior design of his structure accordingly.

1441:. Much of the area immediately south and west of the B Street NW and the Washington Monument was, at the time, part of the Potomac River. After a disastrous flood in 1881, the 2575: 135:

who was one of the most prominent designers of monuments, memorials, and buildings in the nation in the early part of the 20th century. His style is characterized as

551:

Kinsley Twining) On November 28, 1928. He became stepfather to Twining's son and daughter, and his stepson Kinsley Twining became American vice-consul in Singapore.

600:

His Bowery Savings Bank building is particularly notable. The structure has "one of the great interior spaces of New York", according to one architectural guide.

391:

and six interior courtyards that was one city block wide and three blocks long. There were 15 entrances and 16 interior stairways. Its seven stories were clad in

331:, and other architectural and landscaping elements. The Department of Commerce building was set on the west side of 15th Street NW between B and D Streets NW. 233:

One of Ayres' most prominent commissions came in 1925, when he was asked to design a chapel for an American military cemetery in Europe. Congress created the

1780: 412: 114:

United States Memorial Chapel at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial, Herbert C. Hoover United States Department of Commerce building

1857: 446:. However, water pressure from the submerged Tiber Creek would make it difficult to drive the piles. Ayres and his team devised a plan whereby a 415:

to design and implement the interior elements of the building. Ayres had planned a main lobby that was Neoclassical in design. Phillips designed

346:

that federal buildings in the District of Columbia be built in the Neoclassical style. Both the Board and Treasury Secretary Mellon rejected the

2560: 442:

condition of the soil and the existence of several submerged streams nearby, Ayres designed a structure that would stand on more than 18,000

1433:

had once run along B Street NW (now Constitution Avenue NW). In 1815, Tiber Creek was straightened and connected to and became part of the

491: 152: 386:

Detail of the Main Lobby of the U.S. Dept. of Commerce building, designed by Louis Ayres and with interior decoration by Barnet Phillips

2570: 2565: 2545: 310: 456: 2147:

Grossman, Elizabeth. "Architecture for a Public Client: The Monuments and Chapels of the American Battle Monuments Commission."

469:

Research Library of the U.S. Dept. of Commerce building, designed by Louis Ayres and with interior decoration by Barnet Phillips

2133:

Goode, James. "Introduction: The Creation of Monumental Washington in the 1930s." In Wentzel, Volkmar Kurt and Goode, James.

1873: 1442: 342:

For the architectural style of the buildings, Ayres and the other Board members relied heavily on recommendation of the 1902

2519: 360: 234: 2550: 367:

building (east side of 13th Street NW). The construction of the Grand Plaza would have required the demolition of the

870: